It is well known that many, if not a vast majority of people in this
age, do not model their lives after the example of Allah's Messenger (saw).
As a result they are governed by selfishness, corrupt motives, lust,
insincerity, mischief, strife, anarchy, and opposition to the consensus
of the rightly-guided scholars. This inevitably leads to the subjection
of the Din (religion) to human desires. The hadiths on fitan [strife, trials, and
tribulations] have forewarned us of the rise of these corrupt traits in
man, and the scholars of this Din have been aware of this problem.
The absence of taqlid shakhsi (or 'following one particular person in
the affairs of Islamic law) will cause great harm and corruption
in the Din. One of the destructive evils which will raise its ugly head
in the absence of taqlid shakhsi is the appearance of self-appointed
mujtahids. Some people will consider themselves to be capable of
inferring religious rulings, and embark on the process of juristic
[shar'i] analogical reasoning [qiyas]. They will consider themselves
to be of equal or greater rank than the illustrious mujtahids of the
early ages of Islam.

For example, the previous mujtahids have reliably stated that many
laws are based on particular causes [mu'allal] and not definite causes.
Citing this, some modernists might claim that even the command of
wudu'for prayer is based on a particular cause [mu'allal!. According
to them, this command could have been for the early Arabs, whose
occupation of tending animals exposed them constantly to impurities,
which could have called for ritual purification in the form of wudu'.
They might claim, on this basis, that since people of the present time
live in conditions of greater hygiene, wudu'is no longer necessary
for prayer!

[From the opening chapters of Taqlid and Ijtihad by Shaykh Masihullah Jalalabadi]

» Posted by Seifeddine-M on 3rd November 2010

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