What is The Difference Between the Iman-i Tahqiqi and Iman-i Taqlidi?
There are two kinds of faith; initiative faith and verified faith.
The most important issue about faith is to convert it into a verified belief from the imitative
level
There are two types of faith. One type is imitative (Taqlidi) while the other is verified (tahqiqi).
Imitative faith (iman-i taqlidi) is the faith which a person has just through the people around him without any proofs.
Since a person having imitative belief doesn’t have any investigation and Islamic studies to acquire certain knowledge about faith he just believes in the way that he observes in the people around him. This kind of belief is weak and shakeable in the face of doubts and misgivings of disbelief, because it doesn’t stand on any proofs and knowledge.
However,
tahqiqi iman which is the “certain, verified faith” means believing in Allah (swt) as strong as seeing Him.
This kind of belief is obtained as a result of acquiring certain knowledge of all the questions related to belief through close investigation and Islamic studies. Since “verified belief” has the answers of all questions of doubt and disbelief, it is too strong, firm and unshakable.
Ulama (scholars) are in consensus that even though it is valid to have an imitative faith, it is fard for very Muslim to raise their faith to the ‘certain, verified belief’ from imitative level. (