^^brotherubaid made an effective point earlier in that post but I think thatpost has been edited because the last time I saw it was a long and interesting one. So I'll try and repeat what he said in the following, Inshallah.
That post was not edited or deleted. It was kept in moderation queue to prevent this thread from going off topic.
So keeping the above points in mind, it won't be right to follow a particular school of thought blindly. We have to see whats best and evaluate ourselves. Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) followed the Hanbali school because he found it to be sound. The four Imams did not have the access to each and every hadeeth and their sciences but we do. I think finally, I've been able to put forward my point, Alhamdulillah.
I can't say that one particular school of thought is the ideal way because I haven't studied any of them but it is very well known that each school has accepted Daeef hadeeth in one practice or the other.
No bro, you are assuming here that we have access to each and every hadeeth after 1400 years and the Ahadeeth that even Imams of the Salaf did not know. In fact, Imam Abu Hanifa (RH) is a Tabi'ee. He has a met and seen a few Sahabah practice. And Imam Shafi'ee (RH), Imam Ahmad (RH), and Imam Malik (RH) are all from the next generation, ie they have seen the Tabi'een. They had access to those Ahadeeth as well that have not reached us. There is a possibility that a few Ahadeeth that were available to those Imams with Sound narrations, might have later become weak in it's chain due to later narrators. And there are Hadeeth books that were written after the time of the Imams. So how can you say the Imams didn't have access to Ahadeeth and we have access to them?
I would recommend you to read this book, Legal Status of Following a Madhab by Mufti Taqi Usmani:
http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/LegalStatusOfFollowingAMadhab.pdf
This topic of following a School of Thought was discussed here, you can view the following threads for more details.
http://www.islamicboard.com/general/134273706-madhab.html
http://www.islamicboard.com/methodology/52890-madhhab-most-correct.html
Books like fazail e amal and others are to be avoided coz they are filled with weak and fabricated , yes there is some good in it , but if u look at some of the Aqaid promoted or mentioned in it you will be surprised.
Riyadh al saliheen is a good book of hadith and The 40 al nawawi is a great way to start , we also have the 40 Ibn rajab al hanbali.
But there is weak ones in riyadh al saliheen also , so always stick to the scholars , stick to the people of knowledge , the big scholars the muhadiths and the people of hadith.
Again bro, the scholars who have compiled these books of Ahadeeth were great scholars of their time. How can we laymen assume that these scholars have included weak and fabricated ahadeeth in their works? It's an allegation out of ignorance.
The books Riyadhus-Saliheen and Fazaile A'mal are the books on Fazail (virtues) of deeds. The 'Ulama have always used and allowed the use of weak ahadeeth in matters pertaining to fazail.
From the Epilogue of hafiz al-Sakhawi's
"al-Qawl al-badi` fi al-salat `ala al-habib al-shafi`"
[The Admirable Doctrine Concerning the Invocation upon the Beloved Intercessor]
Shaykh al-Islam Abu Zakariyya al-Nawawi (rad.ia-LLahu `anhu) said in the 'Adhkar':
"The ulama among the experts in hadith and the experts in law and others have said: it is permissible and (also) recommended that the religious practice (al-`amal) concerning good deeds and good character (al-fadâ'il), encouragement to good and discouragement from evil (al-targhib wa al-tarhib) be based (even) on weak hadith (bi al-hadith al- da`îf) as long as it is not forged (mawdu`).
Source
You can view the following links for more details:
http://www.albalagh.net/qa/hadith_authenticity.shtml
http://engagersindawah.blogspot.com/2008/04/daif-weak-ahadith-pertaining-to.html
http://www.beautifulislam.net/hadith/weak_hadiths.htm
On a side note, the terms
Weak, Sound, Authentic Hadith are classifications used for Ahadeeth. They are not similar to the english usage of the word "weak", "sound", "authentic". Weak Hadith does not mean that the Hadith itself is weak. It means that the chain of narrations through which this hadith has reached us is weak. There is a certain element of doubt in one of the narrators in the chain. No scholar on earth, no matter how learned and great he becomes, can say with 100% assurance that a certain weak hadeeth is not the words of Rasulullah Sallallahu 'Alaihi waSallam.
Maudhu' hadeeth is a different case.
To prevent this thread from going off topic, no more discussion will be allowed on this matter.