Monday, March 12, 2007

The 73rd sect of the Muslims

Based on one of the most authentic sayings of Prophet Mohammad, it is the widespread belief of the Muslims that close to the end of the world, there will be people belonging to 73 sects among the Muslims, out of which only one sect will go to heaven. Because of the diverse and divergent nature of beliefs of the Muslims, it cannot be said precisely whether the 73 sects have already been formed or not. However, adherents of most of the sects consider their own sect to be the one that will be going to the heavens and do not give a place to the adherents of the remaining sects as co-habitants in heaven.

As this saying of the Prophet Mohammad comes from authentic sources, this amount to saying that merely 1.37% of the Muslim population will be going to heavens, i.e. when you surmise that all these sects have equal number of adherents. But it is very much possible that these adherents of the true path would be much less in number. This is certainly not good news to the Muslims. Also, it is not certain at the moment whether this 73rd sect has already been formed or whether it would be formed due to certain revolutionary changes in the near future.
It is to be noted that the 73rd sect will not be based on the teachings of any new Prophet nor any further book will be released. The fact that only one sect will go to heavens clearly indicate that the remaining 72 sects will get diverged from the teachings of Quran and Prophet Mohammad, so much so that their practices and believes won’t qualify them to earn a place in heaven. This tradition invites all the Muslims to introspect and reinvest their energies in the study of real Islam from authentic sources, so the the true and straight path can be found.
How can we find this 73rd sect? Our belief is that it can only be possible by tracing the true teachings of Islam and keeping the faculties of brain open to new findings. After all, wisdom and learning has been held paramount by none else but Prophet Mohammad. If we are able to do so, all the 72 sects who do not adhere to those beliefs will get exposed and this 73rd sect will get visible like the sun. We have already said that it is highly likely that this sect has not been formed yet and its adherents may not be those who presently call themselves Muslims. This is an attempt to find the original teachings of Islam in the light of Quran and its teachings. Let us hope we are able to trace the foundations on which this 73rd sect will be based!

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