The mukallaf must know the different instances of precaution...

The mukallaf must know the different instances of precaution to be able to do this. He must know every place where it is suspected to be obligatory and not suspected to be forbidden or it is suspected to be forbidden and not suspected to be obligatory. This knowledge does not come without looking at verdicts from different mujtahids . So, precaution is another tool of finding the religious ruling. It is different than the previous two, ijtihād and taqlīd .

The mujtahid reaches the religious ruling from his efforts while the person who performs taqlīd obtains the exact rule from the mujtahid . But, the person who performs precaution only gets a general understanding of the rule. The reason for this is that the religious ruling for him is something dangling between obligation, recommendation or permission.[^7] Precaution is a way of becoming certain that one has performed the real religious ruling.

Precaution is divided into two categories: Obligatory precaution: the mukallaf must act according to precaution if he wants to stay on the taqlīd of whoever he performs taqlīd to. But, in this ruling, he or she can act upon the verdict of another scholar if he wants to change the person who he performs taqlīd to. The condition that must be followed is that he must change from the most knowledgeable to the next most knowledgeable and so on.

Recommended precaution: the mukallaf does not have to act according to this precaution, but it is better to do so.

[^1]: Muhammad Bāqir al-Sadr, Halaqah 1, page 126 [^2]: Shahīd Muttaharī, Madkhal Ila al-‛Ulūm al-Islamīyyah, page 10 [^3]: ‛Alī Mishkīnī, Istilāhāt al-Usūl, page 18 [^4]: Shahīd Muttaharī, Madkhal Ila al-‛Ulūm al-Islamīyyah, page 8 [^5]: Hādī al-Fadlī, Dūrūs fī al-Fiqh al-Imāmīyyah, page 39 [^6]: Hādī al-Fadlī, Dūrūs fī al-Fiqh al-Imāmīyyah, pages 252-254 [^7]: Hādī al-Fadlī, Dūrūs fī al-Fiqh al-Imāmīyyah, pages 255-256 Previous…