We came to Irbaz bin Sariya, who was among those concerning whom the verse was revealed, "Nor is there blame upon those who, when they came to you that you might give them mounts, you said, 'I can find nothing upon which to mount you.' They turned away while their eyes overflowed with tears out of grief that they could not find anything to spend." [Tawbah 9:92].We greeted him and said, "We have come to you as visitors and to learn from you."Irbaz said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ led us in the dawn prayer one day, then turned to us and delivered a moving sermon that brought tears to our eyes and made our hearts tremble.Someone said, 'Messenger of Allah, this seems like the sermon of one bidding farewell. What do you charge us with?'He replied, 'I urge you to fear Allah and to listen and obey, even if your leader is an Abyssinian slave. Whoever among you lives long will see much disagreement. So hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly-guided caliphs after me. Cling to it and bite onto it with your molars. Beware of newly invented matters, for every innovation is a deviation, and every deviation leads astray.'"
أتينا العرباض بن سارية وهو ممن نزل فيه {ولا على الذين إذا ما أتوك لتحملهم قلت لا أجد ما أحملكم عليه تولوا وأعينهم تفيض من الدمع حزنا ألا يجدوا ما ينفقون} فسلمنا، وقلنا: أتيناك زائرين ومقتبسين. فقال العرباض: صلى بنا رسول الله ﷺ الصبح ذات يوم، ثم أقبل علينا، فوعظنا موعظة بليغة ذرفت منها العيون، ووجلت منها القلوب، فقال قائل: يا رسول الله! كأن هذه موعظة مودع، فما تعهد إلينا؟ فقال: أوصيكم بتقوى الله والسمع والطاعة وإن كان عبدا حبشيا، فإنه من يعش منكم، فسيري اختلافا كثيرا، فعليكم بسنتي وسنة الخلفاء الراشدين المهديين، فتمسكوا بها وعضوا عليها بالنواجذ، وإياكم ومحدثات الأمور، فإن كل محدثة بدعة، وكل بدعة ضلالة.
Abu Dawud (4607) and Ahmad (17145) narrated it, and Ibn Hibban (5) and Hakim (1/97) graded it sahih, all of them from the hadith of Walid bin Muslim, who said, Thawr bin Yazid narrated to us, who said, Khalid bin Madan narrated to me, who said, Amr bin Abdul-Rahman Sulami and Hijr bin Hijr Kalai narrated to me, both of whom said, and they mentioned it.Its chain is hasan because of Amr bin Abdul-Rahman Sulami and Hijr bin Hijr Kalai corroborating each other, and the discussion of it is set out in detail in the book Itisam.