You said that Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab did not bring anything new; did the four schools of jurisprudence bring anything new?

Question:
A woman asks the Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. She says: You mentioned, may Allah preserve you, two nights ago that Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) did not bring anything new, because the Wahhabis are not considered a school of jurisprudence. She asks: Are the four schools of jurisprudence said to have brought something new, and is that why they are called schools?

Answer:
They brought forth jurisprudential ijtihad (independent legal reasoning). They exerted effort, and they were qualified for ijtihad and deriving rulings. As for the Shaykh, he only called to the methodology of the Salaf (the earliest generations) and to tawhid (the oneness of Allah). This was not derived from his own ijtihad, nor was it from his own fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). Rather, this is what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), his Companions, and the righteous Salaf were upon. So he is merely a renewer, renewing what had been lost of the religion, and clarifying what had been introduced into the religion that is not part of it. He does not have a school of his own; he is a Hanbali in fiqh. As for 'aqidah (creed), he is upon the methodology of the Salaf.
And the methodology of the Salaf is not specific to the Wahhabis. The people of the Sunnah and the community (Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah) have been upon this from old and new times.