In fact, these expressions should not be taken too literally. The fact is that 70, 72, these things are just expressions of large numbers. But as far as the number of sects is concerned, if somebody wants to be very pedantic about it and wants to stick to the number grammatically as it is said, then perhaps the best thing for you would be to show him the book Al-Milal-u-Wan-Nihal by Allama Shahristani, in which he has not only mentioned that the 72 sects, the prophecy about the 72 sects is fulfilled, but he mentions them by name, and gives the description of each sect’s doctrines and views on religious affairs, and what are the parting lines and so on, it’s a very good scholarly book.
So that should be referred to. But if somebody wants some excuse of avoiding facing the truth, then he can always find some excuse, even if you show him the book. For instance, once I went to Karachi, and just before me, Hazrat Maulvi Abdul Malik Khan Sahib, the late Hazrat Maulvi Abdul Malik Khan Sahib, had been to Karachi in the same area, and he had also held a question and session answer before me. One of the attendants, a non-Ahmadi, a very clever boy, he heard him referring to this book, and he knew in which century that Imam was, so when I went there, he went up and quite innocently asked me, without referring to this hadith or anything, could you tell me if within the last 300 or 400 years, there has been no addition to Muslim sects? If there was an addition, when it was, and which was the sect which was created after that such period?
So I immediately knew what he meant to. So I told him that look here, this question of sects, the number of sects, cannot be determined like that. Some sects we find in history are appearing and some are disappearing. So it is like trying to count the sheep in a moving herd. It’s impossible because some are moving in one direction and some in the other. So I have no means to find out at which century added how many sects and subtracted how many sects. So instead of bothering about that, my simple faith makes me believe that whatever Prophet s.a.w. said was true and that is enough for me.
So then he was taken aback and admitted that he tried to catch me. So they find some way or other to come out with an excuse not to believe in Ahmadiyyat.
