The Verse of Surah Al Imran 64
Say: 'People of the Book, come now to a word common between us and you, that we serve none but God, and that we associate nothing with Him, and that some of us do not take others as lords apart from God.' And if they turn their backs, say: 'Bear witness that we are Muslims.' (3:64)
The Verse's Indication of Taqlid
Although this verse appears unrelated to taqlid, Ibn Shahr Ashub in his book "Tafsir Mutashabih al-Qur'an wa Mukhtalifuh" cites a very decisive narration from the Prophet (p) that considers this verse as negating taqlid. The text of the narration:
When the verse "Say: People of the Book, come now to a word common between us and you..." was revealed, Adi ibn Hatim said: "O Messenger of God, we did not worship them." The Prophet (p) said: "Did they not make things lawful and unlawful for you, and you accepted their words?" He said: "Yes." The Prophet (p) said: "That is it."
Then a similar hadith from Imam al-Sadiq (p) is narrated about this verse:
"By God, they did not pray to them or fast for them, but they made what was forbidden permissible for them and what was permissible forbidden, and thus they worshipped them without being aware."
Defenders of taqlid justify this narration by saying: "The Imam said the scholars of the People of the Book made lawful things unlawful and vice versa — they swapped rulings. But Shi'a scholars do not do that." Or at least they claim: "The Imam set a condition: people should check; if the scholars do not swap the lawful and unlawful, then taqlid is fine."
It is clear that these justifications are incorrect. First, to know what is lawful or unlawful, muqallids refer precisely to these same marja's — the only source for distinguishing the lawful and unlawful for them is the fatwa of the very marja's they are supposed to judge. So how can they be expected to examine the correctness or incorrectness of the same marja's by relying on their fatwas?
Second, Imam al-Sadiq (p) himself said: "wa hum la yash'uruna (without being aware)" — meaning the imitators of the People of the Book's scholars were not aware that the lawful and unlawful had been swapped. With this description, how can a muqallid be sure that he too is not among those who are "not aware"? Is there any way other than asking for the evidence of the fatwa? Third, this condition effectively ties the hands of the marja's themselves. If a marja', through pursuing the verses, hadiths, and reason, concludes in a certain time and context that something previously lawful can no longer remain lawful, or vice versa, he is forced to continue the previous ruling, fearing that otherwise he would lose his marja'iyyah in the eyes of the people. That is, the marja' is forced to remain silent about what he believes is the truth, because otherwise people would no longer consider him a marja'!
Even if someone does not accept any of the above arguments and still justifies Imam al-Sadiq's hadith, the narration from the Prophet (p) does not allow such justifications. It says: "Yuhilluna lakum wa yuharrimuna fata'khudhuna biqawlihim (They made things lawful for you and made things unlawful, and you accepted their words)." Ibn Shahr Ashub goes on to explicitly speak about the condemnation of taqlid in the Qur'an without adding any qualification about the faith fundamentals, blind taqlid, or the like. He first cites verses 170 and 171 of Surah al-Baqarah, then another hadith from Imam al-Sadiq (p): "Whoever takes his religion from the mouths of men, men will displace him; but whoever takes his religion from the Book and the Sunnah, the mountains will pass away but he will not." If we place this hadith alongside the previous one, is there any room for the justifications and wordplay about lawful and unlawful?!
Then he wrote: "God Almighty rebuked those people for imitating their fathers and reproached them for this act, whereas if taqlid were permissible, they would not have been rebuked or reproached. God has condemned taqlid in the verses: 'Among the people is he who disputes about God without knowledge...', 'Most of them follow nothing but conjecture...', 'Why do you dispute about what you have no knowledge of?', 'Clear proofs have come to you from your Lord...', 'And pursue not that you have no knowledge of...', and other verses."
Taqlid is Worshipping "Min Dun Allah" (Apart from God)
Given that the Prophet (p) and Imam al-Sadiq (p) declared the phrase "that we serve none but God, and that we associate nothing with Him, and that some of us do not take others as lords apart from God" to mean following people in what they declare lawful and unlawful of God's, it can be said that taqlid is in fact polytheism in obedience and following. Previously, in the explanation of the verses of Surah al-Baqarah, we saw it said: "And among the people are those who take others as rivals apart from God..." (2:164); and in verse 28 of Surah al-A'raf: "They have taken devils as patrons apart from God..." (7:30); and in verse 11 of Surah al-Hajj: "...It is decreed for him that whoever takes him as a patron, he will lead him astray... He calls upon apart from God..." (22:4) (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12); and in verse 21 of Surah Luqman: "That what they call upon apart from Him is falsehood..."; and finally in verse 23 of Surah al-Zukhruf: "Have We set apart from the All-Merciful gods to be worshipped?" (43:45). In all these verses, while taqlid is condemned, those who are imitated are referred to with the phrase "min dun Allah" and similar terms.
Although some of us may have thought this phrase only applies to wooden and stone idols, the Prophet's interpretation of the above verse gives another dimension to the expression "min dun Allah." It is enough to search for this recurring phrase in the same and other suras of the Qur'an and carefully examine their meanings to see how each instance can mean polytheism in obedience — that is, following others in religious actions without acquiring knowledge.
Furthermore, there is no doubt that the polytheists (mushrikun) in the language of the Qur'an were not necessarily irreligious. Rather, from numerous Quranic verses, it is clear that the polytheists also had a religion and even believed in Allah, but at the same time, they magnified others or other things and made them partners with God in various respects. As one example, verse 137 of Surah al-An'am says:
And thus their partners have made attractive to many polytheists the killing of their children, to ruin them and to confuse for them their religion. (6:137)
Parent page: Verses Condemning Taqlid