- The compendia of the four legal schools—especially the Hanbali works—and whatever position the evidence shows to be stronger in any other school.¹
Shaykh ʿAbd Allah, the son of Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb,² states:
Our creed in the fundamentals of the religion is the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamāʿah, and our method is that of the early generations: we affirm the Qur’anic verses and Prophetic hadiths concerning the divine attributes according to their outward meaning.
In matters of jurisprudence we adhere to the school of Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, yet we do not censure anyone who follows any of the four imams.
We do not claim the rank of unrestricted ijtihād, and no one among us lays claim to it. However, in particular issues—when a clear text from the Qur’an or the Sunnah reaches us, one that is neither abrogated nor qualified nor outweighed by stronger proof, and provided that one of the four imams has adopted it—we follow that text and set aside our own school. An example is the question of inheritance between the grandfather and the siblings: we give the grandfather precedence in inheritance even though this departs from the Hanbali position.
There is nothing wrong with exercising ijtihād in some matters but not others; this does not contradict our disclaimer of absolute ijtihād. Indeed, a number of the leading scholars of the four schools selected opinions in certain questions that differed from the school to which they formally adhered.
For understanding the Book of Allah we rely on the accepted, widely circulated commentaries—foremost among them for us are the tafsīr of Ibn Jarīr and its abridgment by Ibn Kathīr al-Shāfiʿī, as well as those of al-Baghawī, al-Bayḍāwī, al-Khāzin, al-Ḥaddād, the commentary of al-Jalālayn, and others.
¹ Translator’s note: The original text refers here to following whichever view is supported by the strongest proof, even if it lies outside the Hanbali corpus.
² Abd Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (d. d. 1229 AH).