The ruling on splitting from the congregation due to jurisprudential disagreement

Question:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. One hundred and one, by the grace of Allah, but some jurisprudential differences have arisen among some of our shaykhs, who are people of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning). The question is: Is it permissible for us to split from this congregation and form a second group opposed to that original group? And is it permissible for us to fight them? I also ask for advice for the brothers who engage in this extremism, knowing that the creed of each of these groups is sound.

Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Disagreement in jurisprudential matters is common, provided it is within the permissible limits and the one disagreeing is a person of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning). However, I do not think that in this time, according to what we know of the state of people today, the scarcity of scholars, and the lifting of knowledge in the end times, we know of any mujtahid (a scholar qualified to derive rulings). Rather, there are only students of knowledge, some of whom are established and some are beginners.
They have not reached the rank of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) and its conditions. The utmost they can do is tarjih (juristic preference). The utmost we can do is tarjih (juristic preference), meaning we take from the statements of the imams and the four schools of jurisprudence what we see as conforming to the evidence, and we leave what appears to us as contradicting the evidence. It is a matter of tarjih (juristic preference) only. If we disagree, and I prefer one thing and you prefer another based on this type of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning), it is not obligatory for us to become hostile or to sever ties. We are brothers; you act on what appears to you, and I act on what appears to me. The matter is not a matter of creed, but a branch issue, for example, keeping the hands together while standing in prayer, or extending the hands, or placing them on the chest, or placing them below the navel. All these, my brothers, are matters of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) that do not necessitate hostility. Moreover, they are sunnah (recommended practice) and not obligatory; if one extends the hands, it is permissible, and keeping them together is sunnah (recommended practice), and placing them on the chest or below the navel is a matter of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning). So hostility and severing ties over this are not permissible. This is a matter in which we must know the difference between disagreement in creed and disagreement in jurisprudential matters. Disagreement in creed is not permissible because it is based on revelation, and one must follow the text in it. So if someone contradicts the Sunnah in creed, we reject and hate him, because he is an innovator. As for jurisprudential matters, ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) leads to disagreement, and it is not permissible to split or become hostile because of them. This is ignorance, and it is something the enemies of Islam have sown among us. It is a plot by our enemies, so we must be aware of it.