Sticking to the Sunnah
Narrated by al-ʿIrbāḍ bin Sāriyahعَنْ [أَبي نَجِيحٍ العِرْباضِ بنِ سَاريةَ] رَضِي اللهُ عَنْهُ قالَ: (وَعَظَنا رَسُولُ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ مَوْعِظَةً وَجِلَتْ مِنْها القُلوبُ، وَذَرَفَتْ مِنْها العُيُونُ، فَقُلْنا: يا رسولَ اللهِ، كَأنَّها مَوْعِظَةُ مُودِّعٍ فَأَوْصِنا. قالَ: "أُوصِيكُمْ بِتَقْوَى اللهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ، وَالسَّمْعِ وَالطَّاعَةِ، وَإِنْ تَأَمَّرَ عَلَيْكُمْ عَبْدٌ حَبَشِيٌّ، فَإِنَّهُ مَنْ يَعِشْ مِنْكُمْ فَسَيَرَى اخْتِلاَفًا كَثِيرًا، فَعَلَيْكُمْ بِسُنَّتِي وَسُنَّةِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ الْمَهْدِيِّينَ، تَمَسَّكُوا بِهَا، وَعَضُّوا عَلَيْهَا بِالنَّوَاجِذِ، وَإِيَّاكُمْ وَمُحْدَثَاتِ الأُمُورِ؛ فَإِنَّ كُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ، وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلاَلَةٌ").
رواهُ أبو داوُدَ والتِّرمِذِيُّ، وقالَ: حديثٌ حَسَنٌ صحيحٌ.
From Abū Najīh al-ʿIrbāḍ bin Sāriyah (raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu) who said:
The Messenger of Allah gave us a sermon by which our hearts were filled with fear and tears came to our eyes. We said: "O Messenger of Allāh, it is as though this is a farewell sermon, so counsel us." He said, "I counsel you to fear Allah and to give absolute obedience even if a slave becomes your leader. Verily he among you who lives [long] will see great controversy, so you must keep to my sunnah and to the sunnah of the rightly-guided Khalifahs - bite onto it with your molars. Beware of newly invented matters, for every invented matter is an innovation and every innovation is a going astray, and every going astray is inHell-fire."
Related by Abū Dāwūd, Tirmidhī
Translation by Abū ʿIyāḍ — Nawawis40Hadith.com, used with permission.