Fact 3...

Fact 3: Allah -azwj says in Quran , No burdened (soul) may bear another’s burden: if some over-laden soul should call out for someone else to carry his load, no one would bear any part of it even though they were a near relative. You can only warn those who dread their Lord although (he is) Unseen, and keep up prayer. Anyone who purifies himself, only purifies his own soul. Towards God should remain one’s goal [28] .

It is the responsibility of all of us to acquire knowledge, as we will be judged by our own efforts, we present a hadith of Imam Jafar-e-Sadiq -asws in this regard: Imam abu ‘Abdallah -asws said, “Allah -azwj does not accept a deed without good understanding, whereas good understanding cannot be achieved without hard work. The one who attains proper understanding will be guided by it towards good deeds and the one who does not make any effort will not develop any understanding.

Is it not a fact that parts of faith comes from other parts?” [29] So by leaving pillars of Islam aside and just leaning and relying on a Mujtahid, do not provide any shelter against burden of unaccepted obligatory acts of worship. This is due to the fact that one is following the judgement (Fatwa) of someone who can be right or wrong.

If he is, as most of the ‘Mujtahid’ disagree in various Islamic issues-hence all of them cannot be right, while in conflict, their followers, therefore, will be equally responsible for those act which were carried out on the basis of wrong fatawa!

It is important to note that the process of fatwa derivation is totally forbidden by the Masomeen -asws : “ I asked from (Imam) abu ‘Abdallah -asws , ‘Sometimes, we encounter those issues, related to which we cannot find an answer neither in the book of Allah -azwj nor in the Ahadith. Can we use our own analysis of the situation (use of analogies) and try to find a solution?’” The Imam -asws replied, “No, you must not do so.

If you would find the correct solution, you will receive no rewards for it and if you derive a wrong conclusion then you have forged lies against Allah -azwj , the most Majestic, the most Glorious.” [30] From this point we go to the Myth no 4!

Myth 4: The supports of ‘Taqleed’ at this point usually say, ‘Mujtahid’s’ guess is still going to be better than that of a ‘layman’ so it is better to act on the guess of a better informed ‘Mujtahid’ who uses an extensive and painstaking path of fatwa derivation!