Deviant Paths

Question: What are the doctrines and paths that have deviated from the way of the Messenger ﷺ? And are there any Sufi orders that conform to the true Islamic way? Please enlighten us—may Allah bless you.

Answer: The paths that have strayed from the path of the Messenger ﷺ are so many they cannot be counted. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The Jews split into seventy-one sects, the Christians split into seventy-two sects, and this community will split into seventy-three sects—all of them in the Fire except one.”

Thus the Prophet ﷺ made clear that this umma will divide into seventy-three sects—a large number indeed. The offshoots and sub-branches that exist today are numerous, but the seventy-three are the root divisions, as the scholars have explained. In truth, the deviant sects are many—Allah’s refuge is sought—and from all of these only one group will be saved. That saved group is the one that adheres to what the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions were upon. Concerning them the Prophet ﷺ said, “A group from my community will continue, manifest upon the truth; those who abandon them or oppose them will not harm them until Allah’s command comes while they remain upon it.”

There is but one saved group: the people of the Sunna and the community, those who have remained firm upon what the Messenger ﷺ and his Companions followed, altering nothing and changing nothing.