Definition of Taqlid By Allamah Imam Nawab Siddique Hasan Khan (d.1307H/1890ce)
Translated by Abu Hibbaan & Abu Khuzaimah Ansaari
A statement of Imam Nawab Siddique Hasan Khan clarifying the difference between taqlid and ittiba and educating those who try to dismiss this difference and those who play with polemics and semantics in fabricating answers and replies from their whims and desires, no matter how archaic they are!!!!
The Definition of Taqlid
Taqlid is to take the statement of a righteous individual without evidence and to abandon the command of the Quran and Sunnah in place of it. Taking and accepting the statement of a scholar or a holy man which he presents from the Quran and Hadith is not Taqlid, rather this is ittiba. This is because Taqlid is to accept the OPINION of someone and Ittiba is to accept the NARRATION of someone. From what is obligatory upon us, is to accept the authentic ahadith and then to act upon them. It is not however obligatory upon us to take the opinion of someone and then to follow it.
Taken from Da’yatul Iman Ila Tawheed ur-Rahman (p.117) of Imam Nawab Siddique Hasan Khan
