Does learning Fiqh and adhering to a specific Madhhab mean that the student departs from what he used to practice in order to imitate this Madhhab, until a contradiction becomes apparent to him, whereupon he then abandons it?

We must differentiate between two matters:

1. The methodology of Fiqh study: A student of knowledge is advised to begin with a specific madhhab (school of thought), gradually studying its core texts, commentaries, intermediate and advanced books, and its rules. Mixing between madhahib before gaining proficiency is discouraged. This is what is called "adherence to a madhhab" as a scholarly methodology. 2. Practice and worship: There is no harm for a Muslim to continue with the fatwas (religious edicts) of the scholars in their country that they grew up with, or to adopt one of the madhahib. It is permissible for them to switch between madhahib or scholars' fatwas, as long as they are not following their whims or seeking out the dispensations (rukhs) of the madhahib. The important thing is that the action is based on clear knowledge. Scholars have unanimously agreed that an ordinary person may imitate (taqlid) any scholar they wish, and that an ordinary person has no madhhab; rather, their madhhab is the madhhab of their mufti (one who issues fatwas).

Scholars differentiate between adherence to a madhhab as a scholarly arrangement for choosing specific principles of inference (which is permissible), and bigotry towards a madhhab and prioritizing its opinion over the Sunnah or scholarly consensus (which is blameworthy).