What is your opinion of those who exercise independent legal reasoning in Islamic jurisprudence but follow scholars in the science of hadith because they are not specialists in it?

The questioner: Regarding ... .

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner : Regarding our brothers who exercise independent legal reasoning in Islamic jurisprudence...

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : You mentioned that they are deficient, meaning we say if they have the ability to distinguish between authentic and good hadith, but they do not have the capacity to extract the ruling, meaning to gather the chains of transmission and have complete specialization in hadith, are they then on the right path, or are they on a side of the right path?

The Shaykh : Have you heard my answer to this? I said: When I said what I said, and I will remind you of what I said, I said what I said to clarify the importance of the science of hadith; this does not mean belittling the work of these people. Rather, I said, and I am reminding you now, I said two things: The first is that this is not sufficient for their work to be complete, because it is necessary to refer to the rules of the science of hadith, but they are excused for what I mentioned before, and I confirmed that later. However, on the other hand, I said, do not forget that they are much better than those who follow one person or a single man; perhaps you remember this. So, I did not intend to twist them away from what they are doing, but I intended to encourage them, if they are able, to also focus on knowing the rules of the science of hadith and the biographies of the narrators of hadith, and to verify things themselves if they can find a way to do so. Because the reality is that Islamic jurisprudence is based on the science of hadith, but one who is unable to do so is excused, and we do not deny this of him, because the legal principle, as He the Exalted said: And on this occasion, I will say a word to you that may be important for some of us. We know from some of our brothers who are with us on the methodology of the Book and the Sunnah and on rejecting and casting aside following scholars without evidence. I say: Some of these brothers may exaggerate in refuting following scholars without evidence, and some may understand that every individual among the Muslims should be a scholar qualified to derive rulings. I say that following scholars without evidence is not something from which the greatest scholar in the world can be saved; the greatest scholar in the world cannot be saved from following scholars without evidence. But the difference between this following and the following that we deny is that it is not permissible to take following scholars without evidence as...