This letter, written to Mulla Ibrahim by Imam Rabbani Ahmad al-Faruqi al-Sarhandi, explains the hadith informing that this Ummah will part into 73 groups: It is declared in a hadith that this Ummah will part into 73 groups, 72 of whom will go to Hell. This hadith informs that the 72 groups will be inflicted torment in the fire of Hell. It does not inform that they will stay in torment eternally. Remaining in the torment of Hellfire eternally is for those who do not have iman (faith). That is, it is for disbelievers (kuffar). The 72 groups, on account of their corrupt belief, will go to Hell and will burn as much as the corruptness of their belief. One group, the 73rd, will be saved from Hellfire because their belief is not corrupt. If, among the members of this one group, there are those who committed evil deeds and if these evil deeds of theirs have not been forgiven through tawba (repentance) or shafa’ah (intercession), it is possible that they, too, will burn in Hell as much as their sins. All of those who are in the 72 groups will go to Hell, but none of them will remain in Hell eternally. Not all of those who are in this one group will go to Hell. Of these, only those who have committed evil deeds will go to Hell. The 72 reported groups of bid’at (heresy),who will go to Hell, should not all be called disbelievers, because they are ahl al-qibla.However, of these people, the ones who disbelieve the Islamic tenets that are indispensable to be believed, as well as those who deny those rules of Islam that every Muslim has heard and knows, become disbelievers. The scholars of the Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l Jama’ahdeclare: “If a Muslim’s statement signifies 100 meanings 99 of which causing disbelief and one showing that (s)he is a Muslim, it is necessary to take this one meaning, thus saving him/her from the state of disbelief.” Allahu ta’ala knows the truth of everything. His Word is the most reliable word. It was reported that the poor ones of this Ummah would go to Paradise half a day before the rich ones. This half day is equal to 500 worldly years because one day expressed by Allahu ta’ala is as long as 1000 worldly years. It is declared clearly in Surat al-Hajjthat this is so. Allahu ta’ala, alone, knows why it is that long because the next world does not have the night, the day, the month or the year, which exist in the world. The poor people having the privilege of going to Paradise earlier are those poor people who obey the Islamic religion and who are patient. To obey Islam means to do what it commands and to avoid what it prohibits. And there are grades and degrees in poverty. The highest of grades is obtained in the rank of fana (it means forgetting everything except Allahu ta’ala). A faqir (Sufi) who is in this grade knows everything other than Allahu ta’ala as poor and needy. [There is not a creature who does not need Allahu ta’ala, that is, who is not poor before Him.] He forgets all creatures. He remembers none of them. He who has attained all grades of poverty is superior to the one who has attained a few. It is for this reason that the state of a person who has reached the grade of fana and who is poor and needy outwardly is better and more valuable than that of a person who has reached the grade of fana but who is not poor outwardly. (Vol. 3, Letter 38)
