(Part 16)
The Continuation;
The Second Topic: History of Taqlid (Imitation)
The Post-Imam Period: The Age of Taqlid
After the era of the great imams (i.e., post mid-4th century AH), this era is referred to as the Age of Taqlid, because both scholars and laypeople turned to imitation. Scholars ceased innovative approaches and adopted more rigid methods than before.
If a jurist composed a concise text, his student would write a brief commentary, and later, this commentary would be expanded into larger commentaries. Marginal notes, interlinear glosses, poetic versifications, and explanations of these poems followed.
(al-Qattan, 1422 AH, p. 397).
Blind Taqlid During this Era Had Several Causes:
- The political decline of the Abbasid Caliphate, which directly affected the growth of knowledge, especially fiqh.
- The complete codification of the madhhabs, leading to a perceived lack of need for new ijtihad.
- The lack of confidence among later scholars in making new legal deductions.
Though the gates of ijtihad were considered closed, some scholars still made valuable contributions, such as:
Providing reasoning and justification for transmitted rulings not originally explained by the imams.
Extracting principles of deduction from existing rulings to understand the juristic method of the imams.
Making comparisons and preferences among the sayings of an imam, especially when multiple views existed due to changes or nuanced reasoning, (Ali Jum‘ah, 1422 AH, p. 356). Despite these issues, renewer scholars (mujaddidun) emerged even during the age of taqlid and made great scholarly and juristic contributions to the Muslim community.
In this period (from the 4th century until the fall of Baghdad), the Islamic world, in general, was no longer capable of producing fruitful and towering scholars like the four imams and their students. After this period, the flourishing of Islamic thought declined, and the Muslim world began to gradually fall behind and suffer defeats in various scientific, political, economic, and technological fields. There is no doubt that following the great imams is essential for preserving unity and avoiding sectarianism. However, for a growing society, innovation in political, military, economic, social, and cultural areas is necessary. Hence, the era after the mujtahids is referred to as the Era of Stagnation (jumud).