Recordings › Do I need to follow a Madhhab?- Mufti Abu Layth · 12 Mar 2014 › Segment 3 of 4
If the madhhabs differ so much, how can they all be valid?
salat salaah namaz salaat namaaz as-salah al-salah salawat hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith madhhab madhab mazhab madhahib mazahib madhaahib imaam prayer leader qiyas qiyaas fatwah fatawa fatwaa fataawa legal opinion muftis haraam forbidden sunna sunnat sunan prophetic practice iman imaan eemaan eeman koran quraan al-quran 'alim aalim ulama ulema ulamaaHadith against hadith, not imam against hadith; why the schools differ yet are all valid
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This segment7:47 to 11:46 · 3 min 59 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenCompare the hadith an imam relied on with the hadith you quote, not the imam's fatwa with the hadith. The schools differ in application under one constitution of Quran and Sunnah, like US states, and learning every ruling from its evidence without a school is impractical.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth finishes the point that one should not set an imam's fatwa against a hadith, which comes across as almost blasphemous, as if challenging the Prophet's words with an imam's; the correct way is to say that the hadith Malik relied on says this, the hadith Abu Hanifa relied on says that, and the hadith you quote says this, so hadith is placed on a par with hadith and the interpretations are then assessed. He then takes the question how all the schools can be valid, as in essence they are, when there are so many disparities between them. He says a full explanation of why differences emerge would be lengthy, but offers the analogy of modern law in the United States, where each state has its own law under the same constitution: in Islam the constitution rests on the Quran and Sunnah while the application varies. Returning to the main question, he repeats that not following a school is not haram, since everyone resorts to some scholar for matters of faith, but that developing an understanding of reasonable depth without any particular school is inconceivable: going through every single mas'ala and its evidences first would be completely impractical, since the prayer is upon us five times a day. He closes with an Arabic poet's lines about calling out to someone with no life in them and blowing on cold ashes, for matters that have become self-explanatory.
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the schools of law are all valid in essence, differing in application under the one constitution of the Quran and Sunnah, and that a difference between an imam and a hadith must be framed as hadith against hadith, never as the imam's fatwa against the Prophet's words.
“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”
Category: method
Kind: general teachingTranscript
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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
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2014-03-12-S03, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/9thi3gciick/s/3/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2014, March 12). If the madhhabs differ so much, how can they all be valid? [Video, segment 2014-03-12-S03, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/9thi3gciick/s/3/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2014. "If the madhhabs differ so much, how can they all be valid?" Video, segment 2014-03-12-S03, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded March 12, 2014. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/9thi3gciick/s/3/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2014-03-12-S03, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{If the madhhabs differ so much, how can they all be valid?}}, year = {2014}, month = {3}, date = {2014-03-12}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/9thi3gciick/s/3/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/9thi3gciick/s/3/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2014-03-12-S03, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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