This is such an important obligation that Allah has exempted...

This is such an important obligation that Allah has exempted those who go to seek religious knowledge from the duty of jihād. He says: “It is not (right) for the believers to go forth all together (for jihād).

So why should not a party from every section of them (i.e., the believers) go forth to become learned in the religion, and to warn their people when they return to them—so that haply they may beware.” (9:124) It is clear from many narrations that the Imams of Ahlu ’l-bayt (a.s.) used to be pleased whenever any of their companions taught religion or gave legal rulings ( fatwa ) to others.

There are several documented cases of Shi‘as who lived far from Medina asking the Imam of their time to appoint someone in their area to adjudicate between them in religious problems: Zakariyyah ibn Adam al-Qummi and Yūnus bin ‘Abdu ’r-Rahmān, for example, were named by Imam ‘Ali ar-Riza, to solve disputes in their own districts.

In a famous hadīth, ‘Umar ibn Hanzalah asked Imam Ja‘far as-Sādiq (a.s.) about the legality of two Shi‘as seeking a verdict from an illegitimate ruler in a dispute over a debt or a legacy. The Imam’s answer was that it was absolutely forbidden to do so.

Then Ibn Hanzalah asked what the two should do, and the Imam replied: “They must seek out one of your own who narrates our traditions, who is versed in what is permissible and what is forbidden, who is well-acquainted with our laws and ordinances, and accept him as judge and arbiter, for I appoint him as judge over you...” Besides these ahādīth, we have quite a few sayings of the Imams that tell us what to do if we come across two ahādīth which are contradictory or semi-contradictory—and solving the contradictory ahādīth is one of the functions of ijtihād.

These types of ahādīth are known as al-akhbār al-‘ilājiyyah , the ahādīth which solve the problems in the studying of the hadīth. In conclusion, we can say that one way of following the sharī‘a is to study the science of sharī‘a, learn the process of ijtihād and become a mujtahid. Taqlīd Although we have mentioned ijtihād as the first of the possible ways of following the sharī‘a, it is not something which every person can do.

To become a mujtahid means spending the major part of your life in studying the Islamic sciences in general and the Islamic legal system in particular. A person must, first of all, study the Arabic language (especially classical Arabic) since all the sources of the sharī‘a are in classical Arabic.