Discussion on the Ruling on Taqlid

The Shaykh : Now we come to some of the young people who say things like this: "We do not follow scholars without evidence."

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : I say that these young people, whether they like it or not, are followers of taqlid against their wills, but arrogance and self-admiration blind their insights, so they imagine that merely because they know that al-Walid ibn Muslim was a tadlis narrator, and that his tadlis was tadlis al-taswiya, that we do not follow scholars.The Shaykh : [We do not follow] Al-Albani, who authenticated the hadith; we do not follow him.

The questioner : May Allah enlighten you.

The Shaykh : We say this, and we tell you, may Allah truly enlighten you.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : We say that taqlid is either obligatory, forbidden, or a precaution. Taqlid is obligatory for the general public, who are the ones referred to in His saying—Blessed and Exalted is He—: . Ask, O Muslims, the people of knowledge, the people of the Qur'an, the people of true knowledge of the Qur'an, meaning the people of knowledge of the Qur'an and the authentic Sunnah. Ask them. If these people are from the general public, their obligation is to ask the scholars; this is taqlid. Taqlid is forbidden for the scholar, the scholar who knows the legal ruling with its evidence from the Book and the Sunnah. It is undoubtedly forbidden for him to follow Zayd, Bakr, or 'Amr. From this came the calamity of dividing the madhahib into four, which resulted in taqlid becoming obligatory for Muslims through this fourfold division: either you follow the Hanafi, the Maliki, the Shafi'i, or the [Hanbali]. Why? Because those who came after the imams were not followers of taqlid, but they were mujtahids. However, they became lazy and relied on the knowledge of the first imams, and taqlid passed from successor to predecessor until it became a religion. Many of our young brothers in knowledge may imagine that we forbid taqlid absolutely and that we make ijtihad obligatory for every Muslim absolutely. This is one of the grave errors in this time. It is a reaction to madhhab-based taqlid; today there is a release, a letting loose, meaning without controls, without reins, without brakes; the matter is complete chaos. We do not make ijtihad obligatory except for one who is qualified for ijtihad. And this person who says "I do not follow scholars"—I do not think and I do not suppose that he is among the scholars who spent a very long time in their lives studying this knowledge, which was abandoned for a long time, abandoned for a long time. Then people rose up today after that abandonment and went right and left, and they are confused and do not know, because as it was said in old wisdom: "Whoever hastens a matter before its time is afflicted with its deprivation." They wanted to become imams in authenticating and weakening hadiths, so they hastened the matter and fell into what is not permissible by the Shari'ah. So, the statement of thisThe questioner : referred person: We know that in the chain of the hadith is al-Walid ibn Muslim, and he is a tadlis narrator with tadlis al-taswiya, and we do not follow Al-Albani because taqlid is forbidden. This might come from a person who follows Al-Albani and his takhrij of this hadith. If Al-Albani stopped at al-Walid ibn Muslim's 'an'anah and still authenticated this hadith, then the one who says about himself that he does not follow scholars would be better than Al-Albani in this. Why? Because he knew what Al-Albani did not know, even though the matter is very natural. Our brothers who share this knowledge with us know that it is a basic principle of hadith science that al-Walid ibn Muslim was a tadlis narrator with tadlis al-taswiya. It is possible that things are hidden from Al-Albani and from those greater than Al-Albani, and we know this from our previous imams, let alone the later ones; something might be hidden from them. But something like this, as if it were said that al-Bukhari does not commit tadlis—this is never hidden from a student of knowledge. But for one with ill intent, like Hassan 'Abd al-Mannan, he might say something no one has said before. Perhaps you remember that one of this man's ignorances was that he said al-Bukhari's statement "Hisham said" is like his statement "Hisham told me." Do you remember this?
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : This is one of the wonders. Al-Bukhari's statement "Hisham said" is a mursal hadith, but al-Bukhari's statement "Hisham told me" is equivalent to his statement "Hisham said." "Hisham told me" means "Hisham narrated to me," and there is no doubt linguistically or technically. But ignorance, arrogance, and self-admiration, as we said earlier. So I say that the one who does not want to follow Al-Albani, if he knows that Al-Albani authenticated this hadith through al-Walid ibn Muslim and he used 'an'anah, and the truth is with him, the truth is with him. I am not saying the error is with Al-Albani, or that ignorance is with Al-Albani. But perhaps the opposite is the truth: he knew something and other things were hidden from him. Yes, it is not permissible for him to say "I do not follow scholars" because he is not a scholar. Okay, do you have anything else?

The questioner : ... I don't want to pray.

The Shaykh : But he needs to go pray.

The questioner : I don't want to pray, I am not in front of him, I am in front of him and his driver.

The Shaykh: Oh, wonderful.