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

Endless Bliss, II.

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anything concerning this house.”
38– The religion reformer says:
“It is harâm to follow a muqallid. A person who has
heard a sahîh hadîth cannot be told to compare this hadîth
with so and so’s ijtihâd and to act upon it if it is in
agreement with it. He can be told to investigate if it is
mansûkh. But this is a job for an expert. Those who are not
experts should obey the âyat, 
“Those who do not know
should ask those who know!” and ask those who are
experts. It is good for a person to love all the mujtahid
imâms and to follow each of them in cases when he is sure
they agree with the Sunna.”
Certainly it is harâm to follow a muqallid. But, believing and
acting upon the information given by a Muslim who is muqallid
does not mean following him. A person cannot be told, “Compare
this hadîth with so and so’s ijtihâd and act upon it if it is in
agreement with it.” But he can be told, “Compare what you
understand from this hadîth sherîf with the ijtihâd of your
madhhab’s imâm. If they are unlike each other, act in accord not
with what you understand but with what your madhhab’s imâm
understood.” Sanâullâh-i Pâniputî (rahmatullâhu ta’âlâ ’alaih), a
great Islamic scholar of India who died in 1225 A.H. (1810), said in
the tafsîr of the 64th âyat of Sûrat âl ’Imrân in 
Tafsîr-i mazharî
written by him in 1197: “If one encounters a sahîh hadîth, and if it
is known that it is not mansûkh, and if a fatwâ of al-Imâm al-a’zam
Abû Hanîfa (rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih), for example, is not
consistent with it while one of the other three madhhabs has an
ijtihâd consistent with this hadîth, one who is Hanafî has to
practise not the fatwâ of his imâm but this hadîth by following the
other madhhab which employed ijtihâd according to this hadîth,
[1]
because Abû Hanîfa said, ‘If you see a hadîth or a saying of a
Sahâbî, avoid my fatwâ and follow it!’ Thus, one will have not
ignored ijmâ’ since the scholars of the Ahl as-Sunna have had
solely the four madhhabs since the fourth century. There is no
madhhab other than these four for Sunnî Muslims to follow in
’ibâdât. By ijmâ’, words which do not conform with one of these
madhhabs are bâtil (wrong). The hadîth says, 
‘The statement
– 67 –
[1] Abû Hanîfa (rahmatullâhi ’alaih), seeing that this hadîth had ta’wîl
(inexplicit meanings), followed another hadîth with a clear meaning. If
one of the four madhhabs has followed a hadîth, we have to follow it,
too.

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