What is the ruling of following Madhabs?

Following a Madhab is not in and of itself wrong because the Madhab represents the efforts of the scholars, the tradition of scholarship which has sought to follow as closely as possible the Madhab of Rasulullah (ﷺ).

So if we understand that the scholars are making efforts to try to follow the Madhab of Rasulullah (ﷺ) but they were human beings, meaning that there will be mistakes in their efforts, then there is no problem. We can follow their efforts, we can benefit from their efforts because for most of us, we don’t have sufficient knowledge to go and extract the rulings and the laws, etc, back from those original sources. We don’t have this knowledge, and to claim to do so, when we don’t have this knowledge is an even worse deviation because for sure we will fall into grave error and we will lead others into grave error.

So, following a Madhab is not in and of itself wrong, but if knowledge comes to us that  a position which is held by the Madhab which we follow is actually in contradiction with the authentically related rulings from the Prophet (ﷺ), then we should be open minded enough to seek clarity to get a better understanding.

We have to be clear on our commitment to the Shahadatain in that we submit to the commandments of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) and the commandment of the Prophet (ﷺ), and that we don’t make a distinction between the two.

 Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) said in the Qur’an:

مَّن يُطِعِ ٱلرَّسُولَ فَقَدۡ أَطَاعَ ٱللَّهَ‌ۖ

Whoever obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah. [1]

So, Allah says there is no distinction between the two, and we should treat their commands in a way different from the way that we treat the commands of other human beings, as the Prophet (ﷺ) said:

“There is no obedience to any human being if it involves disobedience of Allah.” [2]

References:

[1] Qur’an 4:80

[2]  Ahmad, 1098