Following madhhabs

20-9-2001 | IslamWeb

Question:

Can we follow all madhhabs (Fiqh schools of thought) at the same time?

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
Perhaps the questioner means is it permissible to follow a school of thought (Fiqh) on every issue. The answer is as below: Following a particular school of thought (Fiqh) is not compulsory. The
Muslim who can look into the evidences and who have the knowledge necessary to prefer a given opinion to the others is obliged to follow the preponderant opinion which is supported by the Qur'an and Hadith, as understood by the good ancestors, regardless of it being in line with his Madhab or not. Whether it agrees with his particular Madhab or not. He should not leave the preponderant opinion supported by
sound evidence, to follow the saying of any person no matter who that person is. This practice requires that one may follow a Madhab on an issue but another Madhab on a different issue due to the soundness of the evidence presented and nothing else. Here, we are obliged to give warning against searching for areas of disagreement among scholars, weak opinions, and weak evidences on which to base our beliefs and actions. This practice is very dangerous because the Muslim Scholars have declared it sometimes leads to disobedience of Allah. All the sayings of the Scholars are not acceptable according to Qur'an and Sunnah. Some of them have deviated from truth and some of their views are irregular and inconsistent, hence they lack evidence to support their viewpoints. So it is forbidden to take a viewpoint not based on sound evidence. The person who bases his actions on this viewpoint, knowing its weakness, would not be freed from the required obligation.
Allah knows best.