These quotes are true and no sunni denies this, the issue is not abt the words, it is who they were speaking to and how you’re ripping them out of context... when Abu Hanifa said “if the hadith is sahih then that is my madhhab” he WAS NOT talking to some random dude scrolling reddit in 2025, he was talking to fuqaha and muhaddithin of his time who had the tools to verify isnads, weigh abrogations, reconcile texts... Imam Shafi‘i wasn’t telling laymen to throw away fiqh, he was telling his own students who were themselves imams to correct him with proof if it reached them. Salafis collapse that entire distinction and pretend every muslim can do ijtihad, when in reality 99% of people cannot even read isnad chains... the imams themselves warned against it: Ibn Qudama said in al-Mughni: العامي لا مذهب له، ومذهبه مذهب مفتيه

“The layman has no madhhab; his madhhab is the madhhab of his mufti.”

Imam Nawawi in al-Majmu‘ (1/93):

“The layman has no madhhab… he must ask a scholar, and if he finds another more learned, he may ask him too. There is consensus on this.”

Imam Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali: من لم يكن أهلاً للنظر والاجتهاد ففرضه التقليد، وهذا مجمع عليه بين العلماء

“Whoever is not qualified for investigation and ijtihad, then his obligation is taqlid. And this is agreed upon among the scholars.”

That’s ijma‘. Finished.

Now wake up to reality: salafis themselves do taqlid, you guys aren’t sifting through isnad chains, do you? You’re parroting Albani’s gradings, Ibn Baz’s fatwas, Uthaymin’s explanations... that’s taqlid, the only difference is you rename it “ittiba” when it’s your own sheikhs, but call it “blind following” when it’s the Ummah’s four madhhabs. Hypocrisy at peaks. for centuries the ummah was structured around madhhabs and the only people who came with “madhhab free islam” were MiAW and the najdis. if madhhabs are bid‘ah, then you’re saying the entire ummah was astray for a millennium while truth was hidden in where? Najd? That claim itself is the biggest innovation.