Those Mujtahids who are the religious leaders and guides of people...

Those Mujtahids who are the religious leaders and guides of people, got this great position from the Holy Imams (a.s.) so that they can guide people towards goodness in all religious spheres.

Here we should not ignore that there are different faculties of Human Science and it is possible that a person might have special knowledge and expertise in one section but may be totally unaware of another and as a result, it is necessary for him that in the field in which he is totally ignorant he should contact those who are experts in that field and follow them.

For example, a doctor or an engineer who are expert in their respective fields enters a town and wants to go to a particular area and a particular street, about which they are unaware, but they were only been given the address. In this matter, to reach the destination, they will be forced to seek the guidance of people who reside in that area.

Or for example, an environmentalist, who becomes ill, is forced to go to a physician; although this person knows about the environment, he doesn’t know about diseases and their cure. There is no way except that he should go to a doctor and take the medicine or injection. He should not grumble and follow the instructions carefully and he doesn’t ask why the doctor has prescribed such and such medicine.

Keeping these two examples in mind, it becomes clear that even if the person is an expert in his own field, he should follow the rulings of a Mujtahid. The reason is that a Faqih (jurisprudent) is an expert in his field. He is an expert in many sciences, which are his basis in jurisprudence. (Sarf, Nahv, Arabic literature, logic, exegesis, the knowledge of the traditionalists, sources, traditions, the principles of jurisprudence, interlocution etc).

By seeing a small book called Taudihul Masail, you may not know that it is the result of the lifelong toil of Mujtahids. He has written it only after putting the blood of his heart in it and only then he has presented it to the common people. Ijtihad is not easy. Ijtihad means to acquire knowledge of all the Islamic laws, which affect a person or the whole society, and in all spheres of life.

Shaykh Murtaza Ansari, who was a great Mujtahid himself and the proud son of Islamic Jurisprudence who himself took a lot of trouble and hard work to become a Mujtahid says in his book Rasail : Allah has given us the opportunity of Ijtihad, which is tougher than continuous Jihad and much more painful .