What is the explanation of the hadith: "I have left you upon the clear, white path (al-maḥajjah al-bayḍāʾ)"?

This hadith (definition) was narrated by Ibn Majah from Al-Irbad bin Sariyah, and in it, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, admonished the Companions with a profound sermon, leaving them on a clear path from which none would deviate except one who was doomed. He informed them that whoever among them lived long would see much disagreement, and he enjoined adherence to his Sunnah (definition) and the Sunnah of the rightly guided Caliphs, holding onto them with their molar teeth. He commanded obedience, even if the ruler was an Abyssinian slave, and likened the believer to a camel with a pierced nose-ring that is led wherever it is tethered, an allusion to their obedience and compliance.