Abu Amir Abdullah bin Luhayy says: We performed Hajj with Mu'awiyah bin Abi Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with him). When we reached Makkah, he was told that a man was preaching to the people of Makkah. Mu'awiyah summoned him and asked: "Were you commanded to do this?" He said: "No." He asked: "Then what prompted you to preach without permission?" He said: "We spread the knowledge that Allah has taught us." Mu'awiyah said: "Had I forbidden you beforehand, I would have cut off one of your limbs." Then Mu'awiyah delivered a sermon after Zuhr and said that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The People of the Book divided in their religion into seventy-two (72) sects, and this Ummah will divide into seventy-three (73) sects; all of them will be in the Fire except one, and that one is 'al-Jama'ah' (the main body of the Muslims). In my Ummah there will emerge people in whom these desires will run just as poison runs through the body of a person bitten by a rabid dog (in his madness), so that no vein or joint remains free of it." (Then Mu'awiyah said:) O people of the Arabs! By Allah, if you do not uphold the religion that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) brought, then others are even more likely not to uphold it. These are chains by which proof is established for the authenticity of this hadith.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "What came upon the Children of Israel will surely come upon my Ummah, exactly alike, to the extent that if one of them openly married his own mother, there will be someone in my Ummah who does the same. The Children of Israel split into seventy-one (71) sects, and my Ummah will split into seventy-three (73) sects; all of them will be in the Fire except one." It was asked: "Which one is that?" He said: "That which I and my Companions are upon today." In its chain is Abd al-Rahman bin Ziyad al-Ifriqi; Imam al-Hakim mentioned it as a supporting narration.