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Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani (may Allah lengthen his life) is considered as the greatest living shia scholar of this time. What makes him the greatest shia scholar? Is that so because he is politically influential in Iraq? He has no presence in public (let alone social media). Perhaps, he has not delivered even a single public lecture in his whole life. If he had done so, it would have been available online in form of audio or video clip. So, he is not listened to as well contrary to other modern scholars of other schools of thoughts. His books are also not well read by common men. His only mass translated book is Tauzeeh al-Masail (Islamic Laws). The book contain no rationale/discussion behind his fatawa. This is contrary to the famous ulema of Ahlul Hadith (al-Bani, al-Baz to say a few), who beside mentioning their verdict also persent their rationale/arguments in their fatawa too. Yes, there are alot of his muqalids (followers). But it shocking to see that most of these muqalids do not know much about him except that he is a great scholar. His official website al-Sistani.org is full of stuff like "permissible" and "not permissible" without explaining wisdom behind it most of the times. The website's "Send Question" session explicitly mentions that "We do not reply to purely scientific questions or those that are not of daily use or questions about the concept and wisdom [sic] of Islamic laws." Some of his fatawa are somehow impracticable and hard to act upon. For instance, he says a Non-Muslim is najis (ritually impure), and to him ritual purity (tahaarat) is obligatory for touching Qur'an. So in his view, Non-Muslim can not touch Qur'an. Isn't strange? If he can't touch Qur'an, how can he get guidance from it? Someone may argue that a Non-Muslim can touch translation only copy of Qur'an. Now, let's suppose the Non-Muslim in question is among a million native Arabic speaking Non-Muslims living in Middle East & Central Asia, what should he do when the only language he knows is Arabic? An educated person living in this globalised era demands reasoning and argument for following religious verdicts. This is not an era of blind following. Modern scholars (or their representatives) have considerable presence on social media. For example, Dr Zakir Naik (he mainly follows fatawa of reputed Ahlul Hadith scholars) conducts online Q & A session regularly on his YouTube & Facebook link. He welcomes any type of question & he explains wisdom behind Islamic Laws too. Why can't Sayyed al-Sistani or any of his well learned representative hold such sessions too?

It happens each year without fail around this time that 1 or more threads are created for azadari bashing. I could go back on SC and pull out such threads like clockwork. They make rituals that are on periphery seem like the faith is based on it and then lament about the plight and misery of shias and how it is falling apart. I believe one of last year's topic or the year before was validity of spontaneous matam vs. organized matam. This year is crawling; next year might be criticizing "online" azadari Make no mistake that our marajae and azadari are what has ensured the survival of the shias for so long. Hence both of them are under attack constantly. While it may seem that threads are created to "save" azadari, its an attack on both - our ulema and azadari. Who cares if 10 guys crawl or 100 guys walk on coals or 1,000 do tatbir - 20m+ marching peacefully to the chants of Labaik Ya Hussain (عليه السلام) is the only story. The agenda of these threads is to reduce azadari to a shell and disparage our ulema for not doing enough to "save" azadari. You may have heard of "Make war in the name of peace". Agenda of these topics is "destroy azadari in the name of ulema" AND "destroy ulema in the name of azadari". Pit our 2 pillars against each other to destroy both. People will have you believe there is anarchy in the shia world. A peaceful gathering of 20m+ each year defies that belief. There is consensus amoung our ulema and also among historians that shia has never been as strong as it is today. Our system is designed to root out the bad ulema and bizarre rituals by itself so lets all be thankful to our marajae (may Allah lengthen their lives) and continue to commemorate azadari with the fervor it deserves. "There is a heat in the heart of our believers that will never subside".

why and why not? how long have you been doing taqleed and which maraja have you been doing taqleed of? how has been your experience?

Salam, When a person follows a particular maraja, does he needs to follow the rulings of another maraja in any matter. For instance, i follow ayatollah sistani he gives a fatwa that a particular thing is allowed. But another maraja says it isn't haram but ihtiyat mustahib or ihtiyat wajib or lets say if it is haram. In that case what should a person do. There are dozens of maraja and its impossible to follow rulings of everyone,

(bismillah) (salam) In the name of Allah, The most beneficent the most merciful, Assalamu aleykum. I would like to ask the people of this forum if they could please help me out, By giving me a list of marajas from their knowledge that do not allow tatbir. Jazakallah. (P.S. I know Sayed Fudlullah is against Tatbir [May Allah increase his blessings])