This meaning has been reliably preserved from the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—through multiple lines of transmission. It points to the fact that division and disagreement are bound to arise within the ummah. Therefore he used to warn his community, so that those whom Allah wills to safeguard might escape its harm. Al-Nazzāl ibn Sabrah relates from ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd who said:
“I heard a man reciting a verse in a manner different from how I had heard the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—recite it. I took him by the hand and brought him to the Prophet, and I told him what had happened. I noticed displeasure on his face, and he said, ‘Both of you have done well. Do not differ, for those before you differed and were ruined.’” Muslim transmitted the report.
Thus the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—forbade the kind of disagreement in which each side denies the truth possessed by the other, for in this incident both reciters were correct in what they recited.
(1) Manuscripts A, B and T read: wuquʿu-hā (“its occurrence”).
(2) Manuscripts A–D read: min-hu (“from it”).
(3) The printed edition has: “And he would warn his community against it so that whoever Allah wills might be spared from falling into it.”
(4) Al-Nazzal b. Sabrah al-Hilali al-ʿAmiri is counted among the eminent tābiʿīn; some even report that he saw the Prophet. He related ḥadith from ʿAlī, ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd and others, and was in turn cited by al-Shaʿbī, al-Ḍaḥḥāk and others. Yaḥyā b. Maʿīn and other critics deemed him reliable. See: Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl 7:498, no. 2279; Ibn al-Athīr, Usd al-Ghābah 5:45.
(5) I did not find this ḥadith in Muslim; it appears only in Bukhārī and the Musnad of Aḥmad. See: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Book of Disputes, chapter “What is mentioned about individuals and the dispute between the Muslim and the Jew,” in Fatḥ al-Bārī, no. 2410 (5:70). Bukhārī also records it elsewhere (nos. 3476, 5062 in Fatḥ al-Bārī); Musnad Aḥmad 1:412, 456.
(6) Manuscripts A and T read: nahā ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-ʿalā ālihi wa-sallam (“he forbade—may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace”).
(7) Manuscript T reads: ḥujjah (“conclusive proof”).