Wa `alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving

All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon His Messenger Muhammad.

 

A Muslim has only to follow the tradition of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). No Muslim scholar has ever asked Muslims to follow all his opinions; simply because he is a human being and his opinion could be wrong, in spite of his sincerity and great endeavor to reach the truth. The opinions of scholars are just attempts to guide Muslims along the prophetic path.

For learned persons, they are aware of the principles of each school of Fiqh and one of them may choose to follow the principles of a specific school, because its principles seem to be the best in his view.

Still, however, in his search for the true opinion, he may adopt a different opinion in some cases, if he is not fully convinced with the opinion of the school he belonged to.

For lay people, they do not have the ability to distinguish between the principles of Fiqh Schools in order to choose the best in their sight. Therefore, a lay person askes a scholar whom he believes to be most knowledgeable and most pious and follows his fatwa. If there is a dominant Fiqh school in any country, usually scholars of that country follow the opinion of that Fiqh school.

Allah Almighty knows best.