Acting on the Stronger Evidence or Following a School of Jurisprudence
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner, a student of knowledge, says: If one looks at the opinions of the scholars and sees that the evidence for one of the opinions is stronger, should he act on what he sees as the stronger of the evidences, or is he required to follow a school of jurisprudence?
Answer:
No, he follows the stronger position if he is among the scholars who know the evidence and know how to weigh the arguments; he follows what he sees to be supported by the evidence. It is not permissible for him to follow an opinion he sees to be contrary to the evidence, or one that has no evidence. This applies to the one who is well-versed in knowledge. As for the layperson, he asks the scholars of knowledge. Allah the Exalted said:[An-Nahl 16:43]
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner, a student of knowledge, says: If one looks at the opinions of the scholars and sees that the evidence for one of the opinions is stronger, should he act on what he sees as the stronger of the evidences, or is he required to follow a school of jurisprudence?
Answer:
No, he follows the stronger position if he is among the scholars who know the evidence and know how to weigh the arguments; he follows what he sees to be supported by the evidence. It is not permissible for him to follow an opinion he sees to be contrary to the evidence, or one that has no evidence. This applies to the one who is well-versed in knowledge. As for the layperson, he asks the scholars of knowledge. Allah the Exalted said:
So ask the people of the message if you do not know.
فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، فصل ومن كيده العجيب : أنه يشام النفس حتى يعلم أي القوتين تغلب عليها — islamhouse.com (51:46)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.