Should every country be obliged to follow a particular madhhab (school of thought)?

Question

Praise be to Allah.

With regard to ijtihaad and taqleed, people in a country fall
into two categories:

1 – The scholars and mujtahids who have reached a level of
shar’i knowledge where they have the tools of ijtihaad and instinbaat,
whereby they are able to derive rulings. Their duty is to follow the truth
wherever they see it, on the basis of evidence.

2 – The vast majority of people – those who have not
specialized in study of shar’i sciences or have not reached the level of
being able to engage in ijtihaad and being qualified to issue fatwas. These
are the majority of people, or those who are educated and specialized in
other fields of knowledge.

Their duty – in both shar’i and natural terms – is to ask the
people of knowledge and take from them. We see this in the words of Allaah
(interpretation of the meaning):

“So ask of those who know the Scripture, if you know not”

[al-Nahl 16:43]

So the people of each country are obliged to ask the scholars
and follow their fatwas, but they are not to follow absolutely in the sense
that they regard the one whom they follow as infallible and sacred, with the
right to legislate and decide religious issues on the basis of their own
ideas– as happened among the Jews, Christians, Raafidis, extreme Sufis and
Baatinis – because that is going beyond the bounds of religion and taking
rivals and gods besides Allaah, and Allaah says (interpretation of the
meaning):

“They (Jews and Christians) took their rabbis and their
monks to be their lords besides Allaah (by obeying them in things which they
made lawful or unlawful according to their own desires without being ordered
by Allaah), and (they also took as their Lord) Messiah, son of Maryam
(Mary), while they (Jews and Christians) were commanded [in the Tawraat
(Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)] to worship none but One Ilaah (God —
Allaah) Laa ilaaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He).
Praise and glory be to Him (far above is He) from having the partners they
associate (with Him)”

[al-Tawbah 9:31]

The idea behind obliging people to follow the fatwas of the
scholars is to enable them to learn the rulings of sharee’ah via the
specialists who have studied the principles and usool of sharee’ah and have
reached the stage of being qualified in that field of knowledge based on
evidence, not sanctity given in the name of the Lord or in the name of
“sainthood” and other such false notions.

Ibn Taymiyah said in Majmoo’ al-Fataawa (20/211):

Allaah has enjoined upon mankind to obey Him and obey His
Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), but He has not
enjoined upon this ummah to obey anyone in particular in all that he enjoins
or forbids, apart from the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of
Allaah be upon him). Even the Siddeeq of this ummah and the best of them
after its Prophet (i.e., Abu Bakr) said: “Obey me so long as I obey Allaah,
but if I disobey Allaah, then you are not obliged to obey me.” They are all
unanimously agreed that there is no one who is infallible in all that he
enjoins or forbids except the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him). Hence more than one of the imams said: The words of
any person may be adopted or abandoned except the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). End quote.

Secondly:

There remains the question of defining the scholars or
scholarly references who are to be relied upon.

We may say that there are two scholarly sources to whom
reference should be made at an ummah-wide level and at an individual level.
They are:

1.Contemporary resources,
represented by fiqh councils and sharee’ah committees which are established
by trustworthy religious scholars; individual scholars who are qualified and
specialized in shar’i sciences, from whom the people should learn and
benefit from their guidance, especially with regard to issues in people’s
daily lives and in novel, contemporary issues, and also with regard to
matters which need to be reviewed and thoroughly re-examined in the light of
shar’i and rational evidence, paying attention to people’s interests and
warding off evils, alleviating difficulty and avoiding hardship, in cases
where following one of the four madhhabs may cause difficulty and hardship,
because one of the basic aims of sharee’ah is to make things easy, not cause
hardship.

2.Classical resources, namely the
four well known madhhabs, the Hanafi, Maaliki, Shaafa’i and Hanbali. These
resources are more deserving of being followed and their teachings adhered
to, because the laws that people agree to refer to and use to judge between
themselves; the curriculum that is decided for seekers of knowledge in
halaqahs and schools and at different academic stages that those who
specialize in sharee’ah and fiqhi knowledge go through; the legacy which
should be well established in people’s minds, and form their fiqhi culture;
the source that everyone who does not have the opportunities that the
mujtahideen have to study many issues and reach a conclusion concerning it;
and the discipline that puts an end to conflicts and disputes in society and
blocks the door to whims and desires and weird opinions – all of that is
represented in the four madhhabs, which is the greatest reason why they
should be followed.

Al-Haafiz ibn Rajab says in his essay entitled al-Radd
‘ala man attaba’a ghayra al-Madhaahib al-Arba’ah (2/624) (which was
published in a collection of his essays):

The wisdom of Allaah dictated that this religion and its
guidelines should be protected by means of appointing leaders of the people
concerning whom the ummah is unanimously on their knowledge and
understanding, and that they reached the highest level of knowledge of
rulings and fatwas among ahl al-ra’y wa’l-hadeeth. So the people became
dependent on them for fatwas, and referred to them to understand rulings. So
Allaah guided them to set guidelines for their madhhabs and explain
foundations and principles, so that the madhhab of each imam has its own
guidelines, principles and categories, in the light of which rulings and
issues of halaal and haraam are to be understood.

This is by the mercy of Allaah towards His slaves, and it is
one of the ways in which He preserves this religion.

Were it not for that, people would have seen strange things,
whereby every fool who was filled with self-admiration could have tried to
mislead the people; so you would have seen such fools claiming to be great
imams, saying that they were the guide of this ummah and the only ones to
whom people should refer and rely on, to the exclusion of all others.

But by the mercy and grace of Allaah, this door, which could
have lead to grave danger, has been blocked and these great evils have been
kept away. That is a sign of His great mercy and kindness towards His
slaves.

Despite this, there are still those who claim to have reached
the level of ijtihaad and talk about issues of knowledge without following
any of these four imams.

The claims of some of them may be accepted because of
evidence which proves their claims, and others may be rejected. As for those
who did not reach this level, they have no choice but to follow those imams
and join in what all the ummah joined in. End quote.

He also said (2/628):

If it is asked: What do you say about the fact that Imam
Ahmad and other imams forbade imitating or following them, or writing their
words, as Imam Ahmad said: Do not write down my words or the words of So and
so; learn as we learned? This appears often in their words.

We say: No doubt Imam Ahmad (may Allaah be pleased with him)
told them not to study the opinions of the fuqaha’ and spending time on
memorizing them and writing them down, and he enjoined instead: spending
time on studying the Qur’aan and Sunnah, seeking to memorize and understand
and write and study them; writing down the reports of the Sahaabah and
Taabi’een rather than the words of those who came after them; determining
which reports were sound and which were unsound, what may be followed and
what is odd and should be rejected. No doubt this is what one should pay
attention to and spend one’s time learning, before anything else.

Whoever studies that and attains a high level of knowledge –
as Imam Ahmad enjoined people to do – his knowledge will become close to
that of Ahmad. For this person there are no restrictions, and we are not
speaking about him here. Rather what we are speaking about is restraining
those who have not reached this pinnacle, who understand only a little, as
is the case with people nowadays, and as has been the case for a long time;
even though many claim to have reached this pinnacle, most of them have not
progressed beyond a beginner level.

The one who studies the history of fiqh and legislation will
realize that throughout all stages it was built on the efforts of some
scholars who became known among people for their knowledge, and news of
their virtue and piety spread far and wide, then people began taking
religious rulings from them, in most cases referring to their statements and
fatwas.

Ibn al-Qayyim said in I’laam al-Muwaqqi’een (1/17):

Religion, fiqh and knowledge became widespread in the ummah,
narrated from the companions of Ibn Mas’ood, the companions of Zayd ibn
Thaabit, the companions of ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Umar and the companions of
‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Abbaas. Most of the knowledge that the people have comes
from the companions of these four. For the people of Madeenah, their
knowledge came from the companions of Zayd ibn Thaabit and ‘Abd-Allaah ibn
‘Umar. For the people of Makkah, their knowledge came from the companions of
‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Abbaas. For the people of Iraq, their knowledge came from
the companions of ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood. End quote.

The scholar and commentator Ahmad Pasha Taymoor (may Allaah
have mercy on him) said in al-Madhaahib al-Fiqhiyyah al-Arba’ah
(16-17): Before the emergence of these madhhabs, at the time of the Sahaabah
and Taabi’een, fatwas were taken from the qurra’s among them, who were the
bearers of the Book of Allaah and understood its meanings. When their era
finished and the generation of the Taabi’een came after them, the people of
each country followed the fatwas of the Sahaabah who had been among them,
and they did not go beyond that except in a few matters that reached them
from others. So the people of Madeenah for the most part followed the fatwas
of ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Umar; the people of Kufah followed the fatwas of
‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood; the people of Makkah followed the fatwas of
‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Abbaas; and the people of Egypt followed the fatwas of
‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas.

After the Taabi’een came the fuqaha’ of the various regions,
such as Abu Haneefah, Maalik and others whom we have mentioned and whom we
have not mentioned. So the people of each region followed the madhhab of the
faqeeh for the most part. There are reasons why some of these madhhabs
spread in other lands and some became extinct… End quote.

That does not mean that one should blindly adhere to one
madhhab or opinion, in the sense of obliging people to follow it to the
letter without any ijtihaad or effort to correct it. Rather the point is
that the school of fiqhi thought that people, seekers of knowledge and
scholars should study should be taken from one of the four madhhabs. Then,
if it becomes clear to one who is qualified to engage in ijtihaad that the
madhhab is mistaken on a specific issue, he should reject that fatwa and
follow the view that he thinks is correct from the other madhhabs.

Thus people may adhere to the academic way which was followed
by the salaf and imams, and they may rid themselves of some of the negatives
that resulted from ignorance and blind following.

It says in Fataawa al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibraheem
(2/10, tape 2):

Following one of the four madhhabs is correct, rather it is
like consensus, and there are no reservations about that, such as saying
that one follows one of the four, because they are qualified imams according
to consensus.

People have two extremes and a moderate way with regard to
that:

Some people do not think that we should follow any madhhab at
all. This is wrong.

Some follow their madhhab to the letter without paying any
attention to study or research.

Some people think that following a madhhab is correct and
there are no reservations about it, so wherever they find stronger evidence
with one of the four or with someone else, they follow it. In cases where
the issue is supported by a text or is clear, no attention should be paid to
the madhhabs, but if there is an issue concerning which there is no text or
it is not clear, but there are some views concerning it in these madhhabs,
and you see stronger evidence with a scholar who differs from these four
madhhabs, then you may follow that. End quote.

It says in Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (5/28):

What is the ruling on restricting oneself to the four
madhhabs and following their opinions in all circumstances and at all
times?

Answer:

-The one who is able to derive
rulings directly from the Qur’aan and Sunnah should derive them as those who
came before him did. There is no justification for him to follow a view when
he believes that the correct view is something opposite. Rather he should
follow what he believes is true. It is permissible for him to follow
(another scholar) with regard to that which he is not able to work out
himself and he needs an answer concerning it.

-It is permissible for one who
is not able to derive rulings to follow one whom he feels comfortable
following. But if he feels any sense of unease he should ask until he feels
comfortable.

-From the above it is clear that
their views should not be followed in all situations and at all times,
because they may be wrong; rather the truth of what they say, for which
there is evidence, should be followed. End quote.

It also says (5/54-55):

All of these came after the Messenger of Allaah (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and were among the best people of their
time (may Allaah be pleased with them). They strove hard to base their
rulings on the Qur’aan and the ahaadeeth of the Messenger (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him). That on which the Sahaabah (may Allaah be
pleased with them) were unanimously agreed and which they explained to the
people is the truth. Their views have been transmitted to us and have spread
among Muslims in all lands. Many of the scholars who came after them
followed them because they trusted them and felt comfortable entrusting
their religious commitment to them, because they agreed on the general
principles that they followed and spread their views among the people. Those
who followed them of the ordinary people and acted according to what they
learned of their views may be attributed to the ones they followed. Yet (the
ordinary Muslim) has to ask those whom he trusts of the scholars of his own
era and cooperate with them in order to understand the correct view on the
basis of evidence.

From the above it is clear that they are followers of the
Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and the
Messenger is not a follower of them. Rather what he brought from Allaah of
the laws of Islam is the basis to which all these imams and others referred.
Any Muslim may be called haneefi because he follows the easy haneefi way
which is the way of Ibraaheem and the way of our Prophet Muhammad
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).

See also questions no.
5523, 5459,
23280 and
26269.

And Allaah knows best.