Answer to an Enemy of Islam

(taqlîd) one another. Our a’immat al-madhâhib also did as as-
Sahâbat al-kirâm had done. Like them, they searched for and
found out evidences and drew conclusions from them. Thus, they
parted into madhhabs in respect of ’ibâdât. In this way, they
carried out Rasûlullah’s (’alaihi ’s-salâm) command, for, he had
declared, “Adapt yourselves to my companions!” Since the new
Muslims among the Tâbi’ûn did not ask as-Sahâbat al-kirâm for
documentary evidences, it is not necessary for the ignorant like us
to look for the proofs of the a’immat al-madhâhib. We learn the
commands of Allâhu ta’âlâ by reading the books written by the
a’immat al-madhâhib. These books are the explanations of the
Qur’ân al-kerîm. See this man with a religious post who likens an
ignorant village shepherd to a Sahâbî and recommends him to go
to town frequently, look for âyats and hadîths, interpret them by
himself and employ ijtihâd! While there is the facility of following
an imâm al-madhhab, he gets the poor man into such difficulties!
30– The religion reformer, slighting thousands of Islamic
scholars, continues as follows:
“The usûl scholars’ deducing the necessity of the taqlîd
from the âyat, ‘If you do not know, ask those who know!’ is
a fruitless and unsound deduction and reasoning. The âyat
should not be commanding the taqlîd to everybody since
the taqlîd was not permissible in the events or for the
person that caused the âyat’s revelation. In this âyat,
Allâhu ta’âlâ commanded the polytheist Arabs to ask the
Ahl al-kitâb (Believers in Holy Books) if prophets were
angels or human beings. Why should this question be taqlîd
while it does not mean to act in accordance with someone
else’s opinion or ijtihâd without evidences? Furthermore,
this matter pertains to belief. You, too, admit the fact that
taqlîd is not permissible in this respect. The Qur’ân
prophesies that on the Day of Resurrection the chiefs of
the disbelievers will run away from those who followed
them. Isn’t this information a sign of the fact that those who
follow the persons whom Allah has not ordered us to
follow will not be excused by Allah? Because Muslims
considered some people as witnesses and turned away from
the Qur’ân, we suffered disasters. The imâms whom they
followed will run away from them on the Day of
Resurrection, for, the great imâms and mujtahids
prohibited taqlîd. You have been accustomed to taking the
words of human beings, not the words of Allah and the
– 42 –