I have a few questions about the permissibility of taqlid.

1) Imam Al Sadiq (as) on the ayah in the Quran “they took their rabbis and monks as their lords beside Allah (swt)” (9:31): “By Allah they did not ask to pray for them for if they were to have invited them to do so they wouldn’t have answered them, but they made halal what was haram and they made haram on them what was halal, so they worshipped them and did not realise”.

2) Imam Al Sadiq (asws): “whoever obeys a man in disobedience to Allah, he has worshipped him”

Do these ahadith not disprove taqlid?

Also, is there any proof from ahadith that show it is ok to taqlid someone without being shown the proof for the fatwa they are following?

by

1- Yes these hadiths disprove blind and unjustified Taqlid. What those Jews and Christians did is that they followed corrupt scholars who were not pious and would play around with God’s laws. This is unjustified Taqlid.

2- The correct Taqlid is to follow an expert who is trustworthy and you know is doing his best to tell you what the Ahlulbayt (a) said. You don’t need to see the proof for each Fatwa—you just need to be confident that the scholar has proof for all his Fatwas and that he would not issue a Fatwa without proof. As long as you are confident of that then it’s sufficient.

Some hadiths that could be used to justify Taqlid:

وقال له الإمام أبو جعفر الباقر عليه السلام: اجلس في مسجد المدينة وافت الناس فاني أحب ان أرى في شيعتي مثلك.

http://shiaonlinelibrary.com/الكتب/1235_وسائل-الشيعة-الإسلامية-الحر-العاملي-ج-١٩/الصفحة_317

Here the Imam tells Aban to give Fatwas to people, and the Imam likes to see among his Shia like Aban—meaning qualified and learned scholars who can issue Fatwas.

Another hadith:

سألت أبا عبد الله عليه السلام عن رجلين من أصحابنا يكون بينهما منازعة في دين أو ميراث فتحاكما إلى السلطان أو إلى القضاة أيحل ذلك؟ فقال:
من تحاكم إلى الطاغوت فحكم له فإنما يأخذ سحتا وإن كان حقه ثابتا لأنه أخذ بحكم الطاغوت وقد أمر الله أن يكفر به قلت: كيف يصنعان قال: انظروا إلى من كان منكم قد روى حديثنا ونظر في حلالنا وحرامنا وعرف أحكامنا فارضوا به حكما فإني قد جعلته عليكم حاكما فإذا حكم بحكمنا فلم يقبله منه فإنما بحكم الله قد استخف وعلينا رد والراد علينا الراد على الله وهو على حد الشرك بالله.

http://shiaonlinelibrary.com/الكتب/1128_الكافي-الشيخ-الكليني-ج-٧/الصفحة_412

Here the Imam is referring us to experts who have knowledge of halal and haram…

And this hadith:

روي عن داود بن الحصين عن أبي عبد الله عليه السلام " في رجلين اتفقا على عدلين جعلاهما بينهما في حكم وقع بينهما فيه خلاف فرضيا بالعدلين، فاختلف العدلان بينهما، على قول أيهما يمضي الحكم؟ قال: ينظر إلى أفقههما وأعلمهما بأحاديثنا وأورعهما فينفذ حكمه، ولا يلتفت إلى الاخر

http://shiaonlinelibrary.com/الكتب/1151_من-لا-يحضره-الفقيه-الشيخ-الصدوق-ج-٣/الصفحة_8

And hadiths that would command people to refer to companions who were scholars:

عن عبد العزيز بن المهتدي – وكان خير قمي رأيته، وكان وكيل الرضا (عليه السلام) وخاصته – قال: سألت الرضا (عليه السلام) فقلت: إني لا ألقاك في كل وقت، فعمن آخذ معالم ديني؟ فقال: خذ عن يونس بن عبد الرحمن

http://shiaonlinelibrary.com/الكتب/1213_وسائل-الشيعة-آل-البيت-الحر-العاملي-ج-٢٧/الصفحة_145

In summary, proper Taqlid has these conditions:

1- Follow an expert.
2- The expert must be pious.
3- You must be confident the expert is doing his best to tell you what the Ahlulbayt (a) said. He is not influenced by political agendas or personal interests.

Also, Maraje’ generally show their evidence for Fatwa. You can check their Fiqhi encyclopedias for that. But this requires you to be somewhat of an expert law in Islamic law to understand it.

One final point: let’s say someone argues all Taqlid is invalid. So what’s the alternative if you are not an expert scholar? How do you want to figure out what the Ahlulbayt (a) have said? The book of al-Kafi, for instance, has over 16,000 hadiths. If you are not an expert and you are not going to research all the hadiths that apply to you, and understand them properly, what’s your other solution? There is no solution but to refer to expert scholars who are pious and trustworthy.