If one is Shafii can one be Hanafi in trade and transacting? If one is Hanafi, can one do Shafi

Walaikum Assalam,

It is not religiously binding to follow one’s own madhhab in all one’s affairs. One can follow another madhhab as long as one:

a) Does not make it a habit of seeking out dispensations without need, as the majority of scholars (including Imam Nawawi and Ibn Hajar of the Shafiis, and Haskafi and Ibn Abidin of the Hanafis) have deemed this to be corruption (fisq); and

b) Makes sure that one follows the other madhhab validly, fulfilling all conditions and integrals of the other madhhab.

The way of caution and piety (taqwa), especially when one does not have access to reliable scholars of the other madhhab to consult, is to adhere to one’s madhhab without exception. When need occurs, one should only act on another madhhab’s position after consulting reliable scholars of that other school. One should be wary of simply acting on what lay persons say.

The details of this have been mentioned by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed in several answers in the Shafii Fiqh list, as on the Hanafi Fiqh list, on www.sunnipath.com.

And Allah alone gives success.

Faraz Rabbani.