Abu Amir Abdullah bin Lahi says: We performed Hajj in the company of Sayyiduna Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with him). When we reached Makkah Mukarramah, after the Zuhr prayer he stood up and said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had said: The People of the Book were divided into seventy-two sects regarding religion, and this Ummah (due to desires) will be divided into seventy-three sects, but all groups except one will go to Hell, and soon there will appear among my Ummah many such people in whom desires will penetrate just as the poison of a rabid dog penetrates a man so that no vein or joint remains except that it is affected. O Arab nation! By Allah! If you, the people to whom your Prophet brought this religion, do not adhere to it, then obviously no one else will remain steadfast upon it.
Hadith Takhrij«اسناده حسن، أخرجه ابوداود: 4597، (انظر مسند أحمد ترقيم الرسالة: 16937 ترقیم بيت الأفكار الدولية:0»
Brief Explanation
Benefits: … Allamah Albani rahimahullah writes: Shaykh Salih Muqbilī rahimahullah has said (in *al-‘Alam al-Shamikh fi Ithar al-Haqq ‘ala al-Aba’ wa al-Mashayikh*, p. 414): Without any doubt, it is established from numerous narrations that the Ummah will be divided into seventy-three sects, … (Then he mentioned the hadith of Sayyiduna Mu‘awiyah radi Allahu anhu and said:) The real difficulty lies in this phrase: ((KULLUHĀ FĪ AL-NĀR ILLĀ MILLATAN.)) … All of the sects will enter Hell, except for one.