The Obligation Basis
The Quran (16:43): “Ask the people of knowledge if you do not know.” The assumption: most people do not possess the tools for independent legal reasoning. For them, following a qualified scholar is how they fulfill the obligation of acting on Islamic law correctly.
Ijtihad — deriving rulings directly from Quran, Sunna, and other sources — requires mastery of Arabic, knowledge of the entire Quran, tens of thousands of hadiths, their chains and validity grades, the principles of usul al-fiqh, and the history of scholarly disagreement. The number of scholars who genuinely qualify is small in any era.
The Madhab Commitment Question
One-madhab taqlid (الاِلتِزَامُ بِمَذهَبٍ وَاحِد): The position of later classical scholars: a layperson should follow one madhab consistently rather than picking and choosing rulings from different schools on a case-by-case basis. Tatabbu’ al-rukhas (cherry-picking concessions) is prohibited: taking the easiest ruling from each school whenever convenient is considered a form of following desires rather than law.
Flexibility position: Some scholars held that a layperson may follow any qualified contemporary scholar on specific questions, without madhab commitment.
Taqlid for Scholars
The classical debate: once a scholar has reached the level of ijtihad, is it permissible for him to continue performing taqlid of his school’s predecessor rulings even when his own research leads him to a different conclusion?
Strict position (most of the later scholars): Yes — the collective wisdom of the school is safer than individual ijtihad.
Reform position (Ibn Taymiyya, some Hanbalis): No — a scholar who has the ability to perform ijtihad on a question must do so; otherwise he is deliberately suppressing his knowledge in deference to predecessors.
The Ismaili Alternative
In Ismaili jurisprudence, taqlid is redirected entirely: the living Imam is the ultimate authority. Laypeople follow the Imam through the Da’i; scholars derive rulings from the Imam’s ta’lim (authoritative teaching). This eliminates the Sunni anxiety about whether one’s madhab ancestors were right — the Imam’s ruling supersedes all historical derivations, and following the Imam is not taqlid (blind following) but ittiba’ (following one who has direct access to truth).
See also: Ilm Al Usul, Ilm Al Qiyas, Fiqh Al Ijma, Dai Al Mutlaq, Ismaili Dawat Organization, Fiqh Al Wasatiyyah