Mahzarnama (The Memorandum) — Page 7
Mahzarnama 7 seventy-three sects, is a grand issue. He who comprehends it is indeed endowed with true wisdom, and he who acts on it in practice (i. e. , actually regards only one sect as bound for Paradise and considers the remaining seventy-two to be Hell-bound) he alone is a Muslim. " [Short Biography of the Holy Prophet sa , pp. 13-14, by Al-Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhaab, published in Cairo] The well known organ of Jama'at Islami, Tarjman-ul-Quran, states in its issue of January, 1945: (translated from Urdu) "Agreement reached by the majority on anything is not considered in Islam to be a proof of its being the truth; nor does every preponderance of people constitute a true majority. Every multitude of people is not an organised Community ( Jama'at ), nor is the adoption of a particular viewpoint by the mullahs of a particular locality to be termed as Consensus. . . . This interpretation finds support in a Hadith of the Holy Prophet sa related by Hadhrat Abdullah bin Umar as follows: Bani Israel became divided into seventy-two sects and my followers will become divided into seventy-three sects who will all fall into Hell with the exception of one. People asked, "Who would these be, O, Prophet of Allah?" He replied, "Those who will follow my path and the path of my Companions. " This group of people will neither be in the majority, nor would it offer its majority status as an argument in favour of its truth. Rather, it will be just one among the seventy-three sects of the Muslims and would consist of non-spectacular and unassuming people in this wide world, as he stated: