Our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said regarding the sects of the Ummah: “They are all in the Fire except one.” What is that one, and are the seventy-two sects eternally in the Fire?

Question:
What is meant by our Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) statement regarding the sects of the Ummah that they are all in the Fire except one? What is that one? Are the seventy-two sects all eternally in the Fire under the ruling of the disbeliever, or what is the case? Please give us a ruling, and may you be rewarded.

Answer:
The one that is saved from the Fire and is called the saved sect is the one the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) identified when he was asked about it in the hadith: I am upon it and my Companions, those who followed the methodology of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and the methodology of his Companions. These are the saved sect from the Fire, because they held fast to the truth and proceeded upon it.
As for the deviant sects, they are all in the Fire, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us. However, their presence in the Fire varies. If a person’s innovation and deviation are of a nature that constitutes disbelief, then he will be eternally in the Fire with the disbelievers. If his deviation is not of a nature that constitutes disbelief, then he will be in the Fire for as long as Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) wills to punish him, and then he will be brought out of the Fire by his faith and his tawhid (the oneness of Allah). He will not be eternally in it. Yes.