We Have No Narration for Taqlid
After examining the Qur'an and finding no verse recommending taqlid, the second source to consult is the words of the Infallibles (peace be upon them). However, after careful investigation, it becomes clear that there is no valid and documented evidence for this practice. In this section, we examine the hadiths and narrations that are claimed to be the basis for taqlid.
- Taqlid of the Common People from Jurists
- Hadiths of Asking Trustworthy People
- Hadith of Referring to Narrators of Hadith
- Taqlid of the Murji'ah
- Hadiths Permitting Fatwa
Contextual Analysis of the Narrations
Beyond the individual hadiths that were examined and whose indication of taqlid was rejected, there is further evidence confirming that taqlid was not approved in the narrations: there are hundreds, even thousands, of hadiths about knowledge, scholars, the ignorant, and related topics, yet not one of them contains even a single trace of taqlid. It seems highly unlikely that the mechanism of taqlid was designed and explained for religion, yet among all these hadiths about "the reward of the scholar and the student," "keeping company with scholars," "the characteristics of scholars," and the like, not a single hadith accidentally slipped through the narrators saying "muqallid" (one who imitates) instead of "student" or "ignorant," or "muqlad" (one who is imitated) instead of "scholar." None of them said: if the most learned scholar dies, how to choose the next most learned, or to whom to give the authority of distributing the religious dues left with him. In other words, the context and atmosphere of the hadiths concerning knowledge bear no trace or color of the mechanism of taqlid, and this fact alone merits much reflection.
Even more interestingly, in Usul al-Kafi, after citing hundreds of hadiths about knowledge, it finally reaches the chapter on taqlid, where there are only three narrations. Two of them refer to the verse "They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords besides Allah" (9:31), severely criticizing the imitation of Jewish and Christian scholars and considering it polytheism. The third narration is the same "taqlid of the Murji'ah" explained above.
Parent page: Taqlid in the Qur'an and Narrations
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