A word on the path to reaching Paradise.

The Shaykh : The path of the believers is the path of the earliest Companions, above all else, then those who followed them with excellence, namely the second and third generations, and then a few from the subsequent generations who followed them with excellence, until the Day of Judgment. For this reason, our da'wah (calling others to Islam) must be based on the Book and the Sunnah, and on the methodology of our righteous Salaf (the earliest generations). The difference between those who call only to the Book and the Sunnah, and those who add to them the methodology of the righteous Salaf—that is, the path of the believers—will become very clear to you after this speech, which may seem general to some listeners. You will see that the difference is very, very great. First of all, you know that there are today in the Islamic lands, as there were before, and even more than before, many, many schools of thought. We say that the four schools are the schools of the people of the Sunnah and the community, but there are other schools, and they claim, just as we claim regarding our schools, that they are upon the Sunnah. For example, mention the Shi'ah, and mention the Zaydiyyah—and we do not say the Yazidiyyah, and the difference between them is vast—and we mention, among what we mention, the Khawarij, including the Ibadiyyah who are well known today and who have increased activity in spreading their ideas and opinions that deviate from the Book and the Sunnah. If we were to ask these people who follow these schools, both ancient and modern—let us leave aside the modern schools followed today and speak only of the ancient schools whose followers inherited their adherence to that school from their predecessors—would any of them say, "We are not upon the Book and the Sunnah"? You would not hear that. On this occasion, I give two examples: one very old and one very new. The old example is the Ibadi Khawarij, who agree with the Mu'tazilah, both in the past and the present, in denying many of the correct Islamic beliefs established in the Book and the Sunnah, and yet they say, "We are upon the Book and the Sunnah." I say, let me give you an old example, and that is the greatest blessing that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) informed His believing servants of, in that He promised them that they will see their Lord on the Day of Resurrection.