Understanding Taqlid by Mufti Muhammad Sajaad

understanding taqlīd
Hence the Companions l and the Followers who were not jurists
would follow those who were.
Elsewhere in the Qur’an, Allah u says, “Ask the people of
Remembrance if you know not,” (Sura al-Anbiyā: 7). This verse clearly
explains that not everyone is a scholar and nor is supposed to be,
otherwise the text would not be exhorting them to ask the scholars,
as they –those being addressed- are already scholars not needing
to rely on others like themselves. Therefore, if taqlīd of the scholars
had, as it is claimed, nothing to do with Islam, this verse should have
instead said: Look to the verses of the Quran and Hadith if you know not.
proof from the hadith
Hadith 1
Another proof for the need for taqlīd is found in Sunan Abī
Dawūd. The words of the hadith are: “Verily the cure to not knowing is
asking.”
The background of this hadith is that the Companions of the
Prophet a were on a journey and had alighted for the night at a
certain location. In the morning, one of the Companions, who was
wounded, needed to have a major ritual bath. In view of his wound
and the cold water, he asked his fellow travellers how he should
purify himself for the Morning Prayer. They said that according to
their knowledge, he must still have the bath and the dispensation
of dry ablution (tayammum) was not open to him. He did as they
instructed him. However, the frail companion was harmed by the
water and this led to his death. When the whole story was related
to the Messenger a, he became upset and angry, and rebuked his
companions saying, “They killed him, may Allah destroy them!
Why did they not ask when they knew not? For, verily the cure for
not knowing is asking. It would have sufficed him had he done a
dry ablution and kept his wound bandaged.”
The ruling the Companions l gave was according to the
16