he said:

1- “Do not blindly follow me, nor Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, al-Awzāʿī, or al-Thawrī; instead, take from the same source from which they took.” (1)
In another wording: “Do not hand your religion over to any of these men. Whatever has come from the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions—hold fast to it; as for the Successors who came after them, a person may choose.” He also said on another occasion: “True following is that a man follows what has come from the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions; after the Successors, he is free to choose.” (2)

2- “The opinion of al-Awzāʿī, the opinion of Mālik, and the opinion of Abū Ḥanīfah—all of them are opinions, equal in my sight; authoritative proof lies only in the transmitted reports.” (3)

3- “Whoever rejects a ḥadīth of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is standing on the brink of destruction.” (4)

These are the words of the imams—may Allah be pleased with them—commanding adherence to the ḥadīth and forbidding blind imitation of them without insight. Their statements are so clear and unequivocal that they admit neither debate nor reinterpretation.

Accordingly, anyone who clings to everything that is soundly established in the Sunnah—even if it contradicts some of the imams’ views—is not diverging from their school nor departing from their path; rather, he is following all of them and grasping the firmest handhold that will never break. By contrast, the one who abandons an authentic Sunnah merely because it opposes their opinions is thereby disobeying them and contradicting their earlier words. Allah the Exalted says: “But no, by your Lord, they will not truly believe until they make you judge concerning that over which they differ among themselves, and then they find…” (Q 4:65)