Introduction to Research Into Sects

Here are my notes from the introduction of the book

On the surface, there is a remarkable unity in the Islamic faith compare to other religions. The biggest divide is between the Shia and the Sunni sect. This is not the only division in the Muslim community.

Most people are well acquainted with the following Prophetic tradition

The Holy Prophet (may peace and the blessings of Allah be upon him and his pure family) said: "The Jews are divided into 71 sects, and the Christians are divided into 72 sects, and my people (Muslims) will be divided into 73 sects"

The question on everyone's mind is,

Was the tradition (above) invented to justify the sects or were the sects invented to justify the tradition?

Then the person who wrote the introduction made the following bizarre (and completely unfounded) statement:

"Many of the theologians of Islam felt it incumbent upon them to bring about the fulfillment of this prophecy, and therefore set to work to make a more or less arbitrary division of the religious system"

This is followed by a brief discussion on why sects exists in the Muslim communities, i.e., many sects exist which represent important philosophical schools and widely differing trends of thought.

Next, we are presented with a variation of the prophetic tradition and also some explanation on how each sect differs from the others.

Disagreements over this hadith have not, however, been limited to the number of sects. One of the greatest points of difference was the question of how many of these sects would be saved.

The original author of this book (al-Baghdadi) felt that the Sunni sects would not be damned. This, of course, contradicts a number of other traditions that speak about the School of Ahlul Bayt (Shias) being the only sect that will be saved.

For further information, please see the entry (73 sects of Islam) on Nader Zaveri's blog.