Taqleed and Imam Azam

Now there will be no revelation, but this is clear that the verses of the Holy Quran and the words of the Hadith are limited, where as the problems of the humankind, which are refashioned by the passing of time, are unlimited.  For this reason, the extraction of rules of the contemporary issues by contemplating over the sources of Islamic law is highly necessary.  In the Science of Jurisprudence (Fiqh), these very issues of human life are dealt with.

The verses of the Holy Quran and the Hadith that deal with these issues are 500 and 3000 respectively.  Obviously, rules have to be formulated by contemplating over these verses and Hadith.  At some places the rules have been mentioned concisely.  At some places they are hidden.  At some places they have been mentioned in abbreviated form and at some places they are ambiguous.

To contemplate over them, understand the intent of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) and formulate rules, which include personal, economic, political, domestic rules for the guidance of the community and the Ummah, is beyond the ability of even an accomplished scholar, let alone a common man.

Mere mastery of language does not qualify one to understand the finer points of the law and neither can every litterateur/philologist be a legislator as well.  When this is not possible in the laws made by men, but is considered a joke that only mastery over a language qualifies one to be a legislator, then comprehension of divine laws demands much more from us.  For this reason, those revered personalities who spent their entire lives in the deduction and extraction of laws, who remained the leaders of the community because of their knowledge and piety, their deductions are more authoritative than ours.