Is it obligatory for a student of knowledge to follow one of the four Imams at the beginning of his studies?

The student : Is it obligatory for a student of knowledge to follow the four Imams at the beginning of seeking knowledge?

The Shaykh : Of course, you mean following one of the four Imams, not following all four, which is a problem. Is it obligatory or not? It is obligatory if he lives in a society where he cannot find someone to issue rulings for him based on the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), because this is the original basis, as Allah the Exalted said: . Therefore, he must study one of these four schools of jurisprudence followed by Muslims and proceed according to their guidance, on the condition that he does not adhere to it with the commitment of a sincere Muslim to the Sunnah of his Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), so that he establishes in his heart the difference between his faith in the infallibility of his Prophet and his faith in the non-infallibility of his Imam. If it becomes apparent to him, or he is informed through some means, that an issue he studied in his school contradicts an authentic Sunnah, he should then leave the opinion of the school he studied in order to follow the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). He should not act as the followers of taqlid do, asking, "Are we more knowledgeable than the Imam?" No, we are not more knowledgeable than the Imam. But when you have taken the hadith, and an Imam among the Imams of Muslims has also taken it, in this case you are better off than if you had remained in your taqlid, because in the first case you are following an Imam, and in the other case you are following an Imam plus the Sunnah, and this is better for you. In this manner, a person may adopt a school of jurisprudence. Otherwise, the original state is that the Muslim should be as the righteous Salaf were. Among them were great scholars, such as the four Caliphs, for example. Yet, there was no one among the Companions, the Tabi'un, or those after them who followed them in the sense of saying, "My school is Bukhari's," or "His is Umar's," or "His is Uthman's," or "His is Ali's." None of that existed. Rather, their guidance was . Whoever knew a scholar would ask him and hold fast to his fatwa, without looking at what so-and-so thinks. This is not part of the Shari'ah at all. Have I clarified the answer for you?
The student : O Shaykh, regarding their saying, "I am a Shafi'i," or "I am a Hanbali," is this an error?

The Shaykh : This error does not come from the statement itself, if he is sincere in saying, "I am a Hanbali, meaning I studied Hanbali jurisprudence," or "I am a Shafi'i, I studied Shafi'i jurisprudence." There is no error in that. But if he shows partisanship, as I mentioned earlier, partisanship for the Imam against the Sunnah that has become clear to him, then it is an error. My brothers, you have ten minutes with us, and then please allow us a break. Does anyone have a question?