In-House Scholar
"Correct" Taqleed in first instance means to
copy someone who is a direct representative of Allah,
whether in physical matters such as Salah,
and metaphysical matters such as belief in The One God and the unseen.
The prophets belief about God,
which he heard from Gabriel Is taqleed of The prophet(s.a) from Gabriel (a.s),
till the prophet reaches The Truth of the matter himself.
The acts of worship of the prophet is taqleed from Gabriel,
until upon the effect of belief and proper actions he reaches the truth of it.
As a result, The prophet was a Moqaled( copier) of Gabriel,
and the interesting fact is that the Prophet did not receive,
yaqeen (certainty) as a gift from Allah,
Instead Allah said: Worship your Lord so that certainty reaches you.
Second is the taqleed of the people from The prophet (s.a),
because people in the part of belief and actions used to do the same things,
the prophet did, and that the prophet used to say and do.
Do you really think The prophet would explain everything to everyone?
And Muslims in that period knew everything completely?
Just like how everything is explained to us now?
The people used to hear from the The prophet,
that God said this and God did that , And everyone would accept it ,
And this is the true meaning of Faith/belief.
And this is an imitation of thinking from the explanations of The prophet,
because if everything has to be explained to me logically for me to accept it,
first of all this is not Iman (Belief), but is Islam (Initial stage of Submission).
Secondly this kind of belief is obvious,
and is similar to the belief of Adam ,Eve, and Iblis (Satan) to The one God,
Which there is no credit for, as the existence of God was obvious to them.
Third is the Taqleed ( imitation) of the people from Imams(a.s) ,
meaning that some one has been directly introduced by God and his prophet.
In this manner, what ever that person says, Should be imitated exactly by people.
Fourth is to Imitate from any source,
in the time of absence of the prophet and imam,
that states exactly the same opinion of The Imams and The prophet.
Without adding any personal opinions to it.
Without adding any personal opinions to it.
Without adding any personal opinions to it.
Whether in matters of the Interpretations of The Quran,
Whether in matters of Beliefs,
Whether in matter of Laws,
Any personal opinions is forbidden in matters of Religion,
Even in regards to Interpreting the Quran, Leave alone jurisprudence laws.
Anybody who does so, has done a forbidden act, And their place is in Hell fire.
Whether this is an opinion from what we have been told are religious scholars,
Whether me, you and the rest,
and whether they were people during the time of The prophet or Imam,
and whether after them or during our period.
Imam Sadiq (a.s) due to the divine knowledge he had inherited from
the prophet and Ali (a.s) and although during his time,
there were lots of personal expertise and interpreters,
Imam Sadiq with full pride and surety, even towards the Ahlul sunnah, said:
May God remove his mercy from Abu Hanifa who used to say Ali (a.s) has said and I also have said
(Al-Kafi)
Hence, if we have forbidden taqleed ( imitation)
from the sayings of Imam Sadiq (a.s) We mean to say,
taqleed of someone who expresses their personal opinions,
not those who deliver and explain the sayings of the masoomeen (Infallibles).
If it were other than this,and the problem was from the word itself,
Even the prophet(s.a) should not have acted on what Gabriel (a.s) said,
because it would be considered Taqleed ( Imitation).
Ali (a.s) and the rest of us should not have acted on what the prophet said,
and should not have imitated our acts of worship,
because it would be considered Taqleed
I shall repeat again and shall always say Taqleed is forbidden,
If it is thru personal opinions,and is Permissible if it is Allah's opinion.
Marja taqleed is rejected according to the sayings of Imam Sadiq (a.s)
Because they deduct the laws of religion thru personal opinions.
But if someone or a marja, presents the result of his/her research,
this act is not forbidden,
Because this person has not presented his/her own personal opinion,
But has gathered the hadiths related to the law,
Like the book "Eyn Al hayat " by Alameh Majlisi,
which consists of various topics,and under each chapter,
the hadiths related to the subject is written and presented.
People witnessed the prayers,
heard and saw everything exactly from the Prophet,
and by copying it, did the same,this is called Taqleed, imitation,
and this taqleed is an absolute religious obligation.
The Scholars who have stated at the beginning of their risalah,
taqlid in any other way is haram, and whatever he has written is a result of research,
not his personal opinion,these kind of scholars are to be valued.
That in this day and times have not polluted themselves with personal opinions,
because this is a sign of faith in them towards the sayings of the masoomeen,
and it is our duty to ask our questions from these kind of maraje.
To be continued...