Jurisprudence of knowledge in ijtihad according to the Imamis - an evidentiary study

Abstract

Ijtihad has great importance in Islamic jurisprudence and the method of deduction, as well as imitation for the accountable person. The condition of knowledge is one of the most important conditions set in the authority of imitation, especially in the event of a difference in the fatwa and the possibility of identifying the most knowledgeable among the differing, but it seems that there is a great controversy between the jurists in general and the Imami jurists. In particular, this disagreement and controversy over “defining what is meant by knowledge, its owners, and also the ruling on imitating the most knowledgeable has spread over multiple directions, between supporters and those who reject it, and it has become clear that each direction has its own evidence on which it is based. Likewise, the dispute has extended over the methods through which it is possible to define The most knowledgeable, and how to examine the most knowledgeable, and it is clear that both the evidence of identification and the evidence of proof or denial were the subject of criticism, controversy, refutation and conclusion.