The Ruling on Adhering to Schools of Jurisprudence

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah reward you, what is the ruling on following a school of jurisprudence (madhhab), and is there anything blameworthy in it? And what is the ruling on affiliating with a school such as the Hanbali, the Shafi'i, or the Maliki?

Answer:
There is a distinction here. A person who has the scientific capacity for ijtihad (independent legal reasoning), where the conditions for ijtihad are met, is not to be restricted. Rather, he must refer to the Book and the Sunnah and take what appears to him to be the correct view. This is only for the great imams, the ones with deep knowledge, the four imams, and those who hold the rank of ijtihad. It is not permissible for them to be restricted, because they do not need it, and because they are commanded to follow the Book and the Sunnah, and they are capable of doing so. It is not permissible for them to engage in ijtihad [in the sense of being bound by a specific school].
The second category is the capable student of knowledge, but one who has not reached the rank of ijtihad. A capable student of knowledge, but not at the rank of the great imams, and he is not called a mujtahid (scholar qualified to derive rulings). It is permissible for him to affiliate with the school of one of the four imams: the Hanbali, the Hanafi, the Shafi'i, or the Maliki. However, he takes what is supported by evidence from the statement of this imam, or from the statement of another. He takes what is supported by evidence from the statements of the scholars. This is called merely a mujtahid in a school (mujtahid madhhab), not an absolute mujtahid, but one who weighs the statements of scholars. He takes what is supported by evidence for him, whether from the school he affiliates with, or from any of the four schools. He takes what is supported by evidence from the statements of the imams. This is like Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, and the imams who did not reach the rank of absolute ijtihad. This is called a mujtahid in a school, while the first is called an absolute mujtahid, and this is called a mujtahid in a school. The third category is the beginner and the common person. He is not fit to weigh what he knows. He must ask the people of knowledge. Allah the Exalted said: So he asks the people of knowledge in whose knowledge and religion he has trust, and he takes what they have been entrusted with. This person must follow a scholar without knowing his evidence (taqlid), because if he did not follow, he would perish. Where would he go?
So people are on these three levels. The absolute mujtahid, it is not permissible for him to follow a scholar without knowing his evidence (taqlid). The mujtahid in a school, it is permissible for him to follow, but he does not follow without evidence; he must weigh the evidence. The third, who has no qualification, neither for absolute ijtihad nor for ijtihad in a school, it is obligatory for him to follow the trusted people of knowledge in their religion and knowledge, to ask them, and to take what they say or what they answer him with.