Hakikat Kitabevi Publications No: 10 answer to an enemy of islam

“Banû Isrâ’îl (Sons of Israel)
parted into seventy-two groups. My umma will part into seventy-
three groups. Seventy-two of them will burn in the fire, and only
one will be safe. They are those who follow me and my Sahâba.”
In other words, The Sons of Israel parted into seventy-two groups
in religion matters. And Muslims will part into seventy-three
groups. That is, they will part into many groups. None of them will
be disbelievers, but they will burn in Hell for a long time. Solely
the group that will hold the same belief and perform the same
’ibâdât as he and his Sahâba did will not enter Hell. If those
scholars of Islam who do ijtihâd in the teachings of the beliefs of
Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) and as-Sahâbat al-kirâm
err from a belief which is religiously indispensable and
unanimously known, they become disbelievers. They are called
mulhids.
[1]
If they err from a belief which is not communicated by
consensus and which is not indispensable, they become not
disbelievers but holders of bid’a in belief. They, too, are called
Ahl al-qibla (Muslims). Also, while employing ijtihâd in the
teachings of deeds and ’ibâdât, those who disbelieve those ’ibâdât
that are unanimously known to be indispensable become
disbelievers or mulhids. But those scholars who err from those
’ibâdât that are neither indispensable nor unanimously
communicated earn thawâb if they are mujtahids. They become
lâ-madhhabî if they are not mujtahids. For, it is not permissible for
– 107 –
[1] It is written in 
Bahr and Hindiyya that they are polytheists.

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a non-mujtahid to do ijtihâd; he has to follow the madhhab of a
mujtahid. It is declared in a hadîth sherîf, 
“One who says, ‘Lâ