What is the difference between the saved sect and the other sects?

The Shaykh : But what I wish to reflect upon in this blessed hour, if Allah wills, is explaining the difference between the saved sect and the other misguided sects, even those that remain within the circle of Islam but have strayed from some of Islam, whether much or little. This is what our Lord knows and judges by on the Day when wealth and children will not benefit, except one who comes to Allah with a sound heart. The difference between the saved sect and all those other sects is that the saved sect refuses to understand the Qur'an and the Sunnah according to the opinion of so-and-so, no matter how great his status among the Muslims, except through the way of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) first, and then through the way of his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). This is because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), when asked about the saved sect, did not say only "what I am upon," but he added to that "and my Companions." This means that the truly Muslim scholar, just as he strives to know the guidance and light of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in speech, action, and approval, also strives to know the good following of his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) of their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). This is the distinction of the saved sect over the other sects, and this is very clear in this time, as I will explain shortly, if Allah wills, Blessed and Exalted is He. But before that, I wish to remind our listening brothers of a verse in the Noble Qur'an. This verse is the text from which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) took or derived his previous statement, namely the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: So the saying of our Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, in this verse, is what he (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified in the previous hadith when he said "and my Companions." Therefore, the path of the believers is the path of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Thus, a Muslim is not of the saved sect unless he adopts this Salafi methodology in following the Book and the Sunnah and what the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) were upon. This is the clear distinction in every age and every land between the true people of the Sunnah and those misguided sects that claim affiliation with the Book and the Sunnah but refuse, and they refuse, to attribute themselves to the righteous Salaf, even those who are truly of the people of the Sunnah, such as the followers of the four schools of jurisprudence, regardless of the misguided sects that misguide some of the righteous Salaf from the Companions, such as the Rafidah and the Khawarij.
And those like them; we are not referring to them now. Rather, we are referring to the people of the Sunnah, who agree with us in honoring and revering the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). We do not differentiate between them, nor do we hate any of them. We honor them for their companionship with their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), while maintaining the degrees of preference among them based on the seniority of their companionship, or their knowledge, or the seniority of their jihad and precedence in Islam, and the like. However, all the people of the Sunnah agree on being pleased with all the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). What I want to say is that many of the people of the Sunnah who agree with us in being pleased with the Companions have forgotten that it is very necessary for us to understand the Book and the Sunnah as these Companions understood them, because they were closer in time to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) than those who came after them. Therefore, a Muslim is not on guidance and light, nor is he holding fast to the guidance of the Messenger, whom he was constantly commanded to hold fast to in his sermons, unless he knows what the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) were upon. This knowledge opens for the one who knows it a door of knowledge that no one who is distant from submitting to this condition and requirement—namely, following what the righteous Salaf were upon—can approach or enter. We, the people of the Sunnah, truly, if Allah wills (Blessed and Exalted is He), agree on the generality of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him), which is always mentioned in the sermon of necessity: And on the generality of his saying (peace be upon him): This general text cannot be applied correctly unless we know what the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) were upon regarding acts of worship. Because there is no way to know that a certain matter is a religious innovation in Islam unless we know what our righteous Salaf were upon. For the statement of one who says, "This is an innovation," means only that it was not in the time of the Messenger (peace be upon him) and was not in the time of the Companions, and consequently was not in the remaining centuries that are attested to as being the best. Therefore, knowing what the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) were upon is what enables us to be in accordance with his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): And for this reason, the methodology of one who claims affiliation with the Salaf differs from the methodology of one who claims affiliation only with the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and interprets them as his Shaykh or his school of jurisprudence interprets them, without referring in that to what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions and those who followed them with excellence were upon. So, we should not be deceived today by calls that all agree on the statement that we are upon the Book and the Sunnah, because the most misguided of the sects mentioned in the hadith of the sects cannot say that they are upon the Book and the Sunnah. If some of them say, "We do not argue with the Sunnah," they have apostatized from Islam, because many verses of the Qur'an, such as His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): And therefore, we do not imagine that a group of Islamic sects would deny the Sunnah, and this is the reality. The Khawarij say, "We take," and the Shi'ah say, "We take the Sunnah," but the Sunnah they take is not in the manner that the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and their followers from the Tabi'un and their followers were upon. Therefore, we say that we must raise the banner of the call in our sermons, in our lessons, and in our exhortations, always and forever, to the statement that holding fast to the Book and the Sunnah is not a correct holding fast unless it is accompanied by following what the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) were upon. And here I must give an example that clarifies to us the importance of referring in the Book and the Sunnah to what the righteous Salaf were upon, as they transmitted from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in speech, action, and approval. We take, for example, His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): Here there are two general, comprehensive texts: the first is the name "thief" and the other is "hand." And His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): includes every thief, even the one who steals an egg, the egg of a hen, or the hen, or the like of that which has no value, and this is linguistically called a thief. But the verbal explanation of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prevents us from interpreting this term in this verse in its absolute and comprehensive sense. It prevents us from saying that every thief, regardless of the value of the stolen item, has his hand cut off. We say, "No, this is not permissible; this contradicts the Qur'an, because Allah says: And the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) explained the thief mentioned in this verse in his saying: So, when we read this verse about the thief, we should understand this term in light of his saying (peace be upon him): Here, "hands," as you know, is the plural of "hand." The hand is used to mean the palm, as came in the hadith of dry ablution: "Strike your two palms on the face of the earth." It is used to mean the forearm, as is in the hadith of the verse of ablution in the verse of ablution. And it is used to mean the entire hand from the shoulder to the fingers. So, do you think that the one who takes the generality of the verse, "their hands" and applies the Qur'anic text in this absolute sense, is he following the Noble Qur'an? The answer is clear from the previous comment on the word "thief," not because he contradicted the explanation of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), but because the explanation here was from him (peace and blessings be upon him) as a practical, actual explanation, where the hand of the thief was cut from the wrist, and not from the elbows, and not from the shoulder. This is a verse concerning the establishment of the legal punishments (hudud), and the verses mentioned in the Qur'an that are absolute or general are many, and very many. It pleases me to suggest to some students of knowledge that they collect these absolute or general verses in the Noble Qur'an and build upon them the restrictions or specifications that entered them from what came in the Sunnah and the authentic Sunnah, so that it becomes clear to people that there is no room for understanding the Qur'an without the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and without the explanation of his Companions (peace and blessings be upon him) of what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon. I said earlier that the absolute or general verses are many, and very many. Take, for example, the verses that command zakah, and command prayer, and command Hajj. They cannot be understood except in light of the Book and the Sunnah. And from here it becomes clear to us the exclusion of the group called today "the Quranists" from the circle of Islam and Muslims, when they said, "We are in no need of understanding the Qur'an by the Sunnah." That is because of what I indicated earlier in explaining that the one who does not take the Sunnah does not take the Qur'an, because the Qur'an commands the Muslims in more than one verse to judge by Allah and by His Messenger, as is known in a well-known verse: The research in this is long, and very long. I only wanted to point out the necessity of every Muslim who is zealous to be of the saved sect being aware that he should not suffice for himself or for others to say, "I am a follower of the Book and the Sunnah," and nothing else. It is necessary to accompany these two basic sources with knowing what the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him) were upon of guidance and light. And by that, we realize the attribute of the saved sect, which is that we are upon what his Messenger and his Companions were upon. And this, as I said earlier, is a broad door. But I must bring a new condition that many Islamic callers have neglected, which is the care for knowing what is authentic of the Sunnah and what is not authentic of it. Because if the Qur'an cannot be understood except by the Sunnah, then it is necessary that this Sunnah be authentic and established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). And here we mention what the scholars of the Muslims have unanimously agreed upon, despite their differences in schools of jurisprudence, that what is not of the Sunnah has entered into the Sunnah since ancient times, and many people, even today, attribute to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) hadiths that have been fabricated. And therefore, it is necessary for a group of scholars of the Muslims to pay special attention to what is known among scholars as the science of hadith, the terminology of hadith, and the science of the critique and vindication of narrators, so that they purify the Sunnah from the weak and fabricated hadiths that have entered it over the ages and eras, and which have entered into the bellies of many books of tafsir, hadith, and fiqh, let alone books of places, softeners, and stories. It falls upon a group of scholars of the Muslims to pay special attention to the science of the Sunnah so that they can, by it, interpret the Qur'an with a correct interpretation. After this, I say, you know, O my brothers, that correct knowledge is the means to acting upon it. So, it is not befitting for a student of knowledge to occupy himself with knowledge only without accompanying this knowledge with action. Therefore, we always call for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to inspire us with beneficial knowledge and righteous action: This is what was facilitated for me of the speech that was requested.The Shaykh : The honorableThe Shaykh : 'Abdullah, and we ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to inspire us with guidance and to grant us all success in what He loves and is pleased with.