—their own Imams had lodged taqlid firmly in their hearts and in the hearts of every seeker of knowledge, thereby diverting them from gaining juristic insight through the Quran and the Sunnah. In their usage, fiqh came to mean nothing more than grasping the scholars’ pronouncements recorded in their manuals. Not content with all of this, they even called people to fanatic loyalty to the school, saying, for instance: “If we are asked about our madhhab and that of our opponent, we must reply: Our madhhab is correct yet may admit error, whereas the madhhab of our opponent is erroneous yet may admit correctness. And if we are asked about our creed and that of our adversaries, we must reply: The truth is what we hold, and falsehood is what our adversaries hold.”¹

Although such statements—and others like them that we have not mentioned—were never voiced by any of the followed Imams, for they were far more knowledgeable and God-fearing than to utter them, their falsity is plain on two counts:

First: they clash with the Quran and the Sunnah, both of which contain many texts commanding that one speak only with knowledge, such as His words, “And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge” (Q 17:36). You have already learned that true knowledge is only what has come in the Quran and the Sunnah—so where, in either of them, is there anything to support what they have claimed?

Second: they lay claim to taqlid, and the proof for a muqallid is the statement of his Imam, as is well known from their own books. Where, then, is this in the speech of their Imam? It is inconceivable that the Imams ever said such a thing.