Explaining the wisdom behind the saying of the Exalted: “And he follows other than the path of the believers” in the verse

The Shaykh : I must pause for a moment on this verse to explain the point, wisdom, or benefit of the mention of His saying—Exalted is He—in this verse: If the verse did not contain this phrase and were instead worded as follows: “And whoever opposes the Messenger after the guidance has become clear to him, and turns away from what We have sent down to you, We will fill him with scorching fire, and evil is his destination.” If the verse were worded this way, in this abbreviated form, do you think we would lose any of the knowledge we derive from the phrase mentioned in the verse, which I just omitted to clarify its importance and scholarly value? Yes, if this phrase were not there, we would lose one of the fundamental principles of the rulings of the Islamic law. For you all know, if Allah wills, that the sources of the Islamic Shari'ah, as stated by the people of the Sunnah and the community, are the Qur'an, the Sunnah, scholarly consensus, and analogical reasoning. If this phrase were not in this verse, namely , we would have lost the proof for the obligation to adhere to the consensus of the Muslims. Thus, in this benefit, Allah—Mighty and Majestic—mentioned it in conjunction with the Messenger when He said: . So here is another ruling, distinct from the ruling regarding opposing the Messenger. Allah—Mighty and Majestic—gathered the warning for all those who oppose: the one who opposes the Messenger, contradicts him, and goes against him, and the one who follows other than the path of the believers or the Muslims. Someone might say, “I do not oppose the Messenger.” For example, this is a disaster that exists in the present age in a terrible manner, and recently, as Professor Abu Malik mentioned earlier, we touched upon such a topic. A person comes to a text from a hadith of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and derives a ruling from it that differs from what the Muslims are upon. In his opinion, he has not opposed the Messenger; he relied on the words of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), but he followed other than the path of the believers. Perhaps it is good, by way of reminder, and perhaps by way of warning, to give the example that was the subject of discussion, and what was on my mind or settled in my heart, is that a Muslim who truly belongs to the methodology of the Book and the Sunnah says the following: “Prayer in the Prophet’s Mosque today is not prescribed. Traveling to the Prophet’s Mosque is not prescribed.” Why? Because the Prophet’s grave was built into it. That is, he is applying the hadiths that strongly rebuke those who take the graves of their prophets as mosques. So the grave of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)—I mean the Mosque of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)—is covered by these hadiths. So he almost... based on this innovative understanding, he has followed other than the path of the believers, the path of all the Muslims, even the most severe in their response to those who deviate from the Sunnah, many of whom travel to the Prophet’s grave, and it does not occur to them to travel to the Prophet’s Mosque. I mean, for example, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah. We said that he constantly and forever warns people not to travel toward the grave, and he commands them to travel to visit the Mosque, and then when they arrive, they greet the Messenger and visit the grave of the Messenger, and so on. So you, with this understanding, have followed other than the path of the believers. Thus, this verse is very important when we realize that this phrase is conjoined to His saying—Exalted is He: . One might also be following a hadith from the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), but he follows other than the path of the believers in applying this hadith and in understanding it. Indeed, we say that if a claimant claimed that he has the right to be like those rulers, for example, who look at Islam through the lens of worldly benefit rather than through the lens of following the Islamic Shari'ah, whether for them or against them. If a ruler wanted to be severe in punishing thieves, for example, and ordered the cutting off of hands, and argued for that with the noble verse: , and so on, and by analogy, many and very many things. This would be relying on the Qur'an, but at the same time, it would be following other than the path of the believers.