Following a School of Jurisprudence and Taqlid (Following a Scholar Without Knowing His Evidence) for the Beginner Student of Knowledge

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: I am a beginner student, and I follow your lessons in *Umdat al-Fiqh*. I mentioned to some of my colleagues that I follow the school of Imam Ahmad, so he said that it is not permissible to follow any of the schools of jurisprudence, but rather we must follow only the Sunnah. What is your guidance on this?

Answer:
If he has abundant knowledge and is able to be independent from the Imams and be a peer to the Imams, may Allah strengthen him. But if he is limited like us, and he has nothing but what I have, or he has a small amount, then he has no choice but to follow the Imams. However, he should not follow blindly; he should follow with evidence. If one of the Imams contradicts the evidence through his independent legal reasoning, he should not follow him if the evidence becomes clear to him; rather, he should follow the evidence. As for abandoning all the schools of jurisprudence and boycotting them, and saying, "I am a peer to Imam Ahmad, Malik, al-Shafi'i, and Abu Hanifah," may Allah strengthen him if he becomes deserving of that. Yes.