The Difference Between the Taqlid Follower and the Mujtahid.
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The questioner : If you head over there.
The Shaykh : Glory be to Allah.
The questioner : All right, shall we finish or leave?
The Shaykh : Let’s finish. Ibn Rushd has a word in which he distinguishes between the taqlid follower and the mujtahid. He gives an example for each. He says: The taqlid follower and the mujtahid are like the seller of sandals and the maker of sandals. A man goes to the seller of sandals and asks him for a sandal that fits his foot. The seller looks through the sandals he has, but he does not find the size the man wants, so he apologizes. But when the man goes to the maker of sandals, the maker makes him a sandal that fits his foot. This is the example of the mujtahid and the taqlid follower. And this is connected to—bring the load, bring it, he brought it—
The questioner : It is from the beginning.
The Shaykh : It is set aside from the start. Yes, that’s right.
The questioner : Please, our Shaykh...
The Shaykh : What I want to reach is that the general public are taqlid followers, and the fewest of them are the mujtahids, who are the scholars. And as we have mentioned several times, there are ranks between them among the students of knowledge. Some are able to understand an explicit text in a matter, and some are able to understand the gist of the text or the concept of the text or similar implications that are more hidden than the explicit text, and so on. Therefore, the sincere Islamic community in its Islamism must know these ranks and give every right its due. It is obligatory for the general public that when they need knowledge, they ask the people of knowledge, and it is obligatory for these people to answer. By doing so, the Islamic community becomes a community unified in thought, but least in ijtihad and most in following. And we, by convention, now distinguish between taqlid and following. This distinction means a reality that has no basis, because the one who knows the answerThe Shaykh : that it is permissible or not permissible is not equal to the one who knows the answer along with its evidence; they are not equal, for example. But even so, this second person, were it not for the scholar, would not have known the truth with its evidence. And all of this brings us back to our previous discussion from hours ago regarding the opposition to the People of the Book, and that opposition is not the same as the prohibition of imitating non-Muslims. What I want to clarify and explain now is that Islam, in its perfection and excellence in its complete legislation, was concerned that the Ummah of the Answer should have its distinct personality...
The Shaykh : Glory be to Allah.
The questioner : All right, shall we finish or leave?
The Shaykh : Let’s finish. Ibn Rushd has a word in which he distinguishes between the taqlid follower and the mujtahid. He gives an example for each. He says: The taqlid follower and the mujtahid are like the seller of sandals and the maker of sandals. A man goes to the seller of sandals and asks him for a sandal that fits his foot. The seller looks through the sandals he has, but he does not find the size the man wants, so he apologizes. But when the man goes to the maker of sandals, the maker makes him a sandal that fits his foot. This is the example of the mujtahid and the taqlid follower. And this is connected to—bring the load, bring it, he brought it—
The questioner : It is from the beginning.
The Shaykh : It is set aside from the start. Yes, that’s right.
The questioner : Please, our Shaykh...
The Shaykh : What I want to reach is that the general public are taqlid followers, and the fewest of them are the mujtahids, who are the scholars. And as we have mentioned several times, there are ranks between them among the students of knowledge. Some are able to understand an explicit text in a matter, and some are able to understand the gist of the text or the concept of the text or similar implications that are more hidden than the explicit text, and so on. Therefore, the sincere Islamic community in its Islamism must know these ranks and give every right its due. It is obligatory for the general public that when they need knowledge, they ask the people of knowledge, and it is obligatory for these people to answer. By doing so, the Islamic community becomes a community unified in thought, but least in ijtihad and most in following. And we, by convention, now distinguish between taqlid and following. This distinction means a reality that has no basis, because the one who knows the answerThe Shaykh : that it is permissible or not permissible is not equal to the one who knows the answer along with its evidence; they are not equal, for example. But even so, this second person, were it not for the scholar, would not have known the truth with its evidence. And all of this brings us back to our previous discussion from hours ago regarding the opposition to the People of the Book, and that opposition is not the same as the prohibition of imitating non-Muslims. What I want to clarify and explain now is that Islam, in its perfection and excellence in its complete legislation, was concerned that the Ummah of the Answer should have its distinct personality...
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.