And from Muhammad Bin Saeed Al Kashy...

And from Muhammad Bin Saeed Al Kashy, from Muhammad Bin Ahmad Bin Hamaad Al Maruzy Al Mahmoudy, with a chain going up to Al Sadiq -asws , said: ‘Recognise the status of our -asws Shiites in accordance with how many good narrations they relate from us -asws , for we do not consider the ‘الفقيه’ ‘Faqih’ from them to be a Faqih unless they are narrators of Ahadith’.

It was said to him -asws , ‘Is a believer a narrator of Ahadith?’ He -asws said: ‘He is an understanding one; and the understanding one is a narrator of Ahadith’.

A number of our companions, from Ahmad Bin Muhammad Bin Khalid, from Ismail Bin Mihran, from Abu Saeed Al Qammat and Salih Bin Saeed, from Aban Bin Taghlub, from: Abu Ja’far -asws was asked a question, and he -asws answered with regards to it. So the man said, ‘The jurists are not saying this!’ So he -asws said: ‘O woe be unto you!

And have you ever seen a jurist at all?’ A jurist who is rightfully a jurist is the one ascetic in the world, the desirous regarding the Hereafter, the one attached with the Sunnah of the Prophet -saww ’ (Ahadith). [18] Hence from above Ahadith, it is clear that a ‘Faqih’ will be that who narrates the Ahadith of Masomeen -asws and not the one who practices ‘Ijtihad’. The one who issues fatwa based on Ijtihad is called a ‘Mujtahid. Who is a Mujtahid?

Can we call a ‘Mujtahid’ a ‘Faqih’, of course not? From the Ahadith of Masomeen -asws we would like to see the word ‘Mujtahid’ where and in which meanings it has been used: و قال ع عالم أفضل من ألف عابد و ألف زاهد و ألف مجتهد Amir-ul-Momineen -asws says: A scholar is better than 1,000 ‘Abid’ (worshipers), who is better than 1,000 ‘Zahid’ [19] and a Zahid is better than 1,000 Mujtahid.

[20] In addition, Amir-ul-Momineen -asws , Ali ibn Abi Talib -asws has used it in the meanings of ‘the striving and hardworking [21] .