Ibn Bāz: Is It Allowed to Ask Other Scholars after Getting an Answer from One of Them?

Presenter (reading from a question): It’s said: If you ask a scholar and he gives you a fatwá, then carry out what he told you and don’t seek a fatwá from anyone else. Is this correct, or can I keep asking until my heart feels assured and at peace?

Shaikh Ibn Bāz, may Allāh have mercy on him: This is not correct. Rather, someone with a question should exert efforts in asking until his heart feels assured and at peace; [he should] seek out the most knowledgeable, then the most knowledgeable, and the most pious, then the most pious, from the people of knowledge—until his heart feels assured and at peace that the fatwá is correct, and that it corresponds and is in accordance with the Sharīʿah, as the Prophet ﷺ said: “Righteousness is having good character, while sin is what wavers uneasily in your soul and you’d hate people to find out about.” And he ﷺ said: “Seek a fatwá from your heart: righteousness is what the soul feels at rest with and what the heart feels at peace with, while sin is what wavers uneasily in the soul and keeps fluctuating in the chest with uncertainty and hesitation, even if people were to issue you fatwá after fatwá.”

So a believer seeks knowledge, works to gain understanding in the religion, and asks the people of knowledge until his heart feels at rest that the fatwá is in agreement with the Sharīʿah—as far as he has been able to determine and to the best of his ability.

Presenter: Okay, regarding a student of knowledge, if someone were to come to him asking him for a fatwá, and he finds out from [from the one asking] him that he had already sought a fatwá from someone before him, would it be okay for him to give him a response in this request of his for a [second] fatwá?

Shaikh Ibn Bāz: There’s no objection. But it is upon the muftī to seek out the Sharʿī evidences and not be lax about that; to look to the Book and the Sunnah and then give what he knows from Allāh’s legislation—[from] the Book of Allāh and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ—to the one asking [him]. He must not be lax. Rather, he should strive his utmost and investigate carefully, so that he does not issue a fatwá except upon insight and knowledge.

And if someone with a question asks him, and he knows that he had [already] asked someone else, then there’s no objection in that. And were he to ask [the one asking him], saying, “What did so-and-so tell you?” so that, by way of that, he could either agree with him or differ with him, there’s no harm in that.

The Companions [may Allāh be pleased with them] used to do this. They would do this, asking the one who asked them: “What did so-and-so tell you?” So he would say: “So-and-so said [such-and-such],” and then he would say: “Then [the matter] is upon his fatwá.” And he might differ with him, and thus say: “The fatwá is such-and-such, and the fatwá is such-and-such.” Yes.

Presenter: Okay. If he were to refrain from giving him a fatwá, would that come under concealing knowledge?

Shaikh Ibn Bāz: If he knows that the fatwá [that had been previously given] is false, then it would come under concealing knowledge. As for if [the matter were one that relied] upon individual judgments, investigations, or opinions, then there’s no harm [in his holding back from answering].

Source: https://binbaz.org.sa/fatwas/5402/هل-اذا-سالت-عالما-وافتاني-فلا-يجوز-سوال-غيره