Affiliation with the Four Madhhabs

Question: Is it permissible to show partisanship to the madhhab that a person follows in any ruling of the Sacred Law, even when that stance is at odds with what is correct? Or may he leave it on occasion and follow the sound position of another madhhab? What is the ruling on binding oneself exclusively to a single madhhab?

Answer: Adopting one of the four madhhabs of Ahl al-Sunnah—the four well-known schools that have endured, been preserved, and systematized among the Muslims—and affiliating oneself to it is unobjectionable. Hence it is said: “So-and-so is Shafiʿi,” “So-and-so is Hanbali,” “So-and-so is Hanafi,” or “So-and-so is Maliki.”

This designation has existed since early times among the scholars, even the leading figures. One hears, for example, “Ibn Taymiyyah the Hanbali,” “Ibn al-Qayyim the Hanbali,” and the like, and there is nothing blameworthy in that. Mere affiliation to a madhhab is allowed, on the condition that one does not bind himself to take everything within it, whether right or wrong. Rather, he adopts what is correct, and whatever he knows to be mistaken he is not permitted to act upon. When the stronger opinion becomes clear to him, he is obliged to follow it—whether it lies within his own madhhab or another—for once a person recognizes a Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, he may not leave it for anyone’s statement. The ultimate exemplar is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. We therefore follow a madhhab as long as it does not conflict with the Prophet’s words. If it does, that is an error on the part of the mujtahid, and we must abandon it, adhere to the Sunnah, and adopt the preponderant view that accords with the Sunnah, regardless of which madhhab of the mujtahids it belongs to.

As for the one who takes an imam’s opinion unconditionally, whether right or wrong, this is considered blind imitation (taqlid). If he holds that it is obligatory to imitate a specific individual, such a belief amounts to an act of apostasy from Islam.