Modern scholars

wa alaykum us-Salaam wa rahmatullah
you cant always have only 1 opinion on a certain matter...it isnt something unheard of or rejected. it's okay if you follow one imam or group of imams, but it is essential to realize that other imams will also have a different ruling on a certain matter as well, thus they shouldn't be rejected (not saying you do reject them) but rather respected.

read this
http://www.islamicboard.com/manners-...r-ijtihad.html

see how both opinions are acceptable?

Option # 2: I can follow a madhab and that way my scholars wouldn't contradict. But I have read fatwas by my beloved Muhammad Abdul Wahabb (love his wording in fatwas) and I don't have the ability to choose a stronger view. Hence I believe that there are stronger views due to the fact that today's scholars do have more information (hadeeths) than the scholars of the past (may Allah, azzawajall, be pleased with them all).

but hadeeths arent the only source of knowledge scholars use to derive their rulings from. you should read the book "the evolution of fiqh," by Bilal Phillips. it will help you understand why the differing between mathhabs/ulamaa occurs.

The thing is that I have read fatwas by madhabis who stick to their madhab and they contradict their madhab. I find their fatwas excessive. For example, the fatwa of those who stick to their madhab totally contradicted a sound hadeeth NOT encouraging woman to pray in the mesjid, but the scholar encourages woman to pray in the mesjid. If this scholar is following other madhab than the one I assume he does, if I followed that madhab I would follow his advice which contradicts a good hadeeth. So this option doesn’t work.

So, why is it that modern scholars who follow their madhab contradict their madhab? If they do,,,,,

i thought that was the whole point of following a mathhab becuase you cant analyze or understand the texts as they should be and hence the mathhab has done that for you

i dont see what difference it makes whether you follow an imam or follow a mathhab? either way you are still following an imam, right

why can't you just take the ruling of the imam you ask and stick by that why do you need to do all this investigating

the imams are there for a reason and that's to help us explain things we dont know of the Quran and Sunnah so until/unless you have the knowledge on how to derive the rulings yourself, then it is essential to take the fatwa the imam gives you without as it is otherwise you will fall into much confusion.