Taqlid

Question

Zayd says that as long as a Muslim holds to taqlid, iman cannot enter him at all. Is this statement of Zayd correct? Are the muqallids really irreligious, when among these people there are found great worshippers, ascetics, Sufis, God-fearing and pious men, scholars, hadith masters, exegetes, preachers and callers to the religion — all of these — and tens of millions of Muslims respectfully refer to one or another of them by various titles: one as Shaykh al-Islam, another as Imam Rabbani, another as Shaykh…

Answer

Taqlid means that a person who is not a mujtahid accepts the statement of a mujtahid concerning a ruling of the religion, relying on the fact that he has derived this ruling from a legal proof (the Book, the Sunna, consensus and legal analogy) and that he possesses the proof for this ruling — and does not himself demand the proof from him.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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