What is the correct way to deal with female students who are fanatical about a specific school of jurisprudence?

The questioner: As for us, we are female students at King Abdulaziz University. In the Department of Shari'ah, rulings are taught according to the schools of jurisprudence, and the sisters deal with matters on this basis. When we discuss with them, if a hadith is weak or if we are required not to follow a specific school of jurisprudence, we find that a fruitless discussion takes place. We do not know how to act or respond to them, especially when we research an issue through the Book and the Sunnah without resorting to the books of the schools of jurisprudence. If we know that this method is wrong, namely following a specific school of jurisprudence, what is the correct method that you advise us to follow? ... And the Ikhwan group and the Da'wah and Tabligh group; because some of them do not understand this matter, they are not ... not affiliated with these groups, so what is the correct way to guide them?

The Shaykh : There is no doubt that the obligation upon every Muslim, whether he is a scholar, a student, a listener, or ignorant, the obligation upon all of them is to follow the Book and the Sunnah. This must be considered the primary premise, and there is no disagreement or debate among any of the Muslims regarding it. The second point is that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, after He made it obligatory for all Muslims to judge by and follow the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)—and this is a matter that we have no need to delve into, as it is established among all—He made the Muslim community such that they should refer their judgments to Allah and His Messenger. He divided the Muslims into two categories in terms of knowledge and its absence: the first category is the scholars, and the second category is those who do not know. And Allah the Exalted said in the clear text of the Noble Qur'an: And the people of knowledge are undoubtedly the people of the Qur'an, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the established hadith: The people of knowledge are the people of the Qur'an. And the Messenger said: . So it is obligatory for all Muslims who are not scholars to ask the scholars, as came in the hadith of Abu Dawud which confirms that one who is afflicted with something and wants to know its ruling, if he asks someone else, then it is obligatory for this mufti to be a scholar so that it is permissible for him to issue fatwas, otherwise he falls into what he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The hadith of Abu Dawud states: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent out a military expedition. When the war had ended between them and the disbelievers and they slept, one of them woke up in a state of major ritual impurity, with wounds from the effects of the battle. He asked those around him if they could find a dispensation for him so that he would not have to take a bath. They told him that he must take a bath. So he took a bath, then he was struck by a fever and died. When the news of his death reached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he became very angry and cursed those who had issued that fatwa to him." He said: The point here is: . So it is obligatory for one who does not know to ask the people of knowledge, and it is obligatory for the people of knowledge to issue fatwas for these people, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So since this is an obligation, it is obligatory for the Muslim to follow the prescribed path of asking in order to know the ruling of Allah in what he needs to know. And there is no doubt or hesitation that we all know that the matter is as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . And in these three generations, which are attested to as the best, there was no one who clung to the opinion of a specific scholar from the scholars of these three generations. For example, there was no one among the Companions or those after them who was of the school of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, nor of the school of 'Umar, nor of the school of 'Uthman, nor of the school of 'Ali. Rather, they all referred their judgments to the Book of Allah and to the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). The people of knowledge received the Book and the Sunnah directly. Those who had no knowledge asked these scholars without being biased toward a specific person among them, because this bias contradicts pure tawhid (the oneness of Allah). Pure tawhid is following the Infallible, and there is no Infallible among humans except the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in matters of religion. As for worldly matters, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: . And if the matter is such, then if a Muslim who does not know, in his path to learning, clings to the opinion of an imam from the imams of the Muslims, whether he is from the Companions, the Tabi'un, or those after them, he has made this person Infallible like the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). And this is an exaggeration in religion, of which nothing is permissible to occur among the Muslims. Therefore, the Lord of the Worlds said, regarding the Christians: . The apparent meaning of this verse was difficult for one of the Companions who had been a Christian in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, but when Allah sent Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) with Islam, Allah guided him to Islam. That was 'Adi ibn Hatim al-Tai. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) recited this verse, 'Adi was in the assembly and the verse was difficult for him because he understood it other than its intended meaning. He said: "By Allah, O Messenger of Allah, we did not take them as lords besides Allah." Why did he say this? Because he understood that they took them as lords, meaning they create with Allah. Allah is the Lord of the worlds, meaning they made them like the Lord of the worlds. So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified to them, or clarified to him, that the intended meaning of the verse is lordship related to legislation. So Allah, Mighty and Majestic, as He is One in His Essence and One in His Attributes, is also One in His ruling. No one has any ruling with Him at all. And so the modern phrase has appeared: "Sovereignty belongs to Allah, Mighty and Majestic." And this is truly a very beautiful thing. This meaning did not occur to 'Adi ibn Hatim, so he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him, when he was surprised that the meaning that came to his mind was what was intended by the verse, clarifying and explaining: . He said: "As for this, it was so, O Messenger of Allah." He said: . So a Muslim following a specific scholar and not going beyond him to others is as if he is the Lord of the worlds, having the right of legislation, and this right does not belong to any human being at all. Even the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) only narrates what was revealed to him by his Lord, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in a hadith in Sunan Abu Dawud that 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) one day and said: "O Messenger of Allah, I was in a gathering with some disbelievers, and they said to me: Do you write down what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) says in a state of contentment and anger?" He said to him: . The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is the only one who is distinguished from all humans in that everything that comes from him is truth. As for Abu Bakr, who is the best of people after the prophets and messengers, and you are descending, and all of them, it is not possible to describe them as everyone whose mouth speaks is speaking the truth. Therefore, it is not permissible for us to take a specific person as an imam from whom we do not benefit from the knowledge of others, because this right, because this right that Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, revealed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is not confined to a specific person after him. We do not believe in those who contradicted him (peace and blessings be upon him) among the Companions what the Rafidah (the Twelver Shi'ah) believe in 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, where they believed that the knowledge that was in the chest of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) all transferred to 'Ali. We do not believe this. And therefore they believed in his infallibility, making him like the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in infallibility. We say that the knowledge that was in the chest of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) transferred to the Companions, not to one Companion. And therefore, whoever wants to take knowledge or take a large share of this knowledge, it is not sufficient to take it from one person, rather he should benefit from all of them, otherwise he has lost much knowledge for himself. If we know this reality, and its summary is that we are obligated to follow the Book and the Sunnah, and that the Muslim community has scholars and non-scholars, and that the obligation of these non-scholars is to ask the people of knowledge, not to ask one scholar, therefore, religion by following the school of one imam or the school of one imam was not the case in the three generations attested to as the best, as we mentioned earlier. Rather, as knowledge was shared among the great Companions, the scholars and jurists among them, so the fatwa was directed to many of them, not to one person among them. And if all good is in following and all evil is in innovation, then it is obligatory that the practice of Muslims today in religion returns to its original practice in the generations attested to as the best. That is, it is not permissible for Muslims to take a specific imam, rather they must benefit from the people of knowledge as in the previous verse. If they do that, they have followed the righteous Salaf (the earliest generations). If they do not do that, they have contradicted the righteous Salaf, and they have gone beyond that by contradicting their imams whom they claim to follow or imitate, because we all know that it is authentic from every imam among them that he said, advising the entire ummah (the Muslim community): "If a hadith is authentic, then it is my school." And this is an admission from them that it is not possible for a scholar among the scholars of the Muslims to encompass all the hadith. For this reason, he says, advising the individuals of the ummah as we mentioned: "If a hadith is authentic, then it is my school." And some of them said something more explicit than that, and that is Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: "The Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) may be hidden from an individual among the Muslims. Whatever I say or establish as a principle, if the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is contrary to my opinion, take the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and cast my opinion to the winds." So the imams, in following the Sunnah and following the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and not imitating the imam when the Sunnah is clear, in this state, following the school of one imam is not only contrary to the Book and the Sunnah, but it is also contrary to the sayings of the imams.