[First: Imitation of the Predecessors]

One of the common forms of imitation is following the statement and action of the predecessors; as Allah Almighty has said: ﴿وَكَذَلِكَ مَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ فِي قَرْيَةٍ مِنْ نَذِيرٍ إِلَّا قَالَ مُتْرَفُوهَا إِنَّا وَجَدْنَا آبَاءَنَا عَلَى أُمَّةٍ وَإِنَّا عَلَى آثَارِهِمْ مُقْتَدُونَ﴾[1]; “And in this way, We did not send before you a warner to any town unless its affluent said: ‘We found our fathers upon a religion, and we are following them.’” This is because many people believe that what their predecessors said and did is necessarily more correct than what they say and do. However, this belief is nothing more than an illusion and has no basis in the intellect; because, undoubtedly, the correctness of a person’s statement and action does not depend on the time of his birth, but rather on how closely the statement and action agree with the intellect, which is not linked to being born earlier. Likewise, there is no discussion about the incorrectness of many of the statements and actions of the predecessors. Rather, Allah Almighty has judged that most of them went astray and were destroyed; as He has said: ﴿وَلَقَدْ ضَلَّ قَبْلَهُمْ أَكْثَرُ الْأَوَّلِينَ﴾[2]; “And indeed, before them, most of the predecessors went astray,” and He has said: ﴿أَلَمْ نُهْلِكِ الْأَوَّلِينَ﴾[3]; “Did We not destroy the predecessors?!” This means that following the predecessors simply because they came earlier is contrary to the principles of Islam and even to its essentials; based on the fact that an essential tenet of Islam is anything that is known from the explicit statement of Allah Almighty in His Book, and the non-necessity of following the predecessors undoubtedly falls into this category; because Allah Almighty has explicitly said in His Book: ﴿وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمُ اتَّبِعُوا مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ قَالُوا بَلْ نَتَّبِعُ مَا أَلْفَيْنَا عَلَيْهِ آبَاءَنَا ۗ أَوَلَوْ كَانَ آبَاؤُهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَهْتَدُونَ﴾[4]; “And when it is said to them: ‘Follow what Allah revealed,’ they say: ‘Rather, we follow what we found our fathers upon!’ What if their fathers did not understand anything by the intellect and were not guided?!” and He has said: ﴿وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ تَعَالَوْا إِلَى مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ وَإِلَى الرَّسُولِ قَالُوا حَسْبُنَا مَا وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهِ آبَاءَنَا ۚ أَوَلَوْ كَانَ آبَاؤُهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَهْتَدُونَ﴾[5];