is apparent, so it is not removed by doubt. If the error becomes clear to him, and he does not know the direction of the Qibla, like a man who was praying toward a direction and then saw some of the moon's phases in his Qibla, and he did not know whether it was in the East or the West, and he needed to exercise ijtihad, his prayer is void because it is impossible for him to continue it toward other than the Qibla, and he has no direction toward which to turn, so it is void due to the impossibility of completing it.

135 - Issue: He said: "And if the ijtihad of two men differs, one of them shall not follow his companion."

His summary statement is that if two mujtahids differ, the obligation of each of them is to pray toward the direction to which his ijtihad leads him as being the Qibla; it is not permitted for him to abandon it, nor to practice taqlid (imitation) of his companion, regardless of whether he is more knowledgeable than him or not, just like two scholars who differ on an incident. If one of them has exercised ijtihad and the other wishes to follow him without exercising ijtihad, that is not permissible for him, and he is not permitted to pray until he exercises ijtihad, whether the time is ample or it is tight and he fears the time for prayer will expire, just like a judge; it is not permissible for him to issue a ruling on an incident by imitating another. Al-Qadi said: The apparent [meaning] of Ahmad’s words, regarding the mujtahid whose time is too tight for his ijtihad, is that he may imitate someone else. He pointed to Ahmad’s statement regarding one who is in a city and performs taharri, then prays toward other than the Qibla in a house; he must repeat because he is obligated to ask. He said: He has made the duty of the imprisoned one to be asking, and this is not correct. Ahmad’s words only indicate that someone in a city does not have the [right to perform] ijtihad because he can reach the Qibla through information and inferring from the mihrabs, unlike the traveler; and it contains no evidence that it is permissible for him to imitate the mujtahids in the place of ijtihad when the time is tight. Do you not see that Abu Abd Allah did not distinguish between the time being tight and it being ample, while we are in agreement that he is not permitted to practice taqlid when the time is ample? And because ijtihad in his case is a condition for the validity of the prayer, it does not lapse due to the tightness of time, since it is possible, just like the rest of the conditions.

Section: If the ijtihad of two men differs, and each of them prays toward a direction, neither has the right to follow the other in prayer. This is the school of al-Shafi'i; because each of them believes in the error of his companion, it is not permitted for him to follow him in prayer, just as if one of them had released wind and each of them believed it was from his companion.