the response is twofold: first, the ḥadīth is not authentic; rather, it is false and has no basis. The scholar al-Subkī said: "I have not found for it any authentic, weak, or fabricated isnād." I said: it has only been narrated in the wording: "... the differences among my Companions are a mercy for you" and "my Companions are like the stars; whichever of them you follow, you will be rightly guided," and neither is authentic: the first is very weak, and the second is fabricated. I have thoroughly investigated this matter in "Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah wa-al-Mawḍūʿah" (numbers 58, 59, and 61). second, even with its weakness, the ḥadīth contradicts the Noble Quran, for the verses therein that prohibit disagreement in religion and command unity are too well-known to mention, but there is no harm in presenting some as examples. Allāh said: "And do not dispute and [thus] lose courage and [then] your strength would depart" (Sūrat al-Anfāl, 46). And He said: "And do not be of those who associate others with Allāh, of those who have divided their religion and become sects, every faction rejoicing in what it has" (Sūrat al-Rūm, 31-32). And He said: "And they will not cease to differ. Except whom your Lord has given mercy" (Sūrat Hūd, 118-119). So if those whom your Lord has given mercy do not differ, and only the people of falsehood differ, how can it be conceivable that disagreement is a mercy?