It is authentic from some of the four Imams that they said: "If a hadith is authentic, then it is my madhhab." And al-Nawawi said: "This statement of theirs is not to be taken at face value."

The questioner : They say that the Salafis frequently quote the statement of the four Imams, "If a hadith is authentic, then it is my madhhab." They then take a hadith that some scholars have issued a ruling on contrary to its apparent meaning and hold the Imam to it, even though the Imam al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) established in the introduction to al-Majmu' that this phrase is not to be taken at face value. Therefore, the Salafis have singled themselves out with weak jurisprudential opinions that they impose on the Ummah. What is your ruling?

The Shaykh : My answer to this question is: I agree with the Imam al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) in what he held, subject to two conditions.
The first condition is: if he means that it is not permissible to attribute to the Imam al-Shafi'i a contradiction of the hadith because he understood it in a specific way; then this is correct.
The second condition is: that we, the Salafis, if the hadith that the Imam al-Shafi'i understood in one way is found to have been acted upon by other Imams in what appears to us to be the other aspect of the meaning, and al-Nawawi intended that it is not permissible for us to act upon it because the Imam al-Shafi'i acted upon it in one way or with another meaning; in that case, we separate from him and say: It is not permissible for us to act upon a hadith that al-Shafi'i and the other Imams understood in one way, while we, in the last of times, understand it in another way, and the hadith in its reality admits of two aspects, and we do not find anyone who preceded us in adopting the other aspect; in that case, we are with the Imam al-Nawawi. However, if the hadith is explicit in its indication and does not admit of figurative interpretation, and we know that the Imam al-Shafi'i, for example, or someone else, because he is speaking within the limits of his madhhab, and we know that an Imam from among the Imams of the Muslims and the jurists who exercise independent legal reasoning interpreted it contrary to its apparent meaning, and brought forth evidence for his interpretation that we do not know; then it is obligatory for us to follow him. But if they agree with us that the indication of the hadith is explicit, and we have no evidence that diverts this indication to anything other than the opinion of so-and-so and so-and-so; in that case, we are with the hadith; because the Imam al-Shafi'i himself used to say: "The hadith is an independent principle in itself." It is obligatory for every Muslim, if a hadith is authentic to him, to act upon it. As for the Imam al-Shafi'i interpreting it with another meaning, we say that this other meaning either has evidence for us, meaning we are convinced by it, in which case it is obligatory for us to follow it at that time; or he has no evidence other than independent legal reasoning, and the hadith is explicit in its indication contrary to what he held; in this case, we apply the general guidance of the Imams: "If a hadith is authentic, then it is my madhhab." I had addressed this issue with some detail in my introduction to "The Description of the Prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family)," where I presented a scenario: if a layperson is informed of a hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and his chest tightens at leaving off acting upon it; is it permissible for him to act upon it even though it is contrary to his madhhab?
The Imam al-Subki answered: Yes, it is permissible for him to act upon it, if he is informed that the hadith is authentic and that its meaning is as it has become clear to him, he has an excuse before Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to act upon it. This is with regard to the illiterate layperson; so what about the scholar or the student of knowledge?
But here I must pause at the end of the answer to this question, and I hope our friend next to me here will stand by his previous promise that this is his last question. So I say, in addition to the previous answer: I want our students who grew up with us following the Book and the Sunnah not to be bold in belittling the Imams who exercise independent legal reasoning, and not to say, as sometimes slips from their tongues, "We are men and they are men"! This is a disgrace for the young person in the pursuit of knowledge to say, while he is still at least a young person in the pursuit of knowledge. He may be middle-aged or an old man in age, but he is a young novice in the pursuit of knowledge. Yet he says, when it is asked how he contradicts the Imams and is independent in his understanding of the hadith? The answer is: "We are men and they are men"!!
Look now, on the occasion of speaking about what preceded regarding Abu Hanifah (may Allah have mercy on him), among the virtues of Abu Hanifah is that he said: "If the reports from the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in a certain issue are in agreement with no disagreement among them, then we follow them. But if they disagreed, then we are men and they are men." When did he say this word? If the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) disagreed in an issue, he chooses the appropriate one from among those opinions and does not go beyond them to others. We must take a lesson of proper conduct from this report from Abu Hanifah (may Allah have mercy on him): not to be bold in declaring the Imams wrong, but rather we must be deliberate and cautious in judging an error, not the error of one Imam, but the error of many Imams. I am not an advocate of blind adherence to the majority, no, I am not a follower of the majority, and perhaps you know that with certainty. But I also, at the same time, do not want students of knowledge to be bold in declaring scholars wrong just because it appears to him that the hadith contradicts them. Rather, I want students of knowledge to devote themselves to studying each issue individually, to study it as is said today, comparative jurisprudence, but on the condition that they reach the result, the fruit; because comparative jurisprudence today in most of the well-known universities, called Islamic universities, they deal with the preliminaries and then do not present the results and fruits. So they mention, for example, the evidence of such-and-such a madhhab, and the evidence of such-and-such a madhhab, and the evidence of such-and-such a madhhab, and then nothing after that, so the students leave confused!

Another questioner : Is this jurisprudence?

The Shaykh : No, this is not jurisprudence. Rather, jurisprudence is that you present these evidences and conduct a weighing among them to determine the stronger position; for example, you might say: The evidence of so-and-so is such-and-such a verse, but it is from the category of arguing with a general evidence, and the evidence of so-and-so argued with another specific verse, or with a specific evidence, and the specific overrides the general, and so on, conducting a process of filtering among the evidences. It may be that a hadith of such-and-such a madhhab is not authentic, and the hadith that contradicts it is the authentic one, and so forth. So I want every student of knowledge to study the disputed issues with a simplified study placed under the scientific microscope, and then let him come out with the result and then say, "This is my opinion." If I am right, then it is from Allah, and if I am wrong, then it is from myself.
I see that many, and I fear to say most, of the students of knowledge are not influenced by some of the reports of the Salaf, and we are Salafis not by name, but also by designation.
The hadith has many branches, and the time has gone on longer than it should have...