Which is the Saved Sect in Islam? A new approach to answering it.

 Bismillah ArRahman ArRaheem

The hadith of the 73 sects that the ummah will divide into is very famous and seems authentic. But it has caused many problems too as each sect ends up claiming that it is the saved one and the rest are in Hell ! So the result is a lot of bickering of who is saved and who isnt and the muslims start infighting between each other unfortunately instead of addressing the big problems that the ummah faces.

I would like to propose a new way of answering this question that doesnt lead to the above problem. I am not a scholar but someone who thinks a lot and wants goodness for the ummah of Muhamed peace be upon him. You are obviously free not to accept my approach.

The Approach:

I think the true sect is not the one that will do infighting and spend its time proving to the others that it is the saved one, but that it will instead not do that and instead spend its time trying to help the ummah come out of its many problems. And i think it will not be a normal sect that is defined by a name or a specific Aqueeda like the normal ones (eg sunni or shia) but it will be sections of muslims from each sect who are humble people who are more interested to build the ummah than to say that they are the best.

Why does this make sense to me?

Because a true muslim is not one who is born into islam and simply carries on the path of their fathers but someone who decides that he or she needs to search for truth wherever it may be and go on that path even if it is not the path of their fathers. This is how the Sahaba where (they left the path of their forefathers when they saw the truth). For example Salman Alfarisi (a Persian companion searched for truth when he didnt think his father's path was correct and this search took him all the way to Madina where he ended up being a slave to some Jews i beleive . His father was a Zorastrian fire worshipper i believe.) On his search for truth he became Christian and served his priests and then eventually he was lead to Islam and struggled a lot on this path for truth. Thus what is important is not the sect that you are on or even the relgion that you are on but whether you are a searcher for truth and how sincere you are and how thirsty you are for truth. How much sacrifice are you willing to do for truth? (Remember one of Allah's names is the Truth , alHaq). So when you search for truth you are actually searching for Allah (swt) ! And when Allah swt sees someone who is seeking truth (ie Him) then He will guide him to it for sure. As long as they are humble and sincere i beleive. 

So if as a Muslim you are a sincere seeker of truth then you may go on a truth seeking journey that can take you from one sect to another until you eventually find the sect you think is best. And it may not really matter where you get to. ie it's your sincerity that matters not where you are. So now this makes sense, that all those who are sincere (and humble ie not interested in boasting and proving they are right) are in the saved sect. The sect of sincerity and humbleness. And they will want to work for unity of the ummah (not divide it and cause more problems) becuase that is a major command of Allah swt and this is how the ummah can get back on its feet and rise up again. So those who work silently to fix the ummah's many problems and who are sincere truth seekers, they are of the saved sect i beleive. And they may belong to many different Aqueeda sects and they may move between them too depending if they find a better aqueeda sect later on. Which Aqueeda sect you are on isnt that important compared to your wish to seek truth sincerely. This is becuase you will find the best one for you eventually as you go through the different evidences and so on and they may all be acceptable anyway as the saved sect may not actually be an Aqueeda sect (ie it may not have the same aqueeda apart from the main clear cut beliefs obviously).

So if you take this approach then i think it works really well for unity of the ummah, and you start accepting all the sects (apart from the obvious few haram ones eg who say there is another prophet that we must follow) and you dont look at aqueeda differences anymore but sincerity and humbleness. Surely this the sign of the saved sect. Our problem is that we have thought that it must be an aqueeda sect (ie Sunni or Shia twelver or shia Zaydi or Ibaadhy as in Oman etc) but this is just our interpretation of the hadith. It may be a wrong one. The prophet pbuh didnt say it must be an aqueeda sect. And the sect that he and his companions where on is exactly that kind of sect i mentioned ie seeking truth and being humble and working for the interests of the muslims and the deen.

Anyway that is my view and as i said you are welcome not to accept it. 

I also recommend this video of sheikh Yaser Qadhi where he addresses the topic of Unity of Muslims and mentions this issue. He also advises Muslims to follow the moderates of any sect that they are in instead of the hardliners. So you can look at the moderates as those who are humble and work for unity and are sincere. So in this view, the saved sect may be the moderates of each sect.

Unity in Light of Sectarian Differences: A Pragmatic Approach

Salam

ali twaij