Chapter Two: Demonstrating the obligation to emulate them, urging adherence to their madhhab, and walking their path, together with the proofs for this from the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the sayings of the Imams.

49 – As for the Book of Allah, He, the Exalted, says: “Whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows a way other than that of the believers, We will leave him to what he has chosen and will roast him in Hell—what an evil end.” (al-Nisāʾ 4:115). Here He threatens those who follow a path other than theirs with the punishment of Hell. Conversely, He promises those who follow them His good pleasure and Paradise, for He, the Exalted, says: “The foremost—the first of the Emigrants and the Helpers—and those who follow them with excellence: Allah is well pleased with them and they are well pleased with Him.” (al-Tawbah 9:100). Thus He pledges to those who emulate them with excellence the same reward He promised them: His pleasure, His Garden, and supreme success.

50 – From the Sunnah is the Prophet’s ﷺ statement: “Hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided, Uprightly Guided Caliphs after me; cling to it with your molar teeth. Beware of newly introduced matters, for every novelty is a bidʿah, and every bidʿah is misguidance.”

51 – In this ḥadīth the Prophet ﷺ commands adherence to the Sunnah of his Caliphs just as he commands adherence to his own Sunnah, and he declares that newly invented matters are bidʿah and misguidance—namely, whatever is not in accordance with the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ or the Sunnah of his Companions.