Imitation in Faith
Religion, in its essence, is a call to consciousness. In contrast,
taqlīd demands an uncritical following from the individual.
While religion seeks to equip the human being with a sense
of responsibility and moral awareness, taqlīd entails fulfilling
religious obligations without questioning their underlying rationale.
In this regard, taqlīd-which neglects the conscious
acceptance required by religion-has been subject to criticism
throughout Islamic intellectual history, and the validity of
the muqallid’s faith has become a matter of theological debate.
Within the Islamic theological tradition, various schools
have approached this issue differently, depending on
whether taqlīd involves genuine religious consciousness.
Some schools have reduced religion to taqlīd, perceiving religiosity
as the faithful repetition of prophetic practices or
the mere enactment of divinely revealed instructions. On the
other hand, schools that define faith (īmān) essentially as a
conscious act of affirmation have consequently denied the
validity of faith acquired through taqlīd. However, the tradition
also includes intermediary approaches that seek to reconcile
the two extremes through more nuanced formulations.
Numerous theses, books, and scholarly articles have been
written on the matter, and one may speak of a rich and diverse
body of literature concerning the faith of the muqallid
in the Islamic tradition. Nonetheless, it must be noted that
the conceptual foundation upon which these discussions are
built is not always methodologically sound. Most existing
studies have taken the definitions of faith and taqlīd as their
primary analytical framework. Our study, while acknowledging
these definitional foundations, aims to go beyond them
and offer a more profound examination of the issue.
Accordingly, this research will not limit itself to lexical or
traditional theological definitions of īmān, but will also seek
to analyze the nature of faith as an internal act of the heart.
This approach encourages a move beyond the confines of
classical theological polemics, allowing for the treatment of
faith as a lived phenomenon and subjecting it to philosophical
analysis. At the same time, the study will explore the
methodological and epistemological premises upon which
classical Muslim theologians grounded their judgments regarding
this issue.
Thus, although the bibliography of this work may largely
overlap with prior research, it is evident that the conclusions
reached will differ significantly. This divergence arises not
from the sources themselves, but from the distinct hermeneutical
and methodological approaches adopted in the interpretation
and analysis of those sources.
Keywords: Theology, al-İman, al-Taqlîd, al-Tahkîk, al-
Muqallid.