quote:

"...Know that Imam Muslim, may Allah have mercy on him, was a mujtahid imam who was focused on the texts (of the Book and the Sunnah). What the blind followers have been made to believe, that he was on a particular math-hab, is only the result of his position corresponding with that imam's position sometimes, a result of their agreement on the meanings of those evidences, or perhaps due to him learning that ruling from him, or from someone who learned it from him. If this is something that establishes blind following (taqleed), then we must conclude that ash-Shaafi'ee himself was a Maalikee, since he learned from him; and that Ahmad himself was a Shaafi'ee, since he learned from him, and so on..."