Making itjihad (self decision) on a Madhab

[Caliph]

Asalamu Alaykum Wr. Wb.

Resently I've been interoduced to the word madhab, like 1 year ago. I never heard of it my whole life until then. So I got to study it and found it pretty confusing, and been seeing a lot of people being against madhab and sekts. And I knew a lot of ayats and hadith which were against making sekts, so I joined them. People would see me as a wahabi / salafi, which I clearly was not.

But the point is that when someone asked if I was sunni or shia, I got a bit upset, and said I am muslim, because of these words:

"My Ummah will be fragmented into seventy-three (73) sects. All of them will be in Hell Fire except one sect. They (the Companions) said: Allah's Messenger, which is that? Whereupon he said: It is one to which I and my companions belong". [Tirmidhi. 171]

and ayats from the Quran: Of those who split up their religion and became schismatics, each sect exulting in its tenets. - [surah al-room; verse 32]

But I've talked to some more learned people, and some people from hizb-ut-tahrir, and they explained me how we are not able to make itjihad on Islam, and that we have to follow a madhab.

So basically I don't know which madhab I should follow, but I have chosen to follow Abu Hanifa's madhab, since this is what befell me to be the most major madhab, and the madhab which people in Denmark are following. I don't want to show off by following diffrent madhabs like Shafi'i, Hanbali, Maliki etc... If I don't find any Imam who knows these madhabs well.

The problem with Hanafi is, that they pray Salah at Asr, at a diffrent time, and I don't follow that. I've also been asking shafi's if they follow the shafi rule: "touching a women mistakely leads to wudhu". Whereupon they all neglected and said "no we never heard of this rule".

My first question is: So is it fine to make self-decision on madhabs? Like sometimes I follow maliki, sometimes hanbali, sometimes shafi, sometimes hanafi? Because this is what makes most sense to me.

My second question is: Where can I find rulings of all four madhabs? I've looked around the internet, and I never found any books containing the rulings of a madhab. I live very far from the nearest mosque, and have difficult going there to prey, and my parents ain't very intelectual in Islam, so I get my main resources from the internet, which Isn't that good, but it's better than nothing.

[Abu Salma]

Wa 'alaykum us-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

Asalamu Alaykum Wr. Wb.

Resently I've been interoduced to the word madhab, like 1 year ago. I never heard of it my whole life until then. So I got to study it and found it pretty confusing, and been seeing a lot of people being against madhab and sekts. And I knew a lot of ayats and hadith which were against making sekts, so I joined them. People would see me as a wahabi / salafi, which I clearly was not.

But the point is that when someone asked if I was sunni or shia, I got a bit upset, and said I am muslim, because of these words:

"My Ummah will be fragmented into seventy-three (73) sects. All of them will be in Hell Fire except one sect. They (the Companions) said: Allah's Messenger, which is that? Whereupon he said: It is one to which I and my companions belong". [Tirmidhi. 171]

and ayats from the Quran: Of those who split up their religion and became schismatics, each sect exulting in its tenets. - [surah al-room; verse 32]

But I've talked to some more learned people, and some people from hizb-ut-tahrir, and they explained me how we are not able to make itjihad on Islam, and that we have to follow a madhab.

So basically I don't know which madhab I should follow, but I have chosen to follow Abu Hanifa's madhab, since this is what befell me to be the most major madhab, and the madhab which people in Denmark are following. I don't want to show off by following diffrent madhabs like Shafi'i, Hanbali, Maliki etc... If I don't find any Imam who knows these madhabs well.

The problem with Hanafi is, that they pray Salah at Asr, at a diffrent time, and I don't follow that. I've also been asking shafi's if they follow the shafi rule: "touching a women mistakely leads to wudhu". Whereupon they all neglected and said "no we never heard of this rule".

My first question is: So is it fine to make self-decision on madhabs? Like sometimes I follow maliki, sometimes hanbali, sometimes shafi, sometimes hanafi? Because this is what makes most sense to me.

My second question is: Where can I find rulings of all four madhabs? I've looked around the internet, and I never found any books containing the rulings of a madhab. I live very far from the nearest mosque, and have difficult going there to prey, and my parents ain't very intelectual in Islam, so I get my main resources from the internet, which Isn't that good, but it's better than nothing.

Dear brother, I suggest you visit these Danish language websites:

http://www.al-islam.dk/ (various articles - also on following/choosing madhhabs and Hanafi fiqh)
http://www.haya.dk/ (Q&A site according to the Hanafi madhhab)

As for the 'Asr issue, then there are two views regarding the 'Asr time in the Hanafi madhhab. One is the "later one" and the other one is the same time as the 'Asr time of the other madhhabs. In Denmark most - if not all - Hanafi mosques pray according to the earlier time (like the other madhhabs).

I live in Denmark too, so feel free to contact me through the contact page @ http://www.al-islam.dk/ (I'm the admin)

Wa as-salam,

[Caliph]

Tusind Tak bror.

But those links you gave me are islamic sites, and don't go specific into the rulings of Abu Hanifa, they only explain Islam.

[Abu Salma]

Tusind Tak bror.

But those links you gave me are islamic sites, and don't go specific into the rulings of Abu Hanifa, they only explain Islam.

Selv tak, bror!

Actually the answers / rulings given on Haya.dk are according to the school of Imam Abu Hanifa, as are quite a few of the articles under "Fiqh" on al-Islam.dk. On the latter site I have put (Hanafi) in paranthesis after the article titles on the Fiqh page.

Hope that helps.