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.
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.
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.
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. 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."
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."
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." 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.
The necessary conditions for qualification as a Mujtahid
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. 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.
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." 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.
Comments posted are the sole opinion of the author and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of AIM. |
