Kadhim Khorasani writes:,,We are told that in the times of the Imams (a), Shias continued to do taqlid on the dead. This is questionable and refutable because such a custom (taqlid) did not exist in the times of the Imams (a). The companions of the Imams (a) would gain knowledge from those who transmitted from the Imams (a) and they only followed the traditions.”

[Kifayat ul-Usul, Muhammad Kadhim Khorasani, page 479.]

,,Today we have different scholars in different towns and villages who deliver fatawa of maraja (great scholars) to the people. It was exactly the same in the times of the Imams (a). The scholars used to convey the sayings (Ahadith) of the Imams (a) to the people then.” (Not their own opinions).

[Kifayat ul-Usul, Muhammad Kadhim Khorasani, page 299.]

Sayyed Murtaza Husseini al-Yazdi writes: ,,The narrators of the sayings (Ahadith) in the times of the Imams (a) were not mujtahids, they were only transmitters of the sayings of the Imams (a).”

[‘Inaytul Usul, Sayyed Murtaza Husseini al-Yazdi, Volume 3, Page 224]

“These traditions which indicate the permissibility of giving fatawa, although they are our strongest arguments in favour of taqlid, have the problem, that back in that time, fatwa meant explanation or narrating of ahadith.”

[Nihayat ul-Dariya fi Sharh Kifaya, Vol. 3, page 466.]

Hussein al-Hilli writes: ,,It is quite obvious that the narrators of the sayings were not mujtahids […] They followed the traditions (not opinions), so they did not make ijtihad.”

[Usul al-Fiqh, Sheikh Hussein al-Hilli (Teacher of Sayyed Sistani), Volume 6, Page 442]