Do I need to follow a Madhhab?- Mufti Abu Layth

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I'd like to take a look today at an age-old question one which many people have asked time and time again and that is is it necessary for us to follow a maab okay now first of all I'd like to explain that this question is requires a more Dynamic answer than a simple yes or no but to reduce it to a yes or no I would have to answer yes we do have to follow a me but what do I

mean by that what I mean by that is anybody who wishes to take their Dean seriously who wishes to have a developed and constructive understanding of their Dean must take a particular medium so the answer to this is not that anybody who does not follow a mhab is sinful or that they have perpetrated a Haram act so if somebody is to counter my statement by saying where is your

evidence from the Quran and Sunnah then this would be reduced to an absurd type of discourse okay if I give you the analogy of language if somebody was to say I wish to let's say hypothetically as absurd or as bizarre as it may sound if somebody was to say that I wish to learn the dean but must I learn it through a particular language can I learn learn or obtain the knowledge and understanding of this them without going through the medium of a particular

language the answer is absolutely not yet somebody may say well where is your evidence from the Quran and Sunnah that I must learn a particular language what if I want to combine between a few languages what if I wish to kind of redefine some of the syntax and the grammar between languages well you may do that but you will have to acquire this knowledge or even the knowledge of languages through

language similarly a person cannot obtain an understanding of This Dean a sound concrete understanding of how to worship of how to practice and apply this them without having taken a particular School of Law as his or her basis for this thing so to clarify it is necessary if you wish to have an understanding or a detailed or a reasonably detailed understanding of this theme if you wish to practice this

theme practice the Five Pillars and Beyond you must acquire that knowledge through a particular school of law this is how the Muslim Generations have been taking their Dean from their forefathers all the way right back to the Sal and back to the prophet of Allah sallallah alaihi wasallam so it is not an issue of Haram or waj this is an issue of something being conceivable that it literally is inconceivable for for anybody to have a

sound understanding of the de that has not taken a medium that has not taken a particular School of Law so it somebody may ask am I obliged to stick to a particular School of Law well you see schools of law have been based upon several principles several philosophies behind them and objectives interpretations therefore whilst you are developing your understanding it would only make sense that you do pertain within a school of law because it would be based upon several

principles it is like saying somebody wishes to enter into a particular building and there are several entrances several doors that you could go through and somebody may ask do I have to go through a particular door and you may say not necessarily but the answer is do I have to go through a door well yes you do you can't go through all of them you must choose one and go through it so similarly a person must adopt a particular basis through which they will develop their understanding of this them and as they continue to acquire

knowledge and develop themselves then at a later stage they may choose to analyze and evaluate some of the stances and positions within that School of Law I also find that sometimes people that question these things I mean on many occasions they may be genuine questions and at times they may be people that are almost struggling to submit to Authority um in Psychology there is a condition known as an Oppositional

Defiant Disorder an OD where people struggle to submit to Authority it is they describe it as a pattern of anger guided Disobedience and defiant Behavior towards Authority sometimes we see some people almost display similar symptoms when it comes to things like this we have to understand that the messenger of Allah S alaihi wasallam taught the sah who taught the who taught the and this tradition and Legacy has has been

taught from the fathers to the children till our very day and age we have an unbroken chain of this tradition on that note there is another misconception people at times will say well Im Abu hanifah says this or Imam Malik says this and the Hadith says this IM Malik says this or IM Abu hanifah says this and the Hadith Sayes that's the incorrect way of doing things the correct way is to say well the Hadith that IM Malik used says this the Hadith that IM Abu hanifah used States this the

Hadith that you are quoting States this so put Hadith On a par with Hadith not the of the or the fatwa of the IM On a par with the Hadith that comes across as Blasphemous almost at the least that you are challenging the words of the Prophet sallallahu alhi wasallam with the words of an IM that is not how this Dean has been transmitted it is the Hadith that these imams and these Scholars have relied upon which may be matched against the Hadith that you are quoting and then the

interpretations may be assessed people ask well if these schools of law are all valid which in essence they are then how can that be since there is so much disparities so there is there are so many differences between these schools that requires a very lengthy discourse to explain why differences emerge however it is analogous to say that the same way you have in modern law for example

within the US there's a greater example of this where each state has its own law although the Constitution is the same similarly within Islam the constitution based upon the Quran and Sunnah and so on yet the application may vary so we see these types of differences and discrepancies the coming back to the question that do we have to follow a well the answer is it's not a matter of

Haram or that if you have not followed a school of law that you have perpetrated a Haram act because you will have to resort to some scholar or another for your matters of faith in which you will be doing or you will be doing the question is that if can you develop a an understanding of the dean that is that has some reasonable depth to it that you can learn the let's

say the the the the the of each action that you can learn that without going through any particular school then that would really be quite inconceivable if a person was to say I would go through every every single masah and learn the evidences before even learning them and that would be very non I mean it would be completely unpractical because the Salah is upon us every day five times a day so I hope that answers that question

that in order to really get any level of understanding of this them which has some depth to it yes we must go through a particular School that really explains this whole question there uh there as a poet has said in Arabic when when speaking of matters in which really have now become so so self-explanatory he

says that if you were to call out to somebody who had some life they would have heard you but perhaps you are only calling out to somebody who has no life that if you were blowing into a fire it would have lit up by now but all you seem to be doing is blowing into cold ashes that said by perhaps another question Rises that if we are to adopt a particular School are we obliged to

follow a particular any particular is I mean how should I choose a particular School the answer is as had explained in his that a person may choose by whatever whatever type of um criteria fit them so somebody may say as has written clearly that I seem to like this IM for this particular reason and that is fine somebody may say I like this particular maab for this particular reason that is fine you are not obliged

to choose one over the other I mean some people say you you must go with the school which uh happens to be the school of your vicinity disagrees with that very clearly he says that you may choose whichever you take a fancy to that said I mean when people have asked me for my personal opinion I have said well to me personally all mhbs are as has been clearly documented in essence upon the H however what could be greater than the school or the perspective upon the de which was

transmitted in Madina itself known as the M of Medina later to become interpreted and known as the school of Imam Malik that said people I leave you for today I ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala that may he guide us all and increase us in our understanding of this theme may he give us the ability to reconnect with this Legacy that has reached

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