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Taqlid of one school alone obligatory?


(Q: c/f: Shaykh Salih al-Asmari, the young Hanbali scholar from Saudi also 
gives fatwa that the common person should adhere to one Madhab, he 
cited reference for it which I do not have access to at this time.)

Do you mean this text?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sunna-Principles/files/Scans/Conditions%20of%20Tamadhhub.pdf

If so, as you can see, he makes no stipulation of obligation of 
taqlid shakhsi nor of required adherence to a single madhhab. On the 
contrary he shows that it suffices the madhhab be Sunni and one of 
the Four for fatwa and qada', while if it is for one's own `amal then 
there is even more leeway.(*)

Generally then, this confirms what Sayyid Salman said in his first 
post in his thread, may Allah Most High reward him, to the effect 
that the mu`tamad Hanafi position - in line with the other three 
schools - is that it is permissible to follow another Sunni school in 
any given ruling as long as one does so coherently: valid talfiq is 
permissible, rather than obligatory taqlid shakhsi.

So the perceived prohibition of other than taqlid shakhsi among the 
Sunni scholars, whether from the Subcontinent or otherwise, needs to 
be revisited in light of (i) the above and (ii) the helpful remark 
that this prohibition may be relative, to prevent fitna or confusion 
(sadd al-dhara'i`) rather than as a legal ruling in itself.

We also need to further ascertain the language in context. Perhaps, 
what `Allama Sa`eedi means by "the impermissibility of a muqallid 
doing taqlid of more than one imam" is "the impermissibility of a 
muqallid doing taqlid of more than one imam at one and the same time" 
- i.e. incoherent talfiq, which all agree is impermissible.

Two side-notes and a footnote:

1. The entire la-madhhabi contingent in the Subcontinent of course 
dismisses any and all obligation of taqlid shakhsi.

2. As for the Madhhabis' rule that "The layperson (`aami) has no 
school except for the school of his Mufti" yes, but it is a two-edged 
sword: Ibn al-Qayyim also adduces it in a mother-text of la-
madhhabiyya, I`lam al-Muwaqqi`in, to assert that the `ammi must then 
"follow the dalil" rather than any Imam of fiqh since, he argues, the 
`ammi can no more call himself a Hanafi or Maliki than he can call 
himself a nahwi or a faqih just by virtue of asking the people of 
dhikr.

(*) By and large of course, the practice of many influential latter-
day muftis has been to violate the rule that "the madhhab be Sunni 
and one of the Four for fatwa and qada'" and to give fatwa on the 
basis of other than the Four Schools e.g. Mawdudi, Sabiq, `Abduh, 
Shaltut, the Shakirs, the Ghumaris, Albani, Zuhayli, Qaradawi... All 
these have, in effect, blurred the line drawn by the Imams between 
fatwa and qada' on the one hand, and personal `amal on the other.

GF Haddad
2009-01-17

Continued:
(> The Shaykh also has a section called "In which situations a 
muqallid can act according to the saying of another Imam," (page 
340-341) where he quotes from Imam al-Manawi, who in turns writes 
with reference to Imam al-Subki. Among the points they mention are:
...
> 3) The muqallid finds a dispensation in the position of another 
Imam that he doesn't find with his own Imam, and he follows the 
position of that Imam because of a need or necessity, this is also 
permissible.)

The above conclusion is, I believe, the heart of the matter.


GF Haddad

[Also:]
On a side note, "following dispensations" is getting somewhat short 
changed in the documentation so far. After all, the need that makes 
taqlid of other than one's Madhhab permissible stems precisely from 
the pursuit of a dispensation. There is also a qawl (cited by al-
Suyuti in his commentary on Jam` al-Jawami`) that following 
dispensations for ease is permissible in absolute terms without fisq 
nor karaha.

I found the following discussion of tatabbu` al-rukhas useful and 
fair but note that what he means by "talfiq" is the prohibited talfiq:
http://www.alkeltawia.com/vb/showpost.php?p=24031&postcount=3

GF Haddad