Why do we refer to the jurisprudent and follow him as regards the rules of Islam which he deduced?

The answer to this question takes us back to the main question which is related to the secret of the creation of the human being, the question which the human being finds in the depths of his soul. This is so because every human being since childhood is fond of perfection and aims at reaching it.

Upon analysing the movement of the human being since childhood, we come to find him labouring towards a certain aim which he considers to be his perfection. The baby believes at the start of his growth that his perfection is fulfilled when he crawls, so he works hard in order to crawl. When he starts crawling, he realizes that this is not his perfection; so he starts labouring towards walking, so that he may accomplish his perfection through this. After he has walked, he also realizes that he has not attained the desired perfection. Then, he starts labouring towards something else through which he hopes that his perfection will be attained. He thinks that to talk is this thing, so he labours towards it. He starts talking and may become fluent, yet he still feels the fire of the love of perfection blazing inside him.

Here, the human being may take a model whom he believes that his perfection is going to be fulfilled when he becomes like that model.

This model may be his father or his teacher or his leader… He may rise to the level of his model and even higher, yet he is still having that thirst to perfection inside him.

The Purpose of the Creation and the illusions of the People

When man grows up, he goes on looking for his perfection. Some people get to believe that the money achieves their perfection, so they turn to be the richest ones yet still feeling inner poverty.

Other people get to believe that the power achieves their perfection, so they take hold of the power yet still feeling inner disgrace.

And other people get to believe that fame achieves their perfection, so they become famous yet still having that spiritual thirst inside them.

At this, the human being realizes with his sound nature that he is labouring towards The Absolute Perfection which is void of any sin or default and that all that he conceived to be perfection is merely an illusion. This is so because The Absolute Perfection is not found in those materialistic things towards which he has been labouring. The human being knows The Absolute Perfection by means of his nature: How should not he know Him and He is the Creator of this nature?!

The deceased Imam of the nation Imam Al-Khomeini (May his secret be sacred) said, "O you who are wandering in the valley of confusion and who are lost in the deserts of delusion. Rather you butterflies who are roving around the candle of the beauty of The Absolute Beauty, and you lovers of The Flawless, Eternal, and Constant Beloved, go back a little to the book of the innate nature and browse in the book of your souls, then you will find out that the Divine Power had written on it with the pen of the innate nature:

“Verily, I have turned my face towards Him Who created the heavens and the earth” (Surah Al-An’am, 6:79).1

The perfection of the human being is, therefore, fulfilled when he walks on the path of The Absolute Perfection. Even though he is unable to reach The Absolute because of his inner poverty, he draws near to Him in order to achieve his human perfection, as The Noble Qur’an depicted the perfection of the Master of the Mankind in the Saying of The Most High God:

“Then he [Jibrael] approached and came closer” (Surah An-Najm, 53:8).

Then, the talk, all the talk, must be about how the human being well walks on the path of his perfection.

The Role Of Imitation In The Accomplishment Of The Perfection Of The Human Being

Here emerges the role of imitation because this path has certain rules which are determined by The Creator. And the human being cannot, by means of his mental abilities and his other methods, know these rules which were decreed for the welfare of the human being in this life and in the hereafter, in his body and in his soul, in his individual and in his society.

From here emerged the need for the prophets and the messengers (God’s peace bestowed upon them) to clarify for us the features and the laws of this path, so that we will be guided while walking on it.

The message of Islam carried the immortal laws for the process of the human being. With the death of the greatest illustrator of the doctrine Muhammad bin Abdullah (God’s prayers and peace bestowed upon him and his Household) and with the disappearance of the last illustrator of the doctrine Imam Al-Houjja Al-Mahdi (May God hasten his honourable revelation), it has become urgently necessary that a group of people study these laws in order to acquaint the people with them. This is so because it is not possible that all the people have a direct study for the sources of these laws. The ones who study and come to know the laws are the jurisprudents.

But the ones who could not come to know these laws through study have an opened the door to get this knowledge through the dependence on those jurisprudents. This door is the imitation.

Therefore, the imitation, which means following the jurisprudents who studied and came to know the laws of God in the life of the human being, is resorted to the solution in order to know the laws in order to pass over the path of perfection.

Summary

The answer to the question: "Why do we imitate?" is: We imitate in order to pass the path of perfection which is the aim of our creation in the manner which God wanted this passage to be not in the manners which our souls desire. In this lies the great importance of imitation.

Dear Brother

Having known why we imitate, let us move to know the answer of the next question which is related to our evidence for the dutifulness of imitation.

• 1. Manhajeyyat Al-Thawra Al-Islameeyya, page 7.