Re: Have you ever felt the fear…
I think every muslim should have that fear but then we should also have that hope for mercy as well. One thing I do agree with what Sis Hareem stated is that schools of thought are different from sects. I haven’t read the detail of the hadith about 73 sects though I have read it many times sparingly. I do not know if sect in the hadith means difference in juristic rulings or differences in the primary belief.
I try to understand everything from the view point of Quran and Sirah first. I rarely take a hadith in isolation and after that all Imams or great jurists are eventually scholars of different degrees. I have nothing to follow from them but only to learn from them.