What is the ruling on following a school of jurisprudence?
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Question:
The questioner says: What is the ruling on following a school of jurisprudence, such as saying, "This one is a Hanbali and this one is a Shafi'i," for example, if there is no fanaticism involved?
Answer:
There is nothing wrong with that. This is not fanaticism; rather, it is following. A scholar who is well-versed does not need to follow a school of jurisprudence. As for a scholar who is not capable of absolute independent legal reasoning, he follows his imam. However, he does not accept his statement until he scrutinizes it and checks it against the evidence. He checks it against the evidence. He does not become fanatical about it and accept the opinion, whether it is wrong or right, merely because it is so-and-so's opinion. No, you have the evidence and the scale, praise be to Allah. Yes.
The questioner says: What is the ruling on following a school of jurisprudence, such as saying, "This one is a Hanbali and this one is a Shafi'i," for example, if there is no fanaticism involved?
Answer:
There is nothing wrong with that. This is not fanaticism; rather, it is following. A scholar who is well-versed does not need to follow a school of jurisprudence. As for a scholar who is not capable of absolute independent legal reasoning, he follows his imam. However, he does not accept his statement until he scrutinizes it and checks it against the evidence. He checks it against the evidence. He does not become fanatical about it and accept the opinion, whether it is wrong or right, merely because it is so-and-so's opinion. No, you have the evidence and the scale, praise be to Allah. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم التمذهب؟\صالح الفوزان\كبار العلماء — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.