Al-Matalib al-'Aliyah 2974 — The division of the Ummah

It is narrated from Abu Ghalib that he was in Damascus when seventy heads of the Haruriyyah (Khawarij) were brought and set up in a prominent place (as a warning). Meanwhile Sayyiduna Abu Umamah (may Allah be pleased with him) came, entered the mosque and prayed two rak'ahs, then came out and stood by those heads, and for a long while shed tears over them profusely. Then he said three times: "What (a cruel) thing Iblis is doing to the people of Islam!" Then he said: "O Abu Ghalib! You are in a city where desires are many and terrifying, misleading trials abound." I said: Yes. So he prayed for me: 'A'adhaka Allahu minhum' (May Allah Almighty keep you in His refuge from their evil). I asked: Why are you shedding tears over them? He said: "Out of pity for them, because they too were among the people of Islam (and then went astray)." Then he asked: "Do you recite Surah Al Imran?" I said: Yes. He said: "Recite this verse: 'It is He who has sent down to you the Book; in it are verses that are precise, they are the foundation of the Book, and others that are ambiguous. As for those in whose hearts is deviation, they follow what is ambiguous of it' [Surah Al Imran: 7]." And he said: "These were the very people in whose hearts there was deviation, because of which they fell into misguidance." Then he recited this verse: 'On the Day when some faces will turn white and some faces will turn black' [Surah Al Imran: 106]. I asked: Are these (Khawarij) those very people? He said: "Yes." Then he said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The Children of Israel split into seventy-one sects; all of them will go to the Fire except the great majority (al-sawad al-a'zam)." Then a man beside me said: O Abu Umamah! Do you not see what the great majority (that is, the rulers and the larger body) are doing? He replied: "Upon them is the burden of their responsibility, and upon you is the burden of your responsibility; and if you obey (the Messenger of Allah), you will be guided. Listen! Hearing and obeying (the ruler) is far better than disobedience and division. They give judgements in our favour and then they kill us." I asked him: Are you narrating this hadith on your own, or did you hear it from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), or are you saying it from your own opinion? He said: "If I had not heard it from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), I would be very bold indeed to dare narrate it to you. I heard this from him (peace and blessings be upon him) not once, but twice, three times", until he mentioned (hearing it) seven times.
Al-Harith also recorded through his chain, by way of Abu Ghalib, that he said: I was in Basrah during the reign of Abd al-Malik bin Marwan when the heads of the Khawarij were brought; then he mentioned details similar to the previous narration.
Al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah and Ahmad narrated it in abridged form.