In the Name of Allaah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. May Allaah’s salah and salaam be upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, his family and his noble companions. Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakatuhu.
On the authority of Aboo Najih al-‘Irbad bin Sariyah (radiyallaahu anhu) who said: "The Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) gave us a sermon by which our hearts were filled with fear and tears came to our eyes. We said: O Messenger of Allaah it is as though this is a farewell sermon, so advise us. He said: "I advise you to have Taqwaa of Allaah and to listen and obey even if a black slave has been appointed as your leader. He among you who lives long enough will see many differences. So hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly-Guided Khulafaa who will come after me, hold on to them with your molar teeth. Beware of Bid’ah (in religion) because every Bid’ah is Misguidance." [Aboo Dawood & at-Tirmidhi]
Imaam al-Barbahaaree (rahimahullaah) said in Sharh us-Sunnah, "Know that the people never introduce an innovation until they abandon its like from the Sunnah. So, beware of newly invented matters, since every newly invented matter is an innovation and every innovation is misguidance and misguidance and it people are in the Fire."
Ath-Thaabit ibn al-Ajlaan said, "I met Anas ibn Maalik, Ibn al-Mussayab, al-Hasan al-Basree, Sa’eed ibn Jubair, ash-Sha’bee, Ibraaheem an-Nakha’ee, Ataa’ ibn Abee Ribaah, Taawoos, Mujaahid, Abdullaah ibn Abee Mulaikah, az-Zuhree, Makhool, al-Qaasim Aboo ‘Abdur-Rahman, Ataa’ al-Khurasaanee, Thaabit al-Bunaanee, al-Hakam ibn Utbah, Ayyoob as-Sakhtiyaanee, Hammad ibn Muhammad ibn Sereen, Aboo Aamir – and he actually met Aboo Bakr as-Siddeeq (radiyallaahu anhu), Yazeer ar-Riqaashee, and Sulaimaan ibn Moosa – all of them were ordering me to hold on to the Jamaa’ah and forbidding me from the people of desires (i.e., innovations). [Sharh Usoolul-I’tiqaad if al-Laalikaa’ee, no. 239.]
Imaam ash-Shaatibee (rahimahullaah) said in al-I’tisaam (1/40-45): …And Ibn Wahb said: "I heard Maalik saying: "There is no verse in the Book of Allaah that is harder upon those in disagreement amongst the People of Desires than this verse: On the Day (i.e. the Day of Resurrection) when some faces will become white and some faces will become black; as for those whose faces will become black (to them will be said): "Did you reject Faith after accepting it? Then taste the torment (in Hell) for rejecting Faith." [Aali-Imraan 3:106] Maalik said: "And which words are more clearer than these? And I saw him explaining these verses in reference to the People of Desires."
From Qataadah, that he said regarding the saying of Allaah: And be not as those who divided among themselves after clear proofs had come to them [Aali-Imraan 3:105] "Meaning: The People of Innovation."
Abdullaah ibn Mas’ood (radiyallaahu anhu) said, "One day the Messenger of Allaah drew for us a straight line on the ground and said: ‘This is the path of Allaah.’ Then he drew a number of other lines on the right and the left of the straight line, and said, ‘These are pathways, on the head of each path is a shaytaan calling people to it (himself).’ Then he recited: "And verily, this is my Straight Path, so follow it, and follow not (other) paths, for they will separate you away from His Path. This He has ordained for you that you become al-Muttaqûn." [Al-An’aam 6:153]
And Mujaahid (the student of Ibn Abbaas) said about the saying of Allaah: …and follow not other paths [Al-An’aam 6:153] "The innovations and doubts."
Allaah Azza wa Jall says, "Say: "He has power to send torment on you from above or from under your feet, or to cover you with confusion in party strife, and make you to taste the violence of one another." [Al-An’aam 6:65] From Ibn Abbaas (radiyallaahu anhu) that: "Covering you with confusion in party strife, this is the divergent and varying desires (i.e. innovations)."
And from what has been reported from Mujaahid about the saying of Allaah: But they will not cease to disagree – except him on whom your Lord has bestowed His Mercy and for that did He create them. [Hud 11:118-119] He said about ‘those who disagree’: "They are the People of Falsehood" and about ‘except him on whom your Lord bestowed His Mercy’: "The People of Truth, there is no difference amongst them." From ‘Ikrimah "’But they will not cease to disagree’. Meaning in the desires [i.e. their innovations] and ‘except him on whom your Lord has bestowed His Mercy’, they are the Ahl-us-Sunnah."
"Allaah said, "And be not as those who divide and differed among themselves after the clear proofs had come to them." [3:105]. In this Ayah, Allaah forbids this Ummah from imitating the division and discord of the nations that came before them. These nations also abandoned enjoining righteousness and forbidding evil, although they had proof of its necessity.
Imaam Ahmad recorded that Aboo ‘Amir ‘Abdullaah bin Luhay said, "We performed Hajj with Mu’aawiyah bin Abee Sufyaan. When we arrived at Makkah, he stood up after praying Zuhr and said, "The Messenger of Allaah said, "The People of the Two Scriptures divided into seventy-two sects. This Ummah will divide into seventy-three sects, all in the Fire except one, that is, the Jamaa’ah. Some of my Ummah will be guided by desire, like one who is infected by rabies; no vein or joint will be saved from these desires."
Mu’aawiyah said next: "By Allaah, O Arabs! If you do not adhere to what came to you from your Prophet then other people are even more prone not to adhere to it." Similar was recorded by Aboo Dawood from Ahmad bin Hanbal and Muhammad bin Yahyaa.
Allaah said next, "On the day when some faces will become white and some faces will become black;" [3:106] on the Day of Resurrection. This is when the faces of the followers of the Sunnah and the Jamaa’ah will radiate with whiteness, and the faces of the followers of Bid’ah (innovation) and division will be darkened, as has been reported from Ibn Abbaas." [Tafseer Ibn Katheer]
Allaah said, "and be not of Al-Mushrikûn (the disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah, polytheists, idolaters, etc.). Of those who split up their religion (i.e. who left the true Islâmic Monotheism), and became sects, [i.e. they invented new things in the religion (Bid'ah), and followed their vain desires], each sect rejoicing in that which is with it." [Ar-Rum 30:31-32]
Ibn Katheer (rahimahullaah) wrote in his Tafseer: "The followers of the religions before us had difference of opinions and split into false sects, each group claiming to be following the truth. This Ummah too has split into sects, all of which are misguided apart from one, which is Ahlus-Sunnah wal Jamaa’ah, those who adhere to the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allaah and what was followed by the first generations, the Companions, their followers, and the Imaams of the Muslims of earlier and later times. In his Mustadrak, al-Hakim recorded that the Messenger of Allaah was asked which of the sects was the saved sect and he said: ‘What I and my Companions are upon."
As it occurs in the authentic hadeeth from Abdullaah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas (radiyallaahu anhu) who said: The Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) said, "Indeed the Children of Israa’eel split up into seventy-one sects and my Ummah will split up into seventy-three, all of them are in the Fire except one." It was said, ‘What is the one?’ He said, "That which I and my Companions are upon."
Imaam Bukhaaree (rahimahullaah) said: I met more than a thousand men amongst the people of knowledge from the people of al-Hijaaz, al-Makkah, al-Madeenah, al-Koofah, al-Basrah, Waasit, Baghdaad, Shaam and Misr… and I never saw a single one of them differ with respect to the following matters…
…And they used to forbid and prevent [people] from the innovations – those that the Messenger and his Companions were not upon, due to His saying:
And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allaah, and be not divided among yourselves [Aali-Imraan 3:103]
And due to His saying:
If you obey him [the Messenger], you shall be on the right guidance [an-Noor 24:25]
[Reported by al-Laalikaa’ee (2/172-5), The Creed of Imaam Bukhaaree p.13,28 – al-Maktabah as-Salafiyyah Publications]
Notes from Maktabah as-Salafiyyah: "In the words of Imaam Bukhaaree is a clear indication that Muslim unity is to be attained by removing the innovations – and that is the unanimous understanding of the greatest scholars of the noble ayah in question. Since it is newly-invented matters (in the issues of belief, action and methodology) that have divided the hearts of the Muslims and set them against each other. Thus, in order for the hearts of the Muslims to unite and consequently, their word and rank, it is necessary for them to purify their beliefs, actions and methodologies from everything that was never taught by the Messenger and which was never acted upon by the Noble Companions (radiyallaahu anhum) – whilst humbly submitting to the Pure and Clear Sunnah. But this cannot be attained until the Muslims attend to the authentic and beneficial knowledge – that which has been left by the Messenger and which has been inherited by the Scholars after him, the Ahlul-Hadeeth and then to nurture themselves upon it. This issue was so clearly understood by the Companions of Allaah’s Messenger and those after them..."
Al hamdu lillaahi Rabbil Alameen wa Allaahu Alim.