Answer to an Enemy of Islam

Rasûlullah (’alaihi ’s-salâm) commands us to imitate his
companions. It is bad to follow the wicked, but this should not
prevent us from following the good people. As explained above,
if it were easy to understand the documents of the part pertaining
to îmân, the Christian Arabs in Beirut would necessarily have
îmân easily. Since it was not easy to understand the documents of
the principles that are to be believed, we were ordered to have
îmân without the need to understand the documents, and those
who believed in this manner were called “Mu’minûn” (Believers,
Muslims). If Allâhu ta’âlâ had made Muslims liable also for
learning and understanding the documents of the rules concerning
’ibâdât, His Messenger (’alaihi ’s-salâm), too, would have
suggested it. Indeed, as explained above, he never did.
By saying that prophets (’alaihimu ’s-salâm) never erred but
mujtahids might have made mistakes, he supposes that the rules
revealed by mujtahids are different from those revealed by the
Prophet (’alaihi ’s-salâm). On the contrary, a mujtahid or an
imâm al-madhhab was a great ’âlim who spent his whole life
studying day and night, searching and finding out the rules that
had been conveyed by the Prophet (’alaihi ’s-salâm) and by as-
Sahâbat al-kirâm and who transmitted them to Muslims. No
mujtahid ever added anything to any kind of ’ibâdât. They said
unanimously that it was a bid’a and a great sin. There cannot be
another slander as ugly and loathsome as accusing the mujtahids
of something which they themselves prohibited. It is crass
ignorance and idiocy to say that mujtahids expanded the religion.
It is answerable in no way but with a a sneer. The religion does
not expand, but the number of cases increases. It is a great
service to Islam and a very valuable ’ibâda to apply Islam to
those cases which have appeared and developed during the
course of time. And this has been and is still being the lot of the
mujaddid imâms.
A mujaddid does not have to be a mujtahid mutlaq. It is true
that the four a’immat al-madhâhib prohibited taqlîd. But they
prohibited it for those scholars who were educated among their
disciples and who had reached the grade of ijtihâd. It is never
permissible for any mujtahid to follow another mujtahid. This rule
will be valid till Doomsday. But it does not apply to the
ignoramuses and religion reformers who think of themselves as
mujtahids. If a mouse thinks of itself as a lion and then meets a cat,
it will realize that it has been wrong. But its mistake will cost it its
life.
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