The statement of one who claims to exercise independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) just as the Imams do
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh:
May Allah reward you. What is your opinion of the one who says, "I exercise independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) just as so-and-so scholar does, and I follow what I find through looking at the evidence. And if I make a mistake, I have a thousand volumes to retract, praise be to Allah, Allah is generous." Meaning, when he reaches this level, he becomes like Imam Ahmad, Imam al-Shafi'i, Malik, or Abu Hanifah. Do we rejoice in this? Or is he a compound ignoramus who says, "I exercise independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) just as the Imams do"? This is arrogance, and may Allah protect us from it. Yes.
May Allah reward you. What is your opinion of the one who says, "I exercise independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) just as so-and-so scholar does, and I follow what I find through looking at the evidence. And if I make a mistake, I have a thousand volumes to retract, praise be to Allah, Allah is generous." Meaning, when he reaches this level, he becomes like Imam Ahmad, Imam al-Shafi'i, Malik, or Abu Hanifah. Do we rejoice in this? Or is he a compound ignoramus who says, "I exercise independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) just as the Imams do"? This is arrogance, and may Allah protect us from it. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، محاضرات في العقيدة والدعوة-109-ولا تنازعوا فتفشلوا|صالح الفوزان|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (49:31)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.