Taqlid of the Murji'ah

A narration is reported:

Abu al-Hasan (p) said to me: "O Muhammad, are you more intense in taqlid, or the Murji'ah?" He said: "I said: 'We practice taqlid and they practice taqlid.' He said: 'I did not ask you about that.' I had no answer beyond the first one. So Abu al-Hasan (p) said: 'The Murji'ah set up a man whose obedience was not made obligatory and they imitated him; but you set up a man and made his obedience obligatory, then you did not imitate him. So they are more intense in taqlid than you.'" ^[1]

This is one of three hadiths in which the root word "taqlid" appears. The other two — one recommends taqlid for the common people and the other forbids any kind of taqlid in religion for anyone ^[2]. But this hadith seems to be somewhat neutral, and more than that, against taqlid and negating it. The Imam (p) neither commanded taqlid nor praised anyone for practicing it, nor can any of his words be interpreted as having a positive view of taqlid. On the contrary, it can be understood that he considered taqlid a bad and reprehensible thing.

Apparently, the Murji'ah were a particular group of people who were non-Shi'a. Regardless of their nature, the Imam asks about the intensity of taqlid among them and the Shi'a. The person says both we and they practice taqlid. The Imam says that was not my question, and the person admits he has no answer. The Imam (p) says: "They appointed a person whose obedience was not prescribed for them and imitated him; and you appointed a person and considered it obligatory to obey him, but then did not imitate him — so they are more intense and serious in taqlid than you." If the Imam's command and will were for taqlid, he would not have said "you appointed a person." And if the Imam's view was that taqlid is a divine obligation, he would not have said "you considered it obligatory to obey him." The phrasing of this narration is somewhat similar to the matter of monasticism (rahbaniyyah) in Christianity, about which God says: "But monasticism they invented — We did not prescribe it for them —... yet they did not observe it with true observance" (57:27). Here too, the Imam says they fulfilled taqlid better. Nevertheless, just as it is very difficult to derive from that verse a recommendation for monasticism, here too it is very difficult to derive a recommendation for taqlid.

Another reason that can be considered against this narration indicating taqlid is its placement in the book al-Kafi. This book — one of the four major Shi'a books, compiled at a time roughly contemporary with Imam al-Mahdi — begins with an introduction criticizing taqlid, followed by two chapters on "Intellect and Ignorance" and "The Excellence of Knowledge," and then seventeen chapters on topics related to knowledge — including "The Obligation of Seeking Knowledge," "The Reward of the Scholar and Student," "Keeping Company with Scholars," and the prohibition of speaking and acting without knowledge. Immediately after all these detailed sections, it reaches the chapter on taqlid, which contains only three narrations. Two of them rebuke Christians and Jews for their taqlid, and the third is this very narration about the taqlid of the Murji'ah. Such placement completely eliminates any possibility that Shaykh Kulayni intended to tell Muslims that they must either be mujtahids, practice precaution, or practice taqlid.

Perhaps this is why this narration is rarely cited in lessons on ijtihad and taqlid by scholars — although their options are very limited and the number of narrations explicitly recommending taqlid does not reach even two. This is why they include in their list of narrational evidence any narration with the slightest reference to any kind of following, obedience, asking, fatwa, etc. But this narration — in which the very word "taqlid" appears — is not considered part of that list. Sources that were searched but in which no trace of this narration was found are listed below ^[3].

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Parent page: We Have No Narration for Taqlid

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