[foodselfdourileka]

If you have a specific reason for wanting to switch, then let us know and we could perhaps ease your anxieties.

I will tell you right now that the Hanbali movement in the West is largely a front for Salafiyyah, and you will have to eventually pick between the Ulema of Deoband and the Suadi Hanbalis. I know some may be thinking that this isn't true, but I personally know a person that lives in my city who has basically made an occupation out of luring Hanafis in the name of Tableegh and then turning them into "Hanbali" Salafis who mock and look down upon Hanafis in particular, and every other Madhab in general.

It could probably be asked, "Why Hanbali?" With all due respect to the Madhab, why would you want to choose the Madhab which has always historically been the smallest, and has yet whose scholars have probably led to the most strife within the Ummah in relative terms (I don't mean to slight the Madhab, but rather call to attention the fact that the recent interest in it must have a cause that didn't exist in the Modern day)? Of course the methodology is valid, and it is important that there be Hanbalis who are able to keep the Madhab alive and not die like many others, but in this day and age the resurgence Hanabilah has seen is not due to its own merits, but due to the calculated attacks that the scholars of the other Madhahib have been facing from scholars from certain sects. So you should really ponder upon the reasons for your attraction to the Madhab. Is it artificial or real?

In addition, there will be a lot of difficulties in learning the Madhab, as even Musa Ferber has attested to.

As for the website you have mentioned, I personally know the one who has written those articles, and would very much warn against it due to the blatant dishonesty exhibited within that website, as well as from my own personal dealings with the person.

You said you have a Shaikh, why not ask him?