The ruling on following leaders and masters in the statement of Allah the Exalted: “Indeed, we obeyed our leaders and our great ones, and they led us astray”

Question:
In His statement, the Exalted: Does the one who follows a scholar without knowing his evidence become a disbeliever? And if he does not become a disbeliever?

Answer:
If the one who follows a scholar without knowing his evidence knows that the one he is following is upon disbelief or upon shirk (associating partners with Allah), then he becomes a disbeliever. But if he has a good opinion of him and does not know that he is upon disbelief or upon shirk, then he is considered misguided; it is said that he is misguided, but it is not said that he is a disbeliever. It is not said that he is a disbeliever because he is ignorant and does not know that this person is a disbeliever. Likewise, obeying the created beings, obeying the leaders and the rulers, obeying them in disobedience, or in making the forbidden permissible, or in making the permissible forbidden: if you know that they are making permissible what Allah has forbidden and making forbidden what Allah has made permissible, and if you know this and follow them, you are like them, a disbeliever. But if you do not know, and you have a good opinion of them and do not know that they are making things forbidden and permissible, then this is considered misguidance, but you do not become a disbeliever. Yes.