This letter, written to Mulla Ibrâhim, explains the hadîth which informs that this Ummat will part into seventy-three groups:
It is declared in a hadîth that this Ummat will part into seventy-three groups, seventy-two of whom will go to Hell. This hadîth informs that the seventy-two groups will be tormented in the fire of Hell. It does not inform that they will stay in torment eternally. Remaining in the torment of Hell-fire eternally is for those who do not have îmân. That is, it is for disbelievers. The seventy-two 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 seventy-third, will be saved from Hell-fire 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 or shafâ’at, it is possible that these,
too, will burn in Hell as much as their sins. All of those who are in the seventy-two 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 seventy-two reported groups of bid’at, which will go to Hell, should not all be called “disbelievers”, because they are Ahl-i qibla. However, of these people, the ones who disbelieve those Islamic tenets that are indispensable to be believed, as well as those who deny those rules of the Sharî’at which every Muslim has heard and knows become disbelievers. The savants of the Ahl as-sunnat declare: “If a Muslim’s statement signifies a hundred meanings ninety-nine of which causing disbelief and one showing that he is a Muslim, it is necessary to take this one meaning, thus saving
him from the state of disbelief.” Allâhu ta’âlâ knows the truth of everything. His Word is the most reliable word.
It was informed that the poor ones of this Ummat would go to Paradise half a day before the rich ones. This half day is equal to five hundred worldly years. For, one day expressed by Allâhu ta’âlâ is as long as a thousand worldly years. It is declared clearly in Hajj Sûra that this is so. Allâhu ta’âlâ, alone, knows why it is that long. For, 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 Sharî’at and who are patient. To obey the Sharî’at means to do what the Sharî’at commands and to avoid what it prohibits. And there are grades, degrees in poverty. The highest of grades is obtained in the rank of fanâ. A faqîr who is in this grade knows everything other than Allâhu ta’âlâ as poor, needy. [There is not a creature who does not need Allâhu ta’âlâ, 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 fanâ and who is poor, needy outwardly is better, more valuable than that of a person who has reached the grade of fanâ but who is not poor outwardly.