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Some General Terms
Wajib -- obligatory,
necessary, incumbent. An act
which must be performed. You
will be rewarded for performing
it and punished for neglecting
it, e.g., the daily prayers, the
fasting of Ramadhan.
Ihtiyat wajib --
precautionarily obligatory. Its
significance is the same as that
of wajib with the difference
that in the problems where a
mujtahid says it is "precautionarily
obligatory", one has the option
of leaving his taqlid
(following) in this particular
problem and following the
rulings of the second-best
mujtahid in that problem.
Haram -- forbidden,
prohibited. It is necessary to
abstain from the acts which are
haram. If someone performs a
haram act, he will be punished,
e.g., eating pork.
Sunnat, Mustahab --
recommendable, desirable. The
acts whose neglect is not
punished, but whose performance
is rewarded, e.g., the call for
prayers (adhan).
Makruh -- reprehensible,
disliked. The acts whose
performance is not punished, but
whose avoidance is rewarded,
e.g., eating in the state of
janabat.
Ja'iz, Halal, Mubah --
permitted, allowed, lawful,
legal. The acts or the thing
which are permitted and lawful.
There is no reward for
performing it and no punishment
for neglecting it, e.g.,
drinking tea. Mubah is
exclusively used for lawful
things, not for permitted
actions.
1. What is taqlid?
Taqlid literally means "to
follow (someone)", "to imitate".
In Islamic legal terminology it
means to follow a mujtahid
in religious laws and
commandment as he has derived
them. A mujtahid is a
person who is an expert of
Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh);
he is also called a faqih.
In order to see where and why
the practice of taqlid
gained acceptance in the Shi'i
world, it is necessary first to
explain it in some detail.
Man's
nature dictates that he can only
function properly within a
society, and a society depends
for its existence on laws and
regulations. Islam teaches that
Allah has sent a series of
messengers and prophets with
divine laws for man's guidance
from the very beginning of his
existence. The final Messenger
and Prophet was Muhammad bin
`Abdullah (may the peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him
and his Household) who brought
the last and most perfect of
God's religious messages, Islam,
which is to serve as a guide for
mankind till the end of time.
Allah is
the Creator of man and the
universe, and so only He can, or
has the right, to make laws for
us. The prophets and messengers
are merely the teachers and
proclaimers of Allah's laws and
regulations; they cannot make
laws themselves. The teachings
of Shi'ah Islam say that the
Imam is the successor of the
Prophet and acts as the
preserver and interpreter of
Islam and its divine law, the
shari'ah. In the earliest
period of Islamic history, the
Prophet guided the Muslim
community (ummah) in
every step it made, and was
there to solve all its
difficulties. From the time of
the first Imam, `Ali, until the
death of the eleventh, the Imam
Hasan al-`Askari, peace be upon
them, the Shi'ah received
guidance directly from the
Imams. Then, during the period
of the Lesser Occultation (al-ghaybatu
's-sughra) of the Twelfth
Imam, he himself successively
appointed four representatives1
who acted as the link between
the Imam and his Shi'ahs.
However, when the present Imam,
peace be upon him, went into his
Greater Occultation (al-ghaybatu
'l-kubra) in 329/941 in
obedience to Allah's command,
the Shi'ah were obliged to
observe taqlid in their
religious affairs.
2. Is taqlid reasonable
in a time of widespread
education?
It is
not always reasonable to follow
others and to hold uncritical
faith in their opinions. We can
distinguish four possible forms
that imitation could take:
a) that
of an ignorant person by an
ignorant person,
b) that
of a learned person by a more
learned person,
c) that
of an ignorant person by a
learned person,
d) that
of a learned person by a less
learned person.
It is
quite clear that the first three
forms of imitation are
unreasonable and can serve no
purpose. However, the fourth
kind is obviously not only
reasonable, but also necessary
and a matter of common sense; in
our everyday life we follow and
imitate others in many things;
we like to feel that we are
taking the advice of experts in
matters outside our own
knowledge. Someone who wishes to
build a house explains the basic
idea of what he wants to his
builder and then submits to his
advice as to how he should go
about the actual construction;
the invalid follows the
treatment advised by his doctor;
a litigant consults a lawyer
when drawing up his case for
presentation in court. The
examples are abundant; in most
cases the advice is taken
voluntarily, but sometimes the
citizen in a country may be
required by law to seek expert
advice and act upon it, before,
for example, he is allowed to
take some particularly dangerous
drug. The clearest example is
obviously in case of a legal
dispute between two parties,
where they are required to take
their grievances before a judge
and abide by his decision if
they cannot settle their dispute
amicably. The practice of
taqlid is an example of the
same kind: the person who is not
an expert in jurisprudence is
legally required to follow the
instructions of the expert,
i.e., the mujtahid. And
in this case the requirement is
an obligation which must be
observed, for it is an essential
part of the divine law.
It
should be observed that
taqlid pertains only to the
realm of the shari'ah;
there can be no taqlid in
the matters of belief (usulu
'd-din). A Muslim must hold
his belief in the fundamentals
of his religion after attaining
conviction of their truth
through examination and
reflection. The Qur'an very
clearly condemns those who
follow others blindly in matters
of belief:
And when
it is said to them, "Come now to
what Allah has sent down, and
the Messenger," they say,
"Enough for us is what we found
our fathers doing". What, even
if their fathers had knowledge
of naught and were not
rightly-guided? (5:104)
This strong
condemnation of the
idol-worshippers is repeated
elsewhere:
And when
it is said to them, "Follow what
Allah has sent down," they say,
"No, but we will follow such
things as we found our fathers
doing." (2:170 and 31:20)
This does
not mean that one must
necessarily hold belief contrary
to those of one's forefathers;
what the Qur'an is saying is
that one should not follow them
blindly, i.e., without
considering the validity of
one's reasons for holding them.
The Islamic attitude towards
fundamental belief is that one
may consider the views and
opinions of others, but that one
should only accept that which is
reasonable to believe:
So give
thou (O Muhammad!) good tidings
to My servants who give ear to
the word and follow the fairest
of it. Those are they whom Allah
has guided; those are men
possessed of minds. (39:17)
To
summarize, it may be said that
the only approach to Islam is by
accepting its tenets in such a
way as one is entirely convinced
of their validity, and this can
only come about if one examines
them carefully and
conscientiously. Once one has
come to accept these tenets it
follows as a necessary
consequence that one must adhere
to the shari'ah, either
by following a mujtahid
in taqlid, or by
undertaking the acquisition of
learning and piety to such a
degree that one becomes a
mujtahid oneself.
3. Taqlid in the Qur'an
and ahadith
The
Qur'an instructs Muslims to seek
guidance from people of learning
in matters about which they lack
knowledge:
"Question the people of
remembrance if you do not know."
(21:7)
It is an
obligation in Islamic law to
study everything which is
necessary for the spiritual and
material development and
well-being of an Islamic
community, but it is an
obligation which is known as
wajib kifa'i.*
In the present instance, for
example, an Islamic society has
need of experts in the medical
sciences, in physics and
chemistry, engineering,
education, and so forth, and as
long as there is a lack of
knowledge in these areas it is
an obligation on the community
as a whole to acquire it, which
means that a group of Muslims
should devote themselves to
research so as to benefit the
Islamic people as a whole.
Similarly, an Islamic society
without experts in the
shari'ah cannot properly
consider itself Islamic, so it
is an obligation for a group of
persons from this society to
devote themselves to the study
of the religious sciences, so as
to provide divine guidance for
all Muslims. This is the meaning
contained in the verse of the
Qur'an which states:
"But why
should not a party from every
section of them (the believers)
go forth to become learned in
the religion, and to warn their
people when they return to them,
that they may beware?" (9:124)
It is clear
that the Imams used to be
pleased if any of their
companions taught religion or
gave legal rulings (fatwa)
to others. There are a number of
documented cases of Shi'ahs who
lived far from Medina asking the
Imam of the time to appoint
someone in their locality to
adjudicate between them in
religious problems. Zakariyyah
ibn Adam al-Qummi and Yunus bin
`Abduí r-Rahman, for example,
were named by Imam `Ali ar-Rida'
to solve disputes in their own
districts.2
In a famous hadith, `Umar
ibn Hanzalah asked Imam Ja`far
as-Sadiq, peace be upon him,
about the legality of two
Shi'ahs seeking a verdict from
an illegitimate ruler in a
dispute over a debt or a legacy.
The Imam's answer was that it
was absolutely forbidden to do
so. Then Ibn Hanzalah asked what
the two should do, and the Imam
replied: "They must seek out one
of you who narrates our
traditions, who is versed in
what is permissible and what is
forbidden, who is
well-acquainted with our laws
and ordinances, and accept him
as judge and arbiter, for I
appoint him as judge over you.
If the ruling which he based on
our laws is rejected, this
rejection will be tantamount to
ignoring the order of Allah and
rejecting us is the same as
rejecting Allah, and this is the
same as polytheism."3
In
another tradition from Imam
Ja'far as-Sadiq, this time
narrated by Imam Hasan
al-`Askari, peace be upon them,
he says, "...but if there is
anyone among the fuqaha'
who is in control over his own
self, protects his religion,
suppresses his evil desires and
is obedient to the commands of
his Master, then the people
should follow him."4
A third
hadith is from the
Present Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi,
peace be upon him, who said in a
reply to Ishaq ibn Ya'qub: "As
far as newly occurring
circumstances are concerned, you
should turn (for guidance) to
the narrators of our ahadith,
for they are my proof over you
just as I am Allah's proof."5
We can understand two things
from these verses of the Qur'an
and the ahadith of the
Imams: 1) there must always be a
group of fuqaha' in every
Muslim society; 2) those who are
not qualified as fuqaha'
or mujtahids, must follow
one, and that to go against his
instruction in religious matters
is tantamount to polytheism.
4. The necessary conditions for
qualification as amujtahid
It can
easily be inferred from the
second of the ahadith
cited above that becoming an
expert in fiqh and the
other Islamic sciences is not in
itself enough for qualification
as a mujtahid whom
everyone can follow. In addition
to this, Islamic law lays down
that a mujtahid should be
a free man of legitimate birth
who is past the age of puberty,
sane, an Ithna-`ashari Shi'ah,
and `adil, (which can be
translated as 'just', but which
includes other moral and legal
qualities, such as piety and
abstention from all that the
shari`ah forbids and
fulfillment of all its
obligations).
As to
the question of how an ordinary
believer should discover who is
the mujtahid he must
follow, there are three
recognized ways: 1) by his own
personal knowledge if he is
himself a religious scholar; 2)
by the testimony of two `adil,
knowledgeable persons to
someone's being a mujtahid;
3) by a degree of popularity
which leaves no doubt as to a
person's being a mujtahid.
Most
present day `ulama'
maintain that it is most
desirable to follow a
mujtahid who is al-a`lam.
In a general sense this means
'the most learned', but in this
specific contexts it means the
faqih who has the
greatest expertise in deriving
the rulings of the shari`ah
from the sources. The
a`lam may be recognized in
any of the three ways a
mujtahid can.6
However, it is sometimes
difficult for the Shi'ah `ulama'
to distinguish whom among
all the fuqaha' is the
most learned, and, as a result,
more than one mujtahid
may be followed in taqlid
at one time (though not, of
course, by the same person), as
is the case at present, but any
such multiplicity does not
result in any practical
disagreement on legal matters
within the Shi'ah community.
5. Why are there differences
among the mujtahids in
their legal opinions?
Many
people wonder why it is that the
mujtahids differ in their
religious opinions, or fatwas,
when the bases of their
ijtihad are the same.
Firstly, it should be said that
any differences in the fatwas
is hardly ever such as to be
contradictory; it is almost
impossible to find a case of one
mujtahid saying some
action is wajib and
another saying it is haram.
Take,
for instance, the case of
salatu 'l-jum`ah, the Friday
prayer. All the Shi'ah `ulama'
are of the opinion that in
the time of the presence of the
Imam this salat is
obligatory on Fridays, because
it is the Imam, or his
representative, who has the
right to call the people to
Friday prayer; but they differ
as to what is the correct course
of action when the Imam is in
Occultation. This difference of
opinion does not, however,
create any practical problem for
the community. The late
Ayatullah as-Sayyid Muhsin
al-Hakim (d. 1970) was one of
the opinion that salatu 'l-jum`ah
is not obligatory during the
Occultation of the Imam, but it
does not matter if someone
performs it supposing that it is
expected (of him), provided that
he also prays the noon prayer (salatu
'z-zuhr). Ayatullah as-Sayyid
Abu 'l-Qasim al-Khu'i says that
"one can choose between
performing salatu 'z-zuhr
or salatu 'l-jum`ah, but
once the latter is established
with all its conditions
(fulfilled), it is
precautionarily obligatory to
participate in it." Ayatullah
as-Sayyid Ruhullah al-Khumayni
says that "one can choose
between performing salatu 'z-zuhr
or salatu 'l-jum`ah,
but if one chooses the latter it
is advisable (mustahab)
to precautionarily perform
salatu 'z-zuhr also."7
Although there are these
differences in the opinions of
these mujtahids, there is
no clash that would, for
example, prevent the follower (muqallid)
of one of them participating in
salatu 'l-jum`ah if it
were established.
Secondly, it should be observed
that the existence of
differences in scientific
opinions is not to be taken as a
sign of a substantial defect in
the quest for knowledge and a
reason for abandoning it
altogether; it is, rather, a
sign that knowledge moves in
progressive steps towards
perfection. Differences of
opinions are to be found in all
sciences, not just in fiqh.
There may, for example, be more
than one opinion about the
therapy for a particular
patient's disease, and all of
these opinions may be superseded
later on by the development of
new methods of dealing with that
disease. Thus these observations
can be seen to be relevant not
only to differences between the
opinions of contemporary
scientists but also to
historical differences, and all
these differences should be
regarded as signs of the
dynamism within a science and
stages to be passed in its route
to perfection.
It
should be remembered that the
mujtahid formulates his
opinions after pushing his
research and study as far as he
can; that is all that is
expected of him, for he is
neither inerrant nor an `alim
bi 'l-ghayb (knower of the
unseen). The muqallid is
enjoined to follow his opinions.
So, even if the mujtahid's
fatwa is not actually in
agreement with Allah's real
command, neither he will be
punished on the Day of Judgement
for having issued the fatwa,
nor will his muqallid for
having acted according to it,
for both will have done what was
commanded of them and what was
humanly possible for them to do.
Footnotes:
1. These
four representatives were:
`Uthman ibn Sa`id al-`Amri, from
260/875-6 to 265/879; Muhammad
ibn `Uthman al-`Amri, from his
father's death until his own in
305/917; Husayn ibn Rawh
an-Nawbakthi, from then until
326/937-8; and finally `Ali ibn
Muhammad as-Samari until his
death in 329/940-1.
2.
Shaykh Hurr al-`Amili,
Wasa'ilu 'sh-Shi`ah, vol.
18, Tehran 1401 A.H., pp. 106-7.
3.
Shaykh al-Kulayni, Furu`u
'l-Kafi, vol. 7, Tehran
1379, p. 412.
4.
Shaykh at-Tabarsi, al-Ihtijaj,
vo. 2, Najaf 1966, p. 263.
5. Ibid,
p. 283.
6. For
these and further rulings
concerning the marja'u
't-taqlid see Sayyid
Muhammad Kazim at-Tabataba'i
al-Yazdi,
al-`Urwatu'l-Wuthqa', Tehran
1972 (published with the
annotations of the contemporary
maraji'), p. 5.
7. See
their respective compilations of
fatwas known as
Tawdihu 'l-masa'il under
rulings nos. 733, 737 and 741.
* Wajib
kifa'i = the obligation which is
on every member of the community
as long as it is unfulfilled,
but as soon as some person, or
persons, has fulfilled it, it is
no longer an obligation on those
who have not fulfilled it.
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