Practically all the thousands of famous hadith scholars (muhaddithun) and jurists (fuqaha) of the Muslim Ummah for the last one thousand years followed one of the four imams, finding themselves compelled to submit to their breathtaking intellectual rigour and insight. This is a fact attested to by the most authoritative books of hadith criticism and Islamic history, such as Imam Dhahabi (rahmatullahi alaih)'s Siyar A'lam al-Nubala and the various oter biographical compilations (tabaqat and kutab al-rijal). It is startling to find giants in Islamic scholarship, such as Imams Ibn Hajar, Dhahabi, Tahawi, Razi, Jassa, Nawawi, (rahmatullahi alaihim), and the list goes on enedlessly, all adhering to one of the four schools.

Clearly, this is also a great testimony of the true humility and fear of Allah Ta'ala these tremendous men possessed, that despite their own towering statuses as hadeeth scholars and jurists, they were ready to admit that others had greater knowledge than themselves and thus they followed them. Just as this speaks volumes about them and their real humility, it also reveals an alarming danger for a sincere Muslim concerning his own condition. Namely, if it was a mark of humility that compelled them to choose one of the Imams to follow, then surely rejecting taqleed of the imams may possibly indicate the pride lurking within a person. For despite being hindered by a myriad of deficiencies, such as not being able to understand Arabic and having little or no appreciation of the Islamic sciences, what could possibly lead a person to believe that he was above practising taqleed?

Pride is a disease that for the earnest believer cannot be tolerated at any expense, for the Messenger of Allah (salallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said, "A person with the extent of a grain of pride in his heart will not enter Paradise." [Sahih Muslim]

[Understanding Taqleed: Following One Of The Four Great Imams]

» Posted by Seifeddine-M on 16th November 2010

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