What is your opinion of the one who says, "I follow a madhhab, but I argue with evidence," and claims that all the previous imams were like that, if not most of them?

The questioner : What is your opinion of the one who says, "I follow a madhhab, but with evidence," and insists on adopting a specific madhhab, and argues that most, indeed all, of the previous imams were on this method?

The Shaykh : He says, "the previous imams"?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : It appears that the questioner intended one thing, but his words overtook him, so he conveyed the opposite of what he intended! When he says "the previous imams," what comes to mind are the mujtahid imams who called their followers to follow them blindly (taqlid), forbade them from following the Book and the Sunnah, and compelled them to follow him exactly, step by step, out of fear for them. If, however, he means by "imams" here the opposite of what the phrase suggests, namely the scholars who follow those mujtahid imams blindly, then we say: these people he called imams have no standing, as long as they are followers of taqlid. By the admission of the followers of taqlid themselves, it is obligatory for them to follow the statements of the mujtahids. In fact, they explicitly state a phrase with precision: "The evidence of the mujtahid is the Book and the Sunnah, and the evidence of the follower of taqlid is the statement of the Imam, not the statement of Allah and the statement of the Messenger of Allah. The statement of Allah and the statement of the Messenger of Allah is the evidence of the mujtahid Imam, whereas the evidence of the follower of taqlid is: 'My Imam so-and-so said, my Imam so-and-so said.'" "Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said"—this is what the follower of taqlid should say. And we say: We judge you by your own mouth. As long as the method of taqlid obligates you to accept whatever the Imam says, we say that all the Imams said: "Do not follow us blindly... Do not follow me, or Malik, or Sufyan, or anyone else, but only take from where we took." The texts on this are numerous and very numerous. I had mentioned many of the good ones in the introduction to *The Description of the Prayer of the Prophet* (peace and blessings be upon him). Therefore, the questioner's statement that the Imams ordered this is an error, if not a fabrication against them. As for his statement, "I follow a madhhab or follow a madhhab blindly, but if evidence becomes apparent to me, I follow it," we say to you: What evidence has become apparent to you up to today? It is not permissible for you to take an Imam after the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), for no one was given infallibility with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). No evidence has stood for you up to today that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Just as there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, so there is no one to be followed in truth except the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Have you not yet realized this truth? I think that the man is deceiving himself or concealing things from his companions by saying, "I am a follower of taqlid of one of the madhahib, but if evidence becomes apparent to me, I follow it." Oh, glory to Allah! If your madhhab, for example, is the Hanafi madhhab, and the Hanafis say that a line of blood coming out of a part of your body invalidates and breaks your wudu, and if evidence becomes apparent to you that this wudu remains valid, do you follow it and contradict the madhhab? Why do you not contradict the madhhab that is not on the tongue of the Imams, but rather on the tongue of the followers of taqlid of the Imams? And among that is also the statement of al-Bajuri: "And it is obligatory to follow blindly one of the scholars of them..." Where did this follower of taqlid get this ruling from, and no one among the followers of taqlid and the Imams... said this? They said it while claiming taqlid, so they exercised independent reasoning (ijtihad) and then said what no one among the mujtahids ever said at all. If we advise this questioner, or the one the questioner is reporting about, it is obligatory for him to take the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) as his Imam always and forever. But we do not say to him, as some people say and falsely and unjustly accuse us of saying, that it is obligatory for all Muslims to exercise ijtihad and understand the Book and the Sunnah directly, and to know the authentic hadith from the weak, the general and the specific, the absolute and the restricted, and so on. We do not say this. Rather, we say, as we have said on many occasions, that Allah the Exalted and Glorious made the Muslim community, in terms of knowledge, two groups: a group of people of knowledge and a group who are not people of knowledge. He obligated each of the two groups with an obligation that they must all fulfill. For the people of knowledge, if they are asked, it is obligatory for them to answer. For the others, their obligation is to ask. So you, O follower of taqlid who has imposed on yourself the taqlid of an Imam or a madhhab from the madhahib, an imposition that Allah and His Messenger and no Imam of the Muslims of the Muslims has imposed, it is obligatory for you to remove from your mind this thing you have imposed on yourself, and to impose on yourself anew following the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). But I know that you will say, "I am unlettered, I do not read, I am ignorant." The answer comes to you from the core of the Noble Qur'an in a language that even the common people can understand, and perhaps even the non-Arabs can share with the Arabs in understanding that verse: So your obligation is to ask the scholar to guide you to what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon, not to guide you to "Abu Hanifa said" if your madhhab is the Hanafi, or "Malik said" if your Imam is Malik, and the like. Indeed, we were commanded to follow the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, and the Messenger of Allah made that a protection for people, if they hold fast to it, so that they do not go astray and do not be led to the right and left. So he (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) said: So we ask Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, to keep us alive upon the Book and the Sunnah, and to let us die upon that. And our last supplication is: All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And we hope that our Lord, the Exalted and Glorious, will gather us in another meeting, and perhaps that will be soon. And peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.