therefore, putting such a person into power without restriction and supervision is to cast oneself into destruction, which is to oppress oneself and not permissible; as God Almighty has said: ﴿وَلَا تُلْقُوا بِأَيْدِيكُمْ إِلَى التَّهْلُكَةِ﴾[1]; “And do not cast yourselves into destruction with your own hands,” and said: ﴿إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَظْلِمُ النَّاسَ شَيْئًا وَلَكِنَّ النَّاسَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ﴾[2]; “Undoubtedly, God does not oppress people, but people oppress themselves.” Based on this, God has not obligated people to obey such a person, but it is people who obligated themselves to obey such a person; because God does not oppress them at all, but they oppress themselves, and such a work is not only oppression, but it is also an obvious example of foolishness, which is unlikely for intellectuals, let alone their Lord!

It is hereby understood that imitating scholars does not suffice in any way, and ijtihad is obligatory for all Muslims; of course, if ijtihad means certain cognition of the beliefs and rulings of Islam; because if it means conjectural cognition of them, even by relying on ahad narrations and illusions such as consensus, it is not much different from imitation and, accordingly, does not suffice; because the reason that imitation does not suffice is that relying on uncertainties in the religious beliefs and rulings does not suffice, and this reason is common between imitation and ijtihad that is based on uncertainties, and consequently, ijtihad that is based on uncertainties does not suffice, even if it is better than imitation; but rather whatever is necessary for certain cognition of the religious beliefs and rulings is obligatory for all Muslims.

[Third; imitating the majority]

Another common type of imitation is to follow what the majority of people say and do; because many Muslims think what the majority of people say and do is more correct than what the minority of them say and do, so they follow them as their role models; while the correctness of sayings and actions certainly does not depend on the number of their followers, but rather on their conformity to the intellect, which is considered the criterion of cognition.