“How so?” He answered, “A scholar voices an opinion of his own, then he meets someone who knows the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) better than he does, so he abandons that opinion—yet the followers keep on with it.”

Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr went on: “It is reliably established that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ‘The scholars will depart, then people will take ignorant ones as leaders. They will be asked and will issue rulings without knowledge; they will stray and lead others astray.’ ⦗1⦘

All of this negates and nullifies blind-following for anyone who understands and is rightly guided. There is no disagreement among the leading imams of the various regions that taqlid is unsound, so there is no need for extensive citation. Ibn al-Qayyim recorded this in Iʿlām 2/294–298.

Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, also said: “It is impermissible to issue fatwas on the basis of taqlid, for taqlid is not knowledge, and giving a fatwa without knowledge is forbidden. There is unanimous agreement that taqlid is not knowledge and that a blind-follower is not called a scholar.” (Iʿlām 1/51).

Al-Suyuti stated likewise—that the muqallid is not deemed a scholar—as quoted by Abū al-Hasan al-Sindi al-Ḥanafī at the opening of his marginalia on Ibn Mājah. Al-Shawkānī confirmed this unequivocally in Irshād al-Fuhūl, p. 236, declaring: “Taqlid is ignorance, not knowledge.”

This conforms with what appears in the Ḥanafī manuals: it is impermissible to appoint an ignorant person as a judge. The eminent Ibn al-Humām explained that “ignorant” here means “the blind-follower.”