ভূমিকা
In Islamic legal terminology it means "to follow the mujtahid in religious laws." However, this following is based on an informed decision taken by the individual Shi'ah man or woman. Before you start following the opinions of a mujtahid in the shari' ah laws, you have to ascertain that he has the required expertise and that he is of upright character. Taqlid of a mujtahid, as explained in previous chapter, is only when we do not have direct access to our Present Imam (a.s.).
If the Imam had been accessible to us, then we do not have to follow any mujtahid. Is Taqlid Reasonable? It is not always unreasonable to follow others and to hold uncritical faith in them. We can logically distinguish four possible forms of imitation: that of an ignorant person by an ignorant person; that of a learned person by a more learned person; that of an ignorant person by a learned person; that of a learned person by a less learned person.
It is quite clear that the first three forms of imitations are unreasonable and can serve no purpose. However, the fourth kind of imitation is obviously not only reasonable, but also necessary and matter of common sense; in our everyday life we follow and imitate others in many things; we like to feel that we are taking the advice of experts in matters outside our own knowledge.
Someone who wishes to build a house explains the basic idea of what he wants to the builder and then submits to his advice as to how he should go about the actual construction. The patient follows the treatment advised by his doctor; a litigant consults a lawyer when drawing up his case for a court.
The examples are abundant; in most cases the advice is taken voluntarily, but sometimes the citizen may be required by law to seek expert advice and act upon it, before, for example, he is allowed to take some particularly dangerous drug. The clearest example is obviously in case of a legal dispute between two parties, when they are required to take their grievances before a judge and abide by his decision if they cannot settle their dispute amicably.