Hakikat Kitabevi Publications No: 10 answer to an enemy of islam

Tafsîr al-Mazharî, in the tafsîr of the 64th âyat
of the Sûrat âl ’Imrân.
[2] It is written in the books 
Bahr ar-râ’iq, Hindiyya and Al-basâ’îr that it
is wâjib for every non-mujtahid to follow one of the four madhhabs,
that he does not belong to Ahl as-Sunna if he does not follow one of
them, and that he is a heretic or a disbeliever if he does not belong to
the Ahl as-Sunna. The related passages from these books have been
reprinted in Istanbul.

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own madhhab is weak and another madhhab is more hitting
should transfer to the other madhhab. As a matter of fact there has
been no scholar who did not do so; no faqîh has been seen to be
“fixed” on his own madhhab.
[1]
As a doctor’s taking such titles as neurologist or internist does
not mean for him to give up being a doctor, so being a Shâfi’î or a
Hanafî does not mean to give up being a Muhammadî, for both
the Shâfi’îs and the Hanafîs are Muhammadîs. To be
Muhammadî, it is necessary to be Shâfi’î, or Hanafî, or Mâlikî, or
Hanbalî. In fact, among members of the heretical seventy-two
groups, the ones with uncontaminated îmân (belief) are
Muhammadîs. He who is not Muhammadî is a disbeliever. With
the quoted statement of his, the religion reformer says
“disbelievers” about millions of Muslims. It would be insufficient
however much could be written to tell about the baseness of the
person who uttered those words. It must be understood that he
who says so against Muslims is either vulgarly ignorant or a zindîq
hostile to Islam.
40– The religion reformer, in a fury which drives him into a loss
of words, says:
“People who care for no one who tells the truth have
said that taqlîd exists because of discussions, desire for
fame, personal advantages and being accustomed to it.
“Al-Imâm as-Suyûtî said that ijtihâd was fard kifâya in
every century. It is fard that there be a mujtahid in every
century. They should be absolute (mutlaq) mujtahids. It is
wrong to say, ‘There came no absolute mujtahid after the
fourth [Islamic] century. There came a few absolute
mujtahids later, yet because their ijtihâds coincided with the
ijtihâd of the imâm al-madhhab who educated them, they
were considered to be in his madhhab.’ Therefore, if a
person follows an independent way of ijtihâd without
following any of the four madhhabs, no one will have the
right to object to him. One of the absolute mujtahids
educated in this manner was Hadrat Imâm Muhammad ash-
Shawkânî, who died in 1250 A.H. [1834]. His madhhab is
the strongest of the madhhabs that are known, and his
words are the soundest.”
– 72 –
[1] See the preface to