Clarification of the prohibition of adopting taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence) as a religion, not the prohibition of taqlid itself.

The Shaykh : We only prohibit what we refer to as adopting taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence) as a religion; we do not prohibit taqlid itself. In fact, it is something from which scholars do not escape, let alone others. We only prohibit adopting taqlid as a religion. What does adopting taqlid as a religion mean? It means making the following of one of the imams of the Muslims a religion by which we worship Allah, while not valuing the other imams of the Muslims and not benefiting from their knowledge in any way—neither from the authentic hadiths they narrated to us from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), nor from the established reports (athar) they related from the Companions, nor from the established deductions they derived from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah. We do not benefit from this single imam alone, and we only adopt his jurisprudence and knowledge to worship and draw near to Allah. This is the adoption of taqlid as a religion that we prohibit. Why? Because, first, it means that this follower (muqallid) or that one singles out this followed imam (muqallad) with what he does not single out the other imams with. This is a fanaticism that leads to the followers being misled by the followed ones in terms of knowledge. At that point, what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) mentioned regarding some nations before us, namely the Christians, applies to them. Our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) said regarding them: This is an attribute of the Lord, or a specific privilege of the Lord, in which no one is permitted to share with Him: the right of legislation, which includes making things lawful and forbidden. No one on earth, not even the angels brought near, has the right to forbid or permit anything for anyone except through a revelation from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) that they convey to the chosen prophets and righteous messengers.
The Christians deviated from this path and transferred the right of legislation, which was a specific privilege of Allah, to some of their priests, monks, and scholars. So, when they forbade them something, they forbade it and submitted; and when they permitted them something, they permitted it. This verse was difficult for some of the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him) when it was revealed. One of them was from the few Arabs who had become Christians in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. As you know, the Arabs were an unlettered nation, as stated in the authentic hadith, so they were not People of the Book. However, some individuals among them who were granted intelligence and acumen realized that the state of their Arab people was pure polytheism, and they found that the religion of the Christians contained some knowledge and culture, so some of them became Christians. Among these was 'Adi ibn Hatim al-Tai—Hatim al-Tai, famous for his generosity among the Arabs—who became a Christian in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. When Allah (Mighty and Majestic) brought Islam through Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), he embraced Islam and believed in it, in a story narrated in *Musnad al-Imam Ahmad* and elsewhere. When he embraced Islam, he would sit with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to receive knowledge from him, because he knew that the religion of the Christians he had been upon contained great and much deviation. When this verse was revealed, he did not understand its objective. He said: Because he understood, as many people understand even today, that its meaning is that they say: "So-and-so is a creator along with Allah, and so-and-so is a creator along with Allah." This is the disbelief that some of the precise scholars agreed to call "disbelief in lordship" (kufr al-rububiyyah), which is opposed to the oneness of lordship (tawhid al-rububiyyah). This is not the intended meaning of the verse, contrary to what came to the mind of 'Adi ibn Hatim al-Tai: "We did not take them as lords besides Allah!" So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified it to him through a method of question and answer, from which we learn some of our methods in discussing with some people: we ask them to take the answer from them. He (peace be upon him) said: So, the follower (muqallid) today, when you tell him: "Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said," he confronts you by saying: "This is contrary to my madhhab (school of jurisprudence)."
Other imams may be higher than him in knowledge and status, and at the very least, they are equal to him in that, but they have the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, yet he does not pay attention to all of that. Why? Because it is adopting taqlid as a religion. This adoption of taqlid as a religion is what we, the people of the Sunnah, the people of hadith, the supporters of the Sunnah, the Salafis, deny. We do not deny that the general public should follow scholars (muqallid), but who are the scholars they follow? They are those who say: "Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said." It is not obligatory for them, and indeed it is not permissible for them, to follow someone who tells them: "This is forbidden." Why? What do you know? This is the text, this is the jurisprudence, this is what the imam said, this is what my shaykh said. This is the application of the hadith of the old misguidance: So we want from the general Muslims, from the common people and the specialists, that the specialists fulfill the obligation of correct knowledge derived from the Book and the Sunnah, and that the general public ask the people of knowledge, as Allah the Exalted said:
So we do not say with this narration about which the question was asked, and I do not know its origin either. We do not prohibit taqlid, nor do we make taqlid obligatory. Rather, we make it obligatory that we be upon the command of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) in the Noble Qur'an: So we call upon all Muslims, their specialists and their general public, to be upon clear understanding of their religion. But the path differs: the specialists are to be upon clear understanding of their religion without the intermediary of asking others, but by referring to the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah when they are qualified for that. The general public are to be upon clear understanding through their asking of these people, and at that time, clear understanding is realized for the entire nation.
And we must know that the effect of this guidance and this clear understanding to which we call Muslims—as we said, we repeat—their general public and their specialists—to be upon, is that by this we close the door of deception so that it does not deceive some Muslims. Because these people have armed themselves with "Allah said" and "the Messenger of Allah said." So if one of the deceptions comes to them to say something that no previous scholar or predecessor has said before, and for which there is no evidence from the Book of Allah or from the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, this clear understanding drives the people of clear understanding to confront these people by saying: And they will not be able to prove that they are among the truthful. Rather, when they fail to bring the proof, they prove for themselves that they are among the liars, unlike the others.

The questioner : The previous questioner claims that this was narrated by Abu Ya'la in the biography of Ahmad ibn Ja'far ibn Ya'qub al-Farsi al-Safadi from Imam Ahmad... he claims.

The Shaykh : Refer to it, because not everything mentioned in the biography of an imam from the imams of the Muslims means that the narration is valid, unlike the others.