Advice for the Muslim

“Question: ‘If we do some affairs according to one imâm,
some other affairs according to another imâm, some others
according to a third imâm, and the remaining according to the
fourth imâm, we will be in accord with all the four imâms. Isn’t
this correct?’
“Answer: Such behaviour is an act of making fun of Islam. It
causes the disappearance of halâl and harâm, which is prohibited,
a harâm. A hadîth sharîf written in [the Sahîh of] Muslim declares:
‘A hypocrite is like a ewe between two rams. She shuttles back
and forth between the two.’ Another hadîth sharîf written in [the
Sahîh of] al-Bukhârî, declares: ‘The wicked human beings are
those who are two-faced. They display one face to some and
another face to others.’ These are the people referred to in the
38th âyat al-karîma of Sûrat at-Tawba, which declares: ‘Nasî
(postponement of a sacred month) causes excessive disbelief by
which disbelievers are misled. They allow a month one year and
forbid it another year.’ [1]
“It is written in the book Tahrîr al-usûl by Ibn al-Humân, in
Mukhtasar al-usûl by ’Uthmân ibn al-Hâjib al-Mâlikî [who passed
away in Alexandria in 646 A.H. (1248)] and in the book Durr al-
Mukhtâr that it is prohibited, by an unanimous declaration, to
give up following a madhhab while continuing to do an affair and
the related affairs started according to that madhhab. And the
book Bahr ar-râ’iq says: ‘It is wâjib for the one who follows al-
Imâm al-a’zam to adapt himself always to the Hanafî madhhab.
Unless there is a darûra (strong necessity or compulsion), he is not
permitted to do an affair according to another madhhab. As said
by the great ’âlim Qâsim [ibn Katlûbugha al-Misrî al-Hanafî, who
passed away in 879 A.H. (1474)], it is unanimous that one is not
permitted to quit the madhhab he has been following.’ In the
book Musallam as-subût [by Muhibbullâh al-Bihârî al-Hindî al-
[1] Allâhu ta’âlâ had forbidden some actions before Islam, like war and
killing human beings, in some certain months. Disbelievers used to
forbid such actions in some months of one year but, in an another
year, allow them in those months and forbid them in other months.
In other words, they took what Allâhu ta’âlâ had forbidden (harâm)
as permitted (halâl) and what He had permitted as forbidden. Allâhu
ta’âlâ declares in the âyat that such unbelievers were in excessive
disbelief and that they, by doing so, deceived themselves. Those who,
saying that an action is halâl in a madhhab while being harâm in
another, attempt to change the rules of Islam to suit their desires are
like these unbelievers.
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