Al-'Irbad ibn Sariyah described a sermon so moving that hearts trembled and eyes overflowed, and the Companions felt it was the farewell of someone taking his leave. They begged the Prophet ﷺ for a parting counsel, and what he gave them was an anchor for every storm that would come after him.
Fear Allah, he said, and hear and obey. You will live to see great differences, so when that day comes, hold fast to my Sunnah and the way of the rightly-guided successors. Bite onto it with your back teeth. And beware of newly-invented matters.
Where this hadith comes from
It is narrated by Abu Najih al-'Irbad ibn Sariyah (ra), one of the Companions known for weeping out of longing for Allah. He describes a sermon so piercing that hearts trembled and eyes overflowed, and the Companions sensed it carried the weight of a farewell, so they asked for a parting counsel. It is collected by Abu Dawud (4607) and at-Tirmidhi (2676), who graded it good and sound (hasan sahih).
Scholars have long treated this hadith as one of the foundations of the religion: an-Nawawi placed it among his Forty, and many later writers built whole works around its command to hold to the Sunnah and the way of the rightly-guided successors. It reads as the Prophet's ﷺ guidance for the believers in the long centuries after him.
The key words
What it means, line by line
He opens with the rope that holds everything: taqwa of Allah, and then listening and obeying rightful authority in what is good, even, he says, if the one placed over you is of humble rank. Order in the community and consciousness of Allah come first.
Then the warning and the remedy together: whoever lives long will see much difference and division, so when that day comes, hold to my Sunnah and the way of the rightly-guided successors, and bite onto it with your back teeth. He closes by guarding that way against newly-invented matters in the religion. This is the same counsel Allah gives about His Messenger: what comes through him is to be taken and held, and what he forbade is to be left.
A counsel for confusing times
The Prophet ﷺ was preparing his Companions for a world without him, a world of growing complexity, splitting opinions, and competing voices. His advice was not to chase every new current, but to hold the rope they already had: taqwa, obedience to rightful authority in good, and fidelity to his Sunnah.
The image he used is physical and urgent, bite onto it with your molars, the way you grip something you refuse to let slip. In times of confusion, the believer does not loosen his hold on the established way; he tightens it.
The way that was lived, not theorised
He tied the Sunnah to the way of the rightly-guided successors, the first generation who learned the religion directly from him and lived it purely. This is the deepest naseehah to the Messenger ﷺ that hadith 7 spoke of: to follow him, and those who followed him best. What Allah sends through His Messenger is meant to be taken and held:
An anchor, not a cage
He closed with a warning against newly-invented matters in the religion, the same principle we met in hadith 5: worship is received, not improvised. Together, they protect the believer from being swept away by every passing enthusiasm dressed up as devotion.
But notice the spirit of it. This is not fearfulness or rigidity for its own sake; it is the security of a ship that has dropped anchor in a storm. While the seas of opinion churn, the one holding the Sunnah is steadied. He is not trapped; he is moored. And from that mooring he can face changing times without losing himself.
Carry this with you
When the times grow confusing, tighten your grip on the established way.
Anchor in taqwa and the Sunnah.
Amid differences, hold the rope you already have rather than chasing every new current.
Grip it firmly.
'Bite onto it with your molars.' In confusion, the believer tightens his hold, not loosens it.
Follow the way that was lived.
The Sunnah as the first, rightly-guided generation understood and practised it, not as later theory.
Beware the newly invented.
Worship is received, not improvised. Guard against passing enthusiasms dressed up as devotion.
A du'a to carry
رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْوَهَّابُ
Rabbana la tuzigh qulubana ba'da idh hadaytana wa hab lana min ladunka rahmah
Our Lord, let not our hearts deviate after You have guided us, and grant us from Yourself mercy. Indeed, You are the Bestower. (Aal 'Imran 3:8)
A du'a to stay anchored
On a day that felt like a farewell, with hearts trembling around him, the Prophet ﷺ handed his Companions, and us, an anchor: fear Allah, hold the Sunnah, and do not let the storms of a changing world pull you loose.
We live in exactly the 'great differences' he foresaw, a thousand voices, endless novelty, constant pull. His counsel still holds: drop anchor in the established way, grip it firmly, and let it steady you while the seas churn.
O Allah, anchor our hearts in Your religion and the Sunnah of Your Messenger ﷺ. In an age of confusion, let us not deviate after You have guided us, and grant us mercy from Yourself. Ameen.
The hadith is from sunnah.com: the farewell admonition of the Prophet ﷺ to hold fast to the Sunnah and the way of the rightly-guided successors, narrated by al-'Irbad ibn Sariyah (ra), Abu Dawud 4607 and at-Tirmidhi 2676, graded sahih. Qur'an citations (59:7, in part, and 3:8) are in Uthmani script verified via quran.ai (ar-uthmani-minimal) with the Saheeh International translation. Per the editorial policy this stays with the creedal and spiritual meaning (anchoring in the Sunnah), not adjudicating specific contested practices, which are left to qualified scholars. FOR SCHOLAR REVIEW before publication.