Yes, the four madhabs—we've already discussed this in detail.

The topic before, but in short.

The four madhabs, as you mentioned, came after the Messenger ﷺ and after the sahaba, may Allah be pleased with them. The oldest among them is Abu Hanifa.

May Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, have mercy on him. And Abu Hanifa,

He died in the year 140, meaning he did not meet

Even the sahaba, so he is considered a follower of the followers.

These schools of thought, the whole matter is that Abu Hanifa, may Allah have mercy on him, was a scholar among the scholars of the Muslims.

He had opinions and so on, and he had students, and these students began to spread.

His statements among the people, and many people admired his statements, so they started saying: What did Abu Hanifa say? What did Abu Hanifa say? What did he say? Then his students came and compiled books.

About his opinions, so if they said this is a school of thought, this is the opinion of Abu Hanifa.

After him came Malik ibn Anas, Imam Malik, and it was the same thing.

He was a scholar among the scholars of the Muslims, and he also had students who admired his words, and they started collecting them.

Okay, and they spread it among the people. The same with al-Shafi'i, the same with Ahmad.

Al-Shafi'i was originally a student of Malik.

And Ahmad was a student of al-Shafi'i, so for example, Imam Malik did not say to al-Shafi'i, "Follow me."

Nor did al-Shafi'i say, "I follow Malik, this is Malik's opinion and this is my opinion."

And Ahmad was the same, a student of al-Shafi'i, he did not just follow him, but he had his own opinions. The only thing is that people paid attention to the opinions of these four.

So they collected them. After that, some ignorant people came.

And they said you must follow Malik, you must follow Abu Hanifa, you must follow al-Shafi'i, you must. This is wrong.

The only one who must be followed is Muhammad ﷺ alone.

He is the one to be followed, as for anyone other than the Prophet ﷺ, no one must be followed.

Never, even Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Everyone's statement can be accepted or rejected except the one in this grave, and he pointed to the grave of the Prophet.

ﷺ, so no one is to be followed in everything he says except the Prophet ﷺ. These are scholars who made efforts, all that happened is that people became fanatical about them, people loved them and became fanatical about them.

And over time, ignorant people appeared who forced others.

By following these madhabs, and this is not correct. What is required is obedience to Allah and obedience to the Messenger only.