.’ (9:31) The Imam replied, ‘By Allah they (rabbis) did not...

.’ (9:31) The Imam replied, ‘By Allah they (rabbis) did not call people to worship them. If they had done so people would not have accepted it. The rabbis and monks made unlawful things lawful for them and the lawful things as unlawful. In this way they (people) worshipped (obeyed) them unintentionally.’” H 156 Ch.

18, h3 Muhammad ibn ‘Isma’il has narrated from al-Fadl ibn Shadhan from Hammed ibn ‘Isa from Rib’i ibn ‘Abd Allah from abu Basir from abu ‘Abd Allah, recipient of divine supreme covenant, who has said the following about the words of Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Glorious: “People (unconditionally) obeyed the rabbis and the monks and worshipped the Messiah, son of Mary, as they should have obeyed Allah .

They shall soon deny their worshipping them, and they shall be adversaries to them In the explanation of these Verses, it has been narrated in Tafseer Saafi and Tafseer Qummi that Imam Ja’far Al Sadiq (a.s.) explained: ‘Any person who disobeyed Allah (s.w.t.) and was obedient to a person then he has indeed made him to be his god. On the day of judgement these ‘gods’ would then disassociate themselves from their worshippers (followers)’.

I have already explained the differences in Fatwas of the Mujtahids in the chapter on differences before. You have just read two verses and one hadeeth where Taqleed of a non infallible has been categorised as ‘Shak fil Ibaad’ (Doubt in worship) and these have been described as polytheists. Polytheism has a brother called Disbelief who remains with him all the time. It is only better that I should now discuss this brother of Polytheism.

I am now quoting from the Book of Suleym Bin Qays Hilali a hadeeth of Imam Ali (a.s.): ‘The smallest thing which makes a person to be an unbeliever is that when a person adopts a religious act thinking it to be the command of Allah (s.w.t.) and He (s.w.t.) has not forbidden it. Then he makes a religious practise out of it.