مراجع تقلید

1 Law:: of مرجع تقليد (among shi’ite Muslims) : تقليد is literally ‘imitation’, and in shi’ism it means “regular reliance on a Muslim religious authority and conforming to his judgments on questions of canon-law and matters falling within the domain of religion.” مرجع is “source or authority”. A مرجع تقليد is a ‘model religious authority’ among shi’ite Muslims, and مراجع تقليد are “leading religious scholars”, commonly styled آيت‌الله ‘ayatollah’, that have attained the highest scholarship, that have become ‘mujtahid’, and that may be looked up to and consulted by the laity as definitive rulers on matters of religion and on topics that have religious implications in shi’ism. A مرجع تقليد is a religious authority who may be consulted on a wide range of religious or other matters that are dealt with in shi’ism. Consultation is normally obtained by reading his printed treatise, by contacting his personal office assistant, or by informally asking any of the other common people who are known to be followers of that religious authority. Each مرجع تقليد has his own group of sporadic followers throughout Iran who have handpicked him solely based on their own religious wisdom and each of whom is styled مقلّد in relation to that religious scholar, the latter never knowing how many followers he has. A member of the laity consults solely his own particular مرجع تقليد on occasion as the ‘sole model for conformity’ but none of the other authorities that have the same religious title. A religious scholar of this station, among other qualifications, must have written a رساله that is a ‘religious treatise’ of superior excellence to qualify him for that title. Women as a rule do not qualify for this title. – see also مجتهد , مرجع , مرجعيت in the main entry NOTE : تقليد and its English near-equivalent in non-religious context “imitation” have negative connotations a condition that is markedly more pronounced in English. Within the context of shi’ism, however, تقليد does not mean “imitation,” but rather “regular reliance on a Muslim religious authority and conforming to his judgments on questions of canon-law and matters falling within the domain of religion.” To use “imitation” as an equivalent for تقليد in its religious context would be injustice to shi’ism and to both Persian and English.

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