203 – “The Jews split into seventy-one—or seventy-two—sects, the Christians likewise split into seventy-one—or seventy-two—sects, and my ummah will split into seventy-three sects.”

It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd (2/503, Ḥalabī edition); al-Tirmidhī (3/367); Ibn Mājah (2/479); Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ (1834); al-Ājurrī in al-Sharīʿah (p. 25); al-Ḥākim (1/128); Aḥmad (2/332); and Abū Yaʿlā in his Musnad (f. 280/2), all through various chains from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah—raised to the Prophet with this wording.

Al-Tirmidhī remarked, “a ḥadīth that is good and authentic.”

Al-Ḥākim said, “Authentic according to Muslim’s criteria,” and al-Dhahabī concurred.