Al-ʿAllāmah Ibn ʿUthaimeen (rahimahullāh) said in At-Taʿlīq ʿalā Muqaddimatil-Majmūʿ p. 244:
“The common people should never follow fatwas blindly because they will go astray and cause others to go astray. And this is the condition of blind followers. Ibn Abdul-Barr (rahimahullāh) said: ‘The blind-follower has no knowledge; and there is no differing over that fact.’ (Jāmiʿ Bayān al-ʿIlm wa Fadlihi, 2/992)
He is right, the Muqallid is not a scholar; he is merely a reporter of information, he reports the saying of someone else. The scholar is the one who investigates a ruling for a matter from the Book and Sunnah, and from the sayings of the scholars. As for just taking a book, for example, Zād al-Mustaqniʿ, or other than it from the books of Fiqh—and pass fatwas based on that—then such a person is not from the scholars. However, in cases of necessity, there is an allowance. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said a statement that I truly liked. He said that Taqleed (blind following) is like eating carrion—it is not permissible except in cases of necessity. Likewise, the one who blindly follows is excused only when he cannot find a scholar who has exercised ijtihād.”
Benefit: ask for proofs.
