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.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), telling the Companions about the conditions of the past nations, said: "The nation of Musa (peace be upon him) split into seventy-one (71) groups, of which seventy are in Hell and only one is in Paradise; and the nation of Isa (peace be upon him) split into seventy-two (72) sects, of which seventy-one are in the Fire and one is in Paradise; while my Ummah will exceed the combined number of the groups of both these nations by one (that is, there will be seventy-three sects), of which seventy-two (72) will be in the Fire and only one will go to Paradise." The Companions asked: "O Messenger of Allah! Which one is that (saved group)?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Al-Jama'ah (that is, the community that remains upon the truth)."
Ya'qub bin Zayd said: When Sayyiduna Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated this hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), he would recite these verses of the Qur'an in support of it. About the people of Musa: 'And among the people of Musa is a community that guides by the truth and by it establishes justice' [Surah al-A'raf: 159]. Then about the People of the Book (the nation of Isa) he would recite: 'And if only the People of the Book had believed and feared Allah, We would have removed from them their misdeeds' [Surah al-Ma'idah: 65]. And then about our Ummah he would recite this verse: 'And among those We created is a community that guides by the truth and by it establishes justice' [Surah al-A'raf: 181].

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "In my Ummah there will arise some seventy-odd callers (stirring up trials), all of whom will call people to the Fire of Hell; and if I wished, I would inform you even of the names of their fathers and of their tribes."
The chain of this hadith contains Layth bin Abi Sulaym, who has been declared da'if (weak) because of his frequent confusion (ikhtilat); however, the news of trials and misleading callers appearing in the Ummah is also established by other authentic hadiths.