I am trying to understand this for a while and appreciate any referenced answers.
There are things that are sinful in one madhhab but not in another.
As a lay person, I find that very unsettling and rather confusing.
E.g. You do not pray sunnah of dhuhr - sinful in Hanafi.
In another madhhab - you can choose to not pray Sunnah of dhuhr all your life, and yet you are not sinful.
Now... hypothetically, lets say we find out on the day of judgement that the correct ruling according to Rabbul 'alameen is that it is indeed sinful.
So those laymen who followed the Hanafi school are on the hook with sin because they left it out while believing that they should have done it as per their madhhab.
In contrast, those laymen from another school who didn't pray the sunnah of dhuhr at all, are free of sins because they didn't consider it to be a sin to begin with as they followed the ijtihad of their madhhab.
You might say, "Do what your madhhab says. If you are hanafi, you do it. If you are shafi'i, you don't have to do it. Just don't follow your nafs."
I get it. I understand the one of the biggest plus of following madhhab is that you resist your nafs.
My question is more about the effort.
A Hanafi prayers dhuhr sunnah for 10 years and doesn't pray dhuhr sunnah for 20 years. He's got sin of 20 years for not praying sunnah Muakkadah. Despite him praying 10 years, he's still in net negative overall.
While a Shafi'i does not pray dhuhr sunnah at all for 30 years and yet he has no sin because of the ijtihad he followed. He has made no effort in praying it all for all of his life and also has no sin.
It just seems a bit unfair to be honest. Can someone explain this to me?
