What is the meaning of Imam Ahmad’s statement in the saying whose meaning is that he criticizes taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence)?

The questioner : What is the meaning of Imam Ahmad’s statement, and whoever claims that he does not see taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence) and does not follow anyone is a fasiq (open sinner)... and singling out with opinion, speech, bid'ah (religious innovation), and khilaf (scholarly disagreement).

The Shaykh : Also, I do not know this statement. This statement attributed to Imam Ahmad, I do not know it. And taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence), as we have spoken about repeatedly and repeatedly, is also a darurah (dire necessity). We, the callers to the Sunnah in all lands of the world, have been wronged by many people, some intentionally and out of malice, and some due to poor memorization or poor knowledge, and sometimes both are combined. They say that we make ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) obligatory upon the general people, even upon those who do not know, using the Syrian expression "the alif of the mushtighah". The mushtighah means the long stick; he does not distinguish between them. There is another expression in northern Syria: "he does not distinguish between the five and the tamseh". Thus they claim that we make ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) obligatory upon the general people. May Allah protect us! We have said and we continue to say, we have said recently, Allah the Exalted said: So people are either a scholar or not a scholar. It is obligatory upon this one to ask, and it is obligatory upon that one to answer. As for every individual making ijtihad... that singles out the muqallid (one who follows a scholar) with what is not given to the other imams. And this is ta'assub (partisan bias) that leads... And then what is mentioned by Allah the Exalted regarding some nations that were before us, namely the Christians, when our Lord the Exalted said regarding them: Among the attributes of the Lord, and that it is not permissible for anyone to share in them, is that He has the right of legislation, which includes making things lawful and forbidden. So no one from the people of the earth, even the closest angels, can forbid or make lawful for anyone except by revelation from Allah Blessed and Exalted is He... The Christians deviated from this path and attributed to some of their priests and monks and scholars what was a privilege of Allah, the right of legislation. So when they forbade them something, they forbade it, and when they made lawful for them something, they made it lawful. And this verse was difficult for some of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) when it was revealed, and he was from the few Arabs who became Christians in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. Because you know that the Arabs are an ummi (unlettered) nation, as came in the authentic hadith, so they were not People of the Book. But some individuals from them who were granted intelligence and acumen became clear to them... so some of them became Christians. And among these was 'Adi ibn Hatim al-Tai and Hatim al-Tai, famous for his generosity among the Arabs, who became a Christian in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. So when Allah the Exalted brought Islam through Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)... he believed in it. In a story narrated in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, when he became Muslim, he would sit with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) receiving knowledge from him, because he knew that what he was upon of the religion of the Christians had a great deviation. When this verse was revealed, he did not understand its purpose. He said: "O Messenger of Allah, we did not take them as lords besides Allah" because he understood, as many people understand today, that the meaning of that is that they say so-and-so is a creator with Allah. This is the kufr (disbelief) that some of the meticulous scholars of knowledge agreed to apply as kufr al-rububiyyah (disbelief in lordship), the opposite of tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship). 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 by the method of question and answer, and from it we learn some of our methods in discussing with some people. We ask him to take the answer from him. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Were you not forbidding it? He said, yes. And the reverse is the reverse, meaning if they made lawful for you something forbidden, were you not making it lawful? He said, yes. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So the muqallid (one who follows a scholar) today, when you tell him "Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said," he argues with you by saying "this is contrary to the saying of so-and-so." So he adopts the contradiction of the Book and the Sunnah to prefer that imam, knowing that there are other imams who may be higher in knowledge than him... but he is with the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah. So why does he overlook all that? Because he is religious through taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence). This religion through taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence), we, the people of the Sunnah, the people of hadith, the supporters of the Sunnah, the Salafis (followers of the Salaf), this is what we deny. We do not deny that the general people follow, but who are those who follow? Who are the muqallidun (those who follow scholars)? They are those who say "Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said," and it is obligatory upon them, indeed it is not permissible for them to follow one who said to them "this is forbidden," why? Because so-and-so imam said so, because my shaykh (scholar) understands it this way, and so on. This is the application of the hadith of the old misguidance: So we want the general Muslims and the common Muslims, their common and special people, to perform the duty of correct knowledge derived from the Book and the Sunnah. The general people should 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... no, not for the sake of not following, and we do not make following obligatory, but we make it obligatory that we be with the command of Allah the Exalted in the Noble Qur'an: ... all Muslims, their special and common people, should be with clear knowledge of the religion. But the path differs. The special people are with clear knowledge of their religion without the intermediary of asking others, but rather referring to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, if they are not people of that. The general people through their asking of these people, and then the clear knowledge is realized for the whole ummah (Muslim community). And we must know that the effect of this... and this clear knowledge that calls Muslims... their common and special people, as we said, to be upon it, that by that we close the door... that some Muslims are deceived, because these people have armed themselves with "Allah said" and "the Messenger of Allah said." So when the people of the Dajjals (false messiahs) come to them to say to them something that the previous scholars did not precede... and there is no evidence for it from the Book of Allah or from the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, then this clear knowledge drives the people of clear knowledge to confront these people by saying: So they will not be able to prove that they are from the truthful. Rather, when they are unable to bring the proof, they prove for themselves that they are from the liars. Otherwise?

The questioner : The previous questioner claims that...

The Shaykh : Not everything mentioned in the biography of one of the imams of the Muslims means that the narration is authentic. Otherwise?