Could we be punished for following one of the four Sunni schools of law (madhhab) if it turned out to be wrong on a given position?

I understand that we can follow one of the 4 imaams and get the prescriptions for following the religion. Are we questionable by Allah subhanahu wa taala, if the imaam happens to have had a wrong opinion. One of the brothers that I work with has an opinion that people still need to validate each and every one of the prescriptions with their own conscious reasoning. He was asking me if we will be able to justify our actions to Allah subhanahu wa taala, based on the fact that we were muqallids.

Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

We have been commanded to follow qualified scholarship, as represented by the four Sunni schools. We will not be questioned if a particular opinion valid to follow was in fact not true.

Imam Kashmiri (Allah have mercy on him) explains that what we understand from the enveloping mercy and lutf of Allah is that He will keep this hidden from us in the Next Life as He did in this life.

For details on the issue of madhhabs, please refer to the excellent articles by Shaykh Nuh Keller and Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad on Sidi Mas’ud Khan’s pioneering site, www.masud.co.uk 

Wassalam.

Faraz Rabbani