Sunan Abi Dawud 4667
سنن أبي داود#4667Sahihحَدَّثَنَا مُسْلِمُ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ، حَدَّثَنَا الْقَاسِمُ بْنُ الْفَضْلِ، عَنْ أَبِي نَضْرَةَ، عَنْ أَبِي سَعِيدٍ، قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم " تَمْرُقُ مَارِقَةٌ عِنْدَ فُرْقَةٍ مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ يَقْتُلُهَا أَوْلَى الطَّائِفَتَيْنِ بِالْحَقِّ " .
Abu Sa’id reported the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) as saying:In the event of the dissension among Muslims an emerging sect will emerge ; one of the two parties that is nearer to the truth will kill it
Scholarly Authentication
The label above is the grade most of these scholars gave, each scholar counted once — one dissenting opinion no longer speaks for all of them. If any scholar calls a narration fabricated, that verdict is shown instead, whatever the others say. When they judged only its chain of narrators (“Isnaad”), the label says “Sound chain”. Each scholar's own wording:
Our source also lists this ruling under Muhammad Muhyi Al-Din Abdul Hamid, the editor of the printed edition it was taken from. It is al-Albani's ruling printed again, so it is counted once.
In-book reference: 42:72