Q: Is taqleed a valid practice? Does it mean that we can accept any ruling without question?
A: Linguistically speaking, taqleed means “imitation, or following a particular practice”. In another sense, the word means “tradition”. We can see how the word came to acquire both senses, because a tradition means the following of a practice that has been approved as standard by a certain community. In Islamic law, or Fiqh, the word means adopting or following a particular view that is acceptable in a school of thought different from one’s own. Let us take a simple and clear example. According to the Shafie school of thought, any skin-to-skin contact between a man and a woman who can be married, or are married, invalidates ablution. The Hanafi school does not consider such contact to affect the validity of ablution. If a follower of the Shafie school shakes hands with a woman or hands something to his wife, touching her hand, he is required by his scholars to have a fresh ablution before he can pray. If on a certain occasion he finds this difficult, he may think of adopting the Hanafi view on that particular occasion. Can he do that? If he does, is his prayer without a fresh ablution valid? According to the Shafie school of thought, it is not, but according to the Hanafis, it is. Where does this leave him? Before answering this question, I would like to remind my readers that Imam Abu Haneefah, the first of the founders of the four schools of thought, did not sit to teach or issue any ruling until year 120 H, when he reached 40 years of age. This means that for 110 years after the Prophet’s death, none of the four Imams had uttered a single ruling. Indeed two of them had not been born yet. So, what was the status of Muslims who lived during this period lasting more than a century? I am simply asking this question to make it clear that following a particular school of thought is not essential. I have often stated that in practice very few people adhere to a single school of thought. A scholar who is well-versed in Islamic Fiqh will choose from each school the view he is most comfortable with, according to the evidence cited in support of that view. A layman follows a particular school only in the basics which we all learn in childhood. These apply only to daily acts of worship. On major matters, we refer the question to a scholar who does not need to know the school of thought the questioner belongs to. He should give him the answer that is easiest and supported by stronger and better evidence. Only a scholar who studied a school of thought in depth and decided to follow it diligently does so. Otherwise, we all follow what we learn from scholars who are required to give us the most suitable ruling in any question we put to them. Where does this leave us. It simply tells us that none of us practically follows a single school of thought. We all take some views from here and there, as suits us and as scholars tell us to do.
 |
March 2009 |