Question
What do the noble ulamā say about following one from amongst the four Imāms? Is it necessary?
Answer
بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایۃ الحق والصواب
All the four Imāms are upon the truth and to do taqlīd (following) of of them i.e. to act according to the legal rulings derived by them from the Qur’ān and Sunnah, is wājib. It is not possible to do taqlīd of all four of them simultaneously and not doing taqlīd of any of them is also misguidance.
Thus al-Sayyid al-Imām Ahmad al-Tahtāwī al-Misrī (May Allah shower him with mercy) states in Hāshiyah ala al-Durr al-Mukhtār:
“So it is upon you O Muslims to follow al-Firqah al-Nājiyah (the saved group) which is called Ahl al-Sunnah wal Jamā’ah, because the support, protection and success from Allah is in conforming to it and the wrath, and abandonment from Allah is in opposing it. This saved group has gathered today in the four Madhāhib, the Hanafis, the Shāfi’īs, the Mālikīs and the Hanbalīs (may the mercy of Allāh be upon them) and whosoever is outside of these in our time then he is of Ahl al-Bid’ah wa al-Nār (the people of innovation and the fire).”
[Hāshiyah al-Tahtāwī ‘ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar Volume 4 pg 153]
الله أعلم عز و جل و رسوله أعلم صلى الله تعالى عليه وآله و سلم
Answered byAbū al-Hasan Jamīl Ahmad Ghawrī al-‘Attārī (Specialist in al-Fiqh al-Islāmī)
3rd Rabī’ al-Thānī 1434 AH (14th February 2013)
Translated by Ustādh Ibrar Shafi
Source: Dār al-Iftā Ahl al-Sunnah (Da’wat e Islami)
Read the original Urdu answer here: [Q-ID0745] Is it necessary to follow of the 4 Madhab’s?
Published by the Dar-ul-Ifta of Akhuwat-e-Islami as Q-ID0745. Read it on Akhuwat-e-Islami