Taqlid

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TAQLID

The term taqlid refers to the "following" or "imitation" of a legal expert by a nonexpert. In Sunni Muslim law, in both its classical and modern manifestations, taqlid is generally viewed negatively. Taqlid is the activity that the legally unaccomplished (called muqallid or ˓ammi) are forced to perform. As they have no legal qualifications, they must merely obey the interpretation of the law put forward by the mujtahid. Taqlid in the Sunni tradition was, however, not always used with negative connotations. The theory of ijtihad developed within the Sunni tradition, with grades of ijtihad from absolute ijtihad (ijtihad mutlaq) to ijtihad within the school (al-ijtihad fi'l-madhhab) to partial ijtihad. A more sophisticated theory of taqlid accompanied these developments. A scholar might be viewed as muqallid to the founding imam of the madhhab (since a jurist would not normally claim that his ijtihad was superior to that of the imam), but was a mujtahid with regard to jurists of lesser rank within the school. Taqlid was, therefore, a recognition of the importance of the madhhab tradition as both a legal identity and as setting the broad parameters within which a jurist might operate.

Within the Imami Shi˓ite tradition, such a nuanced definition of taqlid did not, on the whole, emerge. The Imamis had no founding imam whose ijtihad had to be viewed as superior, because the imams in Twelver Shi˓ism were sinless (ma˓sum). The imams did not need to perform ijtihad to find a ruling, since they were granted a complete knowledge of the law by God. Taqlid to anyone other than the imam does not form a feature of early Shi˓ite jurisprudence. However, as Shi˓ite jurists realized that the ghayba was to be a prolonged absence of the imam, a theory of ijtihad did emerge in embryonic form in the work of al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli (d. 1277), and was fully developed in the writings of his pupil, al-˓Allama al-Hilli (d. 1325). The result was an acceptance that an ordinary Shi˓ite Muslim was forced to perform taqlid to a mujtahid. For the believer, with no access to the imam himself, the rulings of the mujtahid were all that was necessary to obey the law. In effect, taqlid of the mujtahid, even when the mujtahid's rulings were mistaken, was sufficient to guarantee full obedience to the law of God.

This theory was one of the ideological foundations of the authority of the scholarly class in Shi˓ism, and led, in part, to a heightened respect for the ulema in Shi˓ite communities in comparison with that found in the Sunni world. Mujtahids gained authority and prestige by the number of muqallids they attracted. Since the ulema were, for much of Shi˓ite history, unaligned with any governmental structure, the mujtahids were, in effect, building up an independent power base. This power base of muqallids could be (and was) used to mobilize opposition to government measures in the largely Shi˓ite country of Iran. Indeed, the theory of taqlid enabled a number of mujtahids to call for the opposition to the shah, which eventually led to the Iranian revolution of 1979.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arjomand, S. A. "The Muqaddas al-Ardalili on Taqlid." In Authority and Political Culture in Shi˓ism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.

Clarke, L. "The Shi˓i Construction of Taqlid." Journal ofIslamic Studies 12, no. 1 (2001): 40–64.

Hallaq, W. "Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed?" IJMES 16 (1984): 3–41.

Robert Gleave

Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World