Every sect claims to be upon the truth and to be the saved group, so what is the criterion for knowing the saved group (A response to those who say that in the religion there is a core and a husk)

The questioner : In the mosques, we found, as Allah wills, several groups, whether they are the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Tahrir, or Salafi. And every group claims, for example, or says that it is the group that is upon the truth. And Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says, as in His clear revelation, in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful: . So it is established that one knows which group to commit to and with which Muslim to be. And in the hadith of Abu Thalhah al-Khushani, and I do not know if the hadith is authentic or not? . And I said: Yes, every group now is pleased with its opinion. So the end of the hadith, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) says to you: . That is, he should isolate himself from these groups and not affiliate with them. We apply the Qur'an and the Sunnah, away from these groups and away from these names.

The Shaykh : In my opinion, this question was posed and its answer was given in the previous speech, when we mentioned that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught the Muslims everything and explained it to them clearly, when we mentioned the hadith of the seventy-three sects, and we mentioned that one group among these sects is the saved group.

The questioner : Each one says to you: I am it.

The Shaykh : Allow me, my brother, we said: The answer to this question is that we brought two famous sayings among the scholars. We said first: And claims, unless you establish for them proofs, their offspring are claimants. And we also said:
"And every one claims a connection to Layla, and Layla does not approve of that for them"
Did you hear this speech or not? You are repeating to me now what I said just now. So I hope you pay attention to what we said just now. The claim, every person can claim, but the claim should be accompanied by evidence and proof. If you see a man who does not know how to pray and says: I am from the saved group, is it correct that he is from the saved group? If you see a man who does not know what he should believe about Allah and about the prophets and messengers, and if you see a man, as we gave an example just now, who believes that a person can reach Allah without the path of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), without the path of the Book and the Sunnah, will this be the one who says: I am from the saved group? The answer is obvious, is it not? No, he will not be from the saved group, but he will be from the misguided group.
Therefore, if you and others hear and find on the face of the Islamic earth today groups, and as we said just now, each one claims a connection to Layla, then you must take the evidence from every sect among these sects that testifies to the truth of its claim. And what is your opinion about hearing a claim and remaining, you, with the bewildered, bewildered, saying: They all say: We are the saved group, and these and those. You must ask, as He, the Exalted, said: . So there is no salvation. We said this repeatedly and over and over. There is no salvation for the Muslim, not only for Muslims in general, but every person today must save himself before others. There is no salvation for him ever except by holding fast to the Book and the Sunnah. So now, when you point to some groups, do you hear from these groups that they say, Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said, in every issue, in every big and small matter? Or do some of these groups say to you: My brother, researching these issues is researching trifles, researching the husk. And we only want to research the core. Do you hear this speech from some Islamic groups or not? Well, is there a husk in Islam? Islam is all core. And it is not permissible to describe it, because the word "husk" means belittling that which is called the husk. So Islam, which came with (peace and blessings be upon him), is a religion extended to creed. So all of this must be adopted by the Muslim completely, from its beginning to its end. And when we say this, we are not afraid, and it does not escape our attention that the Muslim cannot uphold Islam from its A to its Z. But he must acknowledge, first of all, in thought and creed, that everything that came with Islam is guidance and light, and that it is not permissible to divide Islam into core and husk, because this division contains a criticism of Islam in a way that these people who make Islam core and husk do not intend. And a second thing, if we assume, and if we concede for the sake of argument, that in Islam there is a core and in Islam there is a husk, we concede this for the sake of argument. But we say: If there is a husk in Islam with the core, then this husk has a wisdom, which is the preservation of the core. As we see that in the world of creation, in the fruits and in the fruits and vegetables and the like. So all of them are from what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has made subservient for the children of man and honored the children of Adam with. And He made for all these benefits what? A husk. Without the husk, the core would have spoiled. So if we concede for the sake of argument that in Islam there is a core and in Islam there is a husk, then we must know the core and we must know the husk, and we must believe in this and that, and we must believe that Allah did not leave out anything in the Book, and that everything that came with it is for our benefit, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So this which some call the husk is from what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) brought. I am mentioning to you now an authentic hadith, which perhaps we can use as evidence for the division of these people for the sake of argument. It is the hadith of that Bedouin who came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: Inform me about what Allah has made obligatory upon me. So he said to him: . And he mentioned to him only the fasting of Ramadan and the like of the known obligatory duties from the five pillars. So what was the position of this Bedouin? He asked him, saying: "Is there upon me, O Messenger of Allah, anything other than them?" He said: . He said: "By Allah, O Messenger of Allah, I will not add to them nor subtract from them." Meaning, the obligatory duties were sufficient for him, and he did not want to do voluntary acts. So when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) knew from him his sincerity and truthfulness in his eagerness and his consistency in what Allah has made obligatory upon him, he said: . So in Islam, instead of saying: core and husks, we say: there are obligatory duties and there are voluntary acts. But these voluntary acts were not legislated in vain. Is that right? That man said: "I will not add to them nor subtract from them," because he was newly converted to Islam. But the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught us and taught us well when he said: . In another hadith: . So this voluntary act which some call husks, this has importance, because this hadith clarifies to us clearly, saying: If the Muslim's obligatory duties are deficient when he is reckoned, the first thing he will be reckoned for on the Day of Resurrection, our Lord bestows upon His servant and orders the angels to look, is there for him any voluntary act? If they find it, they complete with this voluntary act the deficiency that occurred in the obligatory duties of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. So it is not permissible for us to care for some of Islam without some. And I am giving you now a practical example in our lives.
There are many Islamic groups that do not care about growing their beards, nor do they care about imitating the disbelievers in their dress, such as wearing pants, jackets, and sweaters. What is this? These are superficial matters. We need to focus on the substance. They also do not care about not lengthening the garment, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . Despite this severe warning, they put all these types of matters into the category of what? Superficialities. This reminds me that one of the dangers of this claim—that Islam is substance and superficiality—is: who will appoint himself to explain to people which of these issues, which number in the thousands, are part of the substance? You are told to be strict with them, and these may be even more, thousands upon thousands, multiplied over and over, and these are the superficialities, so do not pay attention to them. Where is this person? Has he been created yet? He has not been created, and he will never be created. These are the ones who throw this word among people and make Islam substance and superficiality, leaving the youth confused because they cannot distinguish between what is substance and what is peel after accepting this designation. They cannot do so. So it was obligatory for these people who innovated this harsh division of substance and peel to say: "Such and such is substance, so you must hold fast to it, and such and such, after counting them, are superficialities, so do not pay attention to them." But they will not be able to count them. So, may Allah reward you. When you say, "They all claim this," that is a true statement, but we demand the evidence. So, the one you see is always concerned with knowing what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon in terms of creed, morals, and worship. How did he pray? How did he perform Hajj? How did he fast? He taught women, men, and children, and so on. His state indicates this and suffices you from his claim that he is from the saved sect, because he held fast to the evidence that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) established in the hadith of the sects, which is that the evidence of the saved sect is the community, meaning that which the Messenger and his noble Companions were upon. Thus, the person is walking with insight. And if you take this rule and this criterion and try to apply it to the groups you are referring to, you will find that very few, and very few indeed, of them describe themselves as such. We have now spoken in general terms and given some examples related to the lives of people today who do not care about imitating the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). We find that some young men, if they grow their beards, they are beards in a manner other than the manner of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). They are in the manner of a leader of theirs who once had a short beard, so they imitate him. And this leader, despite being a Muslim, had a sweater, which is part of the dress of the English who introduced it to many Islamic lands. So they also dress in his dress. But the first master, the master of all people, the master of people on the Day of Resurrection, is Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Where are those who imitate him? They do not exist except among these people who always call people to follow the Book and the Sunnah. Their methodology is: "Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said," and nothing else. Perhaps this is an answer to what you asked.