—about their claims and the soundness of the way they cling to those opinions.

As for saying that taqlid is not knowledge, the reason is that Allah, Exalted is He, has condemned it in a number of Qur’anic verses. Consequently, the early Imams repeatedly warned against it. The Andalusian authority Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, may Allah have mercy on him, devoted a special chapter to this very point in his celebrated work Jāmiʿ Bayān al-ʿIlm wa-Faḍlihi, entitled (2/109–114):

Section: The Invalidity of Taqlid, Its Rejection, and the Distinction Between Taqlid and Ittibaʿ

Allah—Mighty and Majestic—has censured blind following in many places in His Book. He says: “They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords instead of Allah” (9:31). Hudhayfa and others explained: “They did not worship them in place of Allah; rather, when the rabbis and monks declared something lawful or unlawful, the people followed them.” ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim related: “I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with a cross around my neck. He said, ‘O ʿAdī, cast that idol from your neck!’ I then approached him while he was reciting Sūrat al-Tawbah, and when he reached the verse, ‘They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords instead of Allah,’ I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, we did not take them as lords.’ He replied, ‘Indeed you did. Did they not make lawful for you what Allah had forbidden, so you accepted it as lawful; and make unlawful what Allah had made lawful, so you accepted it as unlawful?’ I answered, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘That is your worship of them.’

Allah, the Exalted, also says: “And in this way We never sent before you to any town a warner without its affluent people saying, ‘We found our fathers upon a way and we are following in their footsteps.’ He said, ‘Even if I bring you better guidance than that upon which you found your fathers?’” (43:23–24). And so He barred them