Compliance with commands is obedience, and abstaining from prohibitions is likewise obedience. Thus, whoever obeys the Prophet ﷺ in what he commands and in what he forbids—responding whenever he orders and refraining whenever he prohibits—has in reality obeyed Allah. That is the verse’s explicit meaning; its implicit meaning is that whoever disobeys the Messenger has disobeyed Allah.

This verse is also evidence that whatever is authentically established in the Sunnah is on a par with what is established in the Quran: it, too, is part of Allah’s law and must be upheld. No one may separate the Book from the Sunnah. The Prophet ﷺ gave a stern warning when he said, “Let me not find one of you reclining on his couch; when a command of mine reaches him he says, ‘We do not know— we shall follow only what we find in the Book of Allah.’” In other words, he cautioned that a time might come when people will say, “We follow only the Quran, but we do not take what is in the Sunnah.”

This has indeed occurred: some atheists claim, “We accept only the Quran; we do not accept the Sunnah.” In truth they are liars, for they accept neither the Sunnah nor the Quran, since the Quran itself requires adherence to the Sunnah and affirms that whatever is found in the Sunnah is like what is found in the Quran. Yet they attempt to deceive the general public, arguing that because the Sunnah is not a Quranic text, recited and mass-transmitted among the Muslims, it is open to doubt, forgetfulness, or error, and the like. Allah alone grants success.