Loss of Taqwa

Another corruption caused by taqlid — largely related to the two previous problems, i.e., lack of responsibility and conscious worship — is that taqwa (God-consciousness) disappears from individuals and departs from society. Translating the word taqwa into Persian has been a challenge for translators, as it derives from the root meaning "fear," but the question has always been: if God is merciful, why is "fear Allah" (ittaqū Allāh) emphasised so much? For this reason, "piety," "devoutness," and "righteousness" have also been used, but none fully capture the meaning. However, if we view it as: "always being afraid of whether we have found and acted upon the correct and God-pleasing course" and "always having concern for God and His will," or in other words, "always being in the state of examining the correctness of our actions," the meaning becomes clearer and also approaches the concept of piety^[1]. And this taqwa and constant examination is precisely what is destroyed by taqlid, because by definition, taqlid means following "without examination," as mentioned in the definition of taqlid cited from Mr. Sistani in the section Definition of Taqlid.

Beyond the theoretical definition, from a practical perspective, Islam always wants humans to be in a state of fear and hope, watchfulness, searching for the truth, discovering error, returning, and repenting. But in the method of taqlid, the marja' writes: "Acting according to this treatise will, God willing, be sufficient (mujzī)," and the muqallid, imagining that the responsibility lies with the marja', becomes heedless of the consequences of his actions and does not think about whether his action is correct. The search for what is right and the discovery of error have been delegated to the marja'. But even if the marja' realises his mistake and changes his fatwa, the muqallid sees no need to repent from his past actions because he does not consider himself at fault. Any social rights that may have been violated in the process remain unresolved until the Day of Resurrection — of course, if a marja' changes a fatwa regarding relations with others. In a sense, religion becomes a static and stagnant ritual — something we witness today in the form of "well-known jurisprudence."

We pose this as a #challenge. When was the first and last time a marja' changed and corrected a social fatwa, and who restored the previously violated rights? If such a thing has never happened, can we say that all of them were correct and no right has ever been violated by fatwas? Given the differences in fatwas and the round-the-clock efforts of scholars and their subordinate experts to review and revise fatwas, it must be probable that one of the disputing parties has realised their mistake and corrected their fatwa. Especially in social issues, which unlike individual issues involve much complexity and sensitivity.

The importance of taqwa is so great that God states the purpose of creating humans as worship and the purpose of worship as attaining taqwa:

And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me. (51:56)

O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous. (2:21)

It must be noted that God is absolutely free of need and has no need for our bowing and prostrating, sacrificing, paying religious dues, and other outward forms of worship. The purpose of worship is to do good deeds — especially in hardships and trials — with the aim of growth and betterment of the human being himself, which passes through the path of divine taqwa. And the most important form of taqwa — which is examining the correctness of actions and being concerned about doing them correctly — has no place in the mechanism of taqlid. People delegate most of this taqwa and concern — which is needed for recognising and verifying the divineness of actions before and after performing them — to the marja' taqlid and implement them with peace of mind, hoping that the marja' will answer for them on the Day of Resurrection. Even as they read these words, they may ask themselves: "Is the marja' going to give us a wrong ruling that we would need to answer for? Is it even possible for them to have made a mistake?!"

Verses Relating Taqwa to Taqlid and Non-Taqlid

In defense of the idea that knowledge-based following means searching for what is divine and thus results in greater taqwa, and that taqlid means following without knowledge and thus results in lesser taqwa, we revisit the verses related to taqlid that were reviewed in the section "Taqlid in the Qur'an and Narrations" (currently only available in Persian) — this time examining whether they refer to taqwa.

• Regarding verses 17-18 of Surah al-Zumar, which speak of "those who listen to the word and follow the best of it", the preceding verse (16) ends with "O My servants, have taqwa of Me", and verse 20 says, "But those who have taqwa of their Lord will have chambers [in Paradise]...".

Parent page: What Harms Does Taqlid Have

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