Saturday, 16 April 2011

Taqleed IS wajib!

The argument put forward in favor of taqlid(following a marja, in the technical sense) is that it is a natural step. The logical argument put forward is that no one can specialize in everything which makes it necessary for everyone in society to refer to the relevant specialist to solve particular problems. In fact, the specialist themselves would have to refer to different specialists when faced with problems outside the scope of their specialty. So this means the lawyer would refer to a doctor when he is sick and similarly the doctor would refer to the lawyer for legal advice. No doubt this makes PERFECT sense.
Thus in religious matters also everyone MUST do taqleed of the experts in religion. Just like not everyone can become or wants to be a doctor, and self medication can be very harmful, similarly in religious issues also one must refer to the experts in religion instead of acting as per ones desires. This notion is to an extent backed by the Qur'an as well:

Al Qur'an (Surah al Nahl, 43)


وَمَآ أَرۡسَلۡنَا مِن قَبۡلِكَ إِلَّا رِجَالاً۬ نُّوحِىٓ إِلَيۡہِمۡ‌ۚ فَسۡـَٔلُوٓاْ أَهۡلَ ٱلذِّكۡرِ إِن كُنتُمۡ لَا تَعۡلَمُونَ
 
And We sent not (as Our messengers) before thee other than men whom We inspired - Ask the followers of the Remembrance if ye know not! -    (Pickthal's translation) 
However, apparently the verse seems to be suggesting that this refers to the people of the book and this is what the non shia commentators have inferred.
Tafsir ibn al Kathir
It was reported by Mujahid from Ibn `Abbas that what is meant by Ahl Adh-Dhikr is the People of the Book.
http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2975&Itemid=71


So should we refer to the people of the book for our Islamic questions? That does not seem right. Therefore it seems we (the laymen) must follow the marja a'lam (most learned marja). Therefore, just for confirmation, let us see who ahadith specify as the ahlul dhikr (people of remembrance). That would put to rest all doubts such as "how can we follow a fallible marja, doesn't he himself need to refer to someone(someone infallible that is)?" and then we can follow our marja with renowned zeal and fervor!   

Al Sahih Min Kitab Basaer al Darajat     
حدثنا العباس بن معروف (ثقة) عن حماد بن عيسى (ثقة) عن عمر بن يزيد (ثقة) قال أبو جعفر عليه السلام:
( في قوله وانه لذكر لك ولقومك وسوف تسألون قال قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله وأهل بيته أهل الذكر وهم المسؤولون). * الحكم : صحيحة


Told us al Abbas b. Ma'roof(trustworthy), from Hammad b. Isa(trustworthy), from Umar b. Yazid(trustworthy), said Abu Ja'far(as) in (regards to) Allah(swt)'s saying(in al Qur'an 43:44) "It is a Dhikr for you and for your people and you all will be asked questions." (Imam(as)) said: "Rasool Allah(PBUH) and his(PBUH) ahlulbayt(as) are the ahlul dhikr(people of remembrance) and they are the ones who are asked questions." 

 The ruling(grading): Sahih (Authentic)    

Kafi 

عدة من أصحابنا، عن أحمد بن محمد، عن الحسين بن سعيد، عن النضر بن سويد، عن عاصم بن حميد، عن أبي بصير، عن أبي عبدالله (عليه السلام) في قول الله عزوجل " وإنه لذكر لك ولقومك وسوف تسألون " فرسول الله (صلى الله عليه وآله) الذكر وأهل بيته (عليه السلام) المسؤولون وهم أهل الذكر


A group from our companions, from Ahmad b. Muhammad, from al Hussain b. Sa'eed, from Nudhr b. Suwaid, from Asim b. Hamid, from Abi Baseer, from Abi Abdullah in (regards to) Allah(swt)'s saying (in al Qur'an 43:44) "It is a Dhikr for you and for your people and you all will be asked questions.", (Imam(as) said) "So Rasool Allah(PBUH) is the dhikr(reminder) and his(PBUH) ahlulbayt(as) are the ones who are asked the questions and they(as) are the ahl ul dhikr(people of remembrance)."


Grading: Majlisi (Miratul Uqul)  صحيح Sahih (Authentic)

محمد بن يحيى، عن محمد بن الحسين، عن صفوان بن يحيى، عن العلاء بن رزين عن محمد بن مسلم، عن أبي جعفر (عليه السلام) قال: إن من عندنا يزعمون أن قول الله عزوجل:
" فاسألوا أهل الذكر إن كنتم لا تعلمون " أنهم اليهود والنصارى، قال: إذا يدعونكم إلى دينهم! قال: - قال بيده إلى صدره  - نحن أهل الذكر ونحن المسؤولون


Muhammad b. Yahya, from Muhammad b. Al Hussain, from Safwan b. Yahya, from al ‘Ala b. Razeen, from Muhammad b. Muslim from Abi Ja’far(as) who said: “Indeed some near us claim that saying of Allah (swt) (in al Qur’an 16:43): “And We sent not (as Our messengers) before thee other than men whom We inspired - Ask the followers of the Remembrance if ye know not!”(Pickthal translation), that they(people of remembrance) are jews and Christians, (Imam(as)) said: “Then call you to their religion!” (Imam(as)) said (his(as) hand to his(as) chest): “We are ahlul dhikr(people of remembrance) and we are the ones who are (to be) asked questions.”

 Grading: Majlisi (Miratul uqul) صحيح Sahih (Authentic)    
Posted by Bhooka_bhairiya at 22:45
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11 comments:

  1. Anonymous17 April 2011 at 23:10

    Bismillah
    Salam
    So you're basically saying that taqleed is wajib............. to the Imams(as)?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bhooka_bhairiya18 April 2011 at 17:04

    @anonymous: Wasalam,

    Bingo! You hit the nail on the head. BTW, are you from shiachat? If you are, then congrats on being the first one to realize what I actually meant by my signature.

    Anyway, there's no doubt that taqlid IS wajib. Allah(swt) didn't send revelation on everyone and even after sending revelation on our Prophet(PBUH), he(PBUH) was also tasked with explaining the Qur'an and hikmah instead of letting everyone interpret the revelation for himself. As shias we believe authority was then transferred to the Imams(as) as per nass therefore taqleed to them is wajib.

    Using the 'taqlid is natural' argument to support taqlid to a non infallible is plain wrong. Sure, everyone has different levels of understanding and knowledge so the ones with less religious knowledge may refer to those with more knowledge (irrespective of whether that person spent 20 years in a hawza or not) but blind and unconditional taqlid to a marja (this whole institution of a clerical class has no basis in tashayyu) as practiced currently is wrong and has no basis or early precedent in tashayyu. Ultimately taqlid is to be done to the 14 infallibles(as) alone.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous21 April 2011 at 05:45

    You are not telling the whole truth. Which of the books in your post are written by Imams?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bhooka_bhairiya21 April 2011 at 07:17

    @Anonymous: Salam,

    I apologize if you found something in my post ambiguous(or even deceiving), but that was not my intention. None of the books in this post, in fact in the whole blog for that matter, have been written by the Imams(as). This is the reason why I included the gradings, and as you can see, all of these ahadith have been graded sahih by modern scholars. And in case if you are questioning the attribution of these books to their authors, then as far as kafi(and the rest of kutub al arba) are concerned, their attribution to their authors is firmly established and it's upon the doubter to provide any proof which may then make it valid for us to consider the possibility of there being some problem in their attribution to their authors/compilers.

    As far as Basaer ad darajat (from which sahih ahadith have been extracted in sahih min kitab basaer ad darajat) is concerned, AFAIK only 1 or 2 scholars(pretty insignificant ones) have questioned its attribution to its author. All our giants, from Shaikh Kulaini to Shaikh Hurr al Amili to Ayatullah Jawad Lankarani have accepted its attribution to its author. Beside, the hadith I posted has also been recorded in kafi and its been graded sahih. So basically all the ahadith I quoted are sahih and therefore serve as valid proofs.

    Lastly, if we go by this route that 'none of the hadith books have been written by Imams', even then how on earth would that at all justify taqlid to maraji'?!.. Rather, then we'd be forced to become Qur'anists. In fact even that won't make sense because after all, it's not the Prophet(PBUH) or the Imams(as) who wrote/compiled the copies of Qur'an.

    At the end of the day, outright rejecting ahadith just for the sake of it (like the kuffar reject Qur'an) isn't the way to go. This is just an escapist approach. If one takes out the time and studies and investigates these issues, it will become crystal clear that Qur'an and ahadith are the truth.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous9 May 2011 at 01:01

    Salaam sorry for the late reply. Just wanted to say that I am the first "Anonymous" (I don't know who the second one is) and I just wanted you to emphasize to whom we should be doing taqlid to so there's no doubt about it. I don't know of any authentic hadiths that says that it's obligatory to blindly follow a single non-M3Soom Jzk

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bhooka_bhairiya11 May 2011 at 00:28

    @Second anonymous: Wasalam,

    Basically, as the ahadith posted above show, the Imams(as) are the ones who are the ahlul dhikr and who should be referred to for all questions.

    As for during the ghayba, as per ahadith we are to refer to the narrators of ahadith (definitely not marjas, the institution of marjaiyyah didn't even exist much earlier). There are other ahadith in which Imams(as) told their companions to write down the ahadith they hear from them since the upcoming generations would require those books of ahadith (the companions did write down those ahadith into books which form the usool). So basically it is wajib to do taqlid of the Imams(as) by following their ahadith compiled into books by the narrators of ahadith.

    ReplyDelete
  7. velayet5 October 2011 at 11:10

    salam alaykum brother. Sheikh Muhammad Hasan an-Nacafi tatbir jaiz?

    note: my engilish bad.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bhooka_bhairiya5 October 2011 at 22:42

    @Velayet: Wa'laikum assalam,

    Are you referring to Shaikh Muhammad Hasan al Najafi the author of Jawahir al Kalam? If so then I don't know, in fact I'm not sure if in his time tatbir was even widely practiced as it is nowadays which would necessitate him giving a fatwa about it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. velayet6 October 2011 at 07:04

    salam alaykum brother.

    no, Ayatullah Muhammad Hussain Najafi: http://www.sibtain.com/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Bhooka_bhairiya6 October 2011 at 23:07

    @Velayet: Wa'laikum assalam,

    Yes, Ayatullah Muhammad Hussain Najafi (also known as Dhakkoo sahab) does allow tatbir although he does NOT at all encourage it.

    He was asked about tatbir in a question and answer session in Urdu, it's recording is available on internet.

    He'd said it's JUST allowed (not recommended though) as long as it doesn't cause death.

    Wassalam

    ReplyDelete
  11. velayet7 October 2011 at 07:12

    salam alaykum. tahnks brother, shukran.

    vassalam.

    ReplyDelete

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