[First; imitating the predecessors]

One of the common types of “imitation” is following the saying and action of the predecessors; as God 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 have not sent any warner before you in a land unless the affluent in it said: ‘We have found our fathers believing in a religion, and we are following them.’” This is because many people believe that what their predecessors said and did are necessarily more correct than what they say or do; whereas this belief is nothing but an illusion and has no basis in the intellect; because undoubtedly, the correctness of what a person says and does not follow the time of his birth, but rather its more compatibility with the intellect, which does not correlate with the time priority of the human being’s birth; as there is no dispute about the incorrectness of many of the sayings and actions of the predecessors, but rather God Almighty has deemed most of them have gone astray and perished; as He has said: ﴿وَلَقَدْ ضَلَّ قَبْلَهُمْ أَكْثَرُ الْأَوَّلِينَ﴾[2]; “And indeed, most of the predecessors went astray before them,” and said: ﴿أَلَمْ نُهْلِكِ الْأَوَّلِينَ﴾[3]; “Did We not made the predecessors perish?!” This means that following the predecessors in view of their time priority is in contradiction with the principles of Islam, but rather with its essentials; based on the fact that the essential of Islam is anything that is known from the explicit words of God Almighty in His Book, and there is no doubt that non-necessity of following the predecessors is of this sort; because God 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 God sent down,’ they say: ‘But we follow what we found our fathers upon!’ What if their fathers have not understood anything by the intellect and were not guided?!” and 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];