Now it is obvious that Taqlid is not conducive to science...

Now it is obvious that Taqlid is not conducive to science, since if it were, all schools of thought, all beliefs and religions,whether existing now or hitherto, would be scientifically correct and in accordancewith reality. Taqlid, Fictitious Knowledge! Taqlid is indeed not conducive to science, and a muqallid [^3] , when all is said and done, thinks that he is a learned man, but he is learned only in the world of his imagination, not the real world.

In other words, he is a person of imaginary knowledge not a man of learning. The followers of every religion think of their own beliefs as correct and free of error, and that only their own beliefs are sound and in accordance with reality, and call them “scientific” and “certain”.[^4] If the followers of every religion allowed themselves to think about their beliefs, and remove the veils hiding true knowledge and investigate rather than take on a blind trust, differences between various schools of thought would disappear from human, society, and everyone would arrive at a single common nation and a single religion.

Since differences occur only when fictitious knowledge takes the place of true knowing where true scienec reigns there is no room for differenceof divergence. Taqlid in Belief, The Islamic View Now that the rational view of Taqlid is convictional matters has been expounded let us see what Islam has to say on the subject. Does Islam, like reason,condemn Taqlid orpermit it?

First of all we must state that in general Islamic beliefs are divided into two categories, principles (primary beliefs) and subsidiaries (secondary beliefs), which we may also term basic and non-basic beliefs.

The principles of Islamic belief (Usul al-din)[^5] consist of the articles of faith which forms the infrastructure of questions of Islamic jurisprudence, politics, mortality, society, economics and culture, such as Tawhid (monotheism), Nubuwwah (belief in prophethood), mo’ad (resurrection of the dead), ‘adl (divine justice) and Imamah (belief in the imamte).

Susidary or non-basic beliefs (foru’ al-din) consist of the ordinaries which Islam has decreed to regulate the relationships between man and God, and man and his fellows, such as prayer, fasting, khoms (Islamic system if tithes), zakat (almsgiving), hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) ane the like. In the Islamic view, with respect to non-beliefs Taqlid is not only permitted but obligatory.