One day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ led us in prayer, then turned to us and delivered a powerful 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 entrust to us?"He replied, "I urge you to fear Allah and to listen and obey, even if an Abyssinian slave is placed over you. Whoever among you lives on after me will see much disagreement. So hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly-guided Caliphs. Cling to it, and bite onto it with your molars. Beware of newly invented matters, for every innovation is a misguidance, and every misguidance leads astray."
صلى بنا رسول الله ﷺ ذات يوم، ثم أقبل علينا فوعظنا موعظة بليغة ذرفت منها العيون ووجلت منها القلوب، فقال قائل: يا رسول الله! كأن هذه موعظة مودع، فماذا تعهد إلينا؟ فقال: أوصيكم بتقوى الله والسمع والطاعة، وإن عبدا حبشيا، فإنه من يعش منكم بعدي فسيرى اختلافا كثيرا، فعليكم بسنتي، وسنة الخلفاء المهديين الراشدين، تمسكوا بها، وعضوا عليها بالنواجذ، وإياكم ومحدثات الأمور، فإن كل محدثة بدعة، وكل بدعة ضلالة.
Narrated by Abu Dawud (4607), Ahmad (17145), and graded sahih by Ibn Hibban (5) and Hakim (1/97), all 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, "Abdul-Rahman bin Amr Sulami and Hujr bin Hujr narrated to me, both of them from Irbad," and he mentioned it.It was also narrated by Tirmidhi (2676), Ibn Majah (44), Ahmad (17144), and Hakim (1/95–96), all through chains from Khalid bin Madan, from Abdul-Rahman bin Amr Sulami alone, with similar wording.This chain is hasan, and the discussion of it is set out at length in the book Itisam.