the one of lower status is correct, that would not prevent him from imitating the one of higher status. As for if they are equal in his estimation, he may imitate whichever of them he wishes, like the layman with scholars in other legal rulings.

Section: The person who imitates (muqallid) is the one for whom it is not possible to pray by his own ijtihad, either due to his lack of sight or due to his lack of insight, and he is the layman for whom it is not possible to learn and pray by his own ijtihad before the prayer time expires. As for one for whom it is possible, he is obligated to learn, and if he prays before that, his prayer is not valid, because he was capable of praying by his own ijtihad, so it is not valid by taqlid, just like the mujtahid. It does not follow from this for the layman—where he is not obligated to learn Fiqh—for two reasons: First, that Fiqh is not a condition for the validity of the prayer. Second, that its duration is long. Thus, he is like the one who is not able to learn the proofs in our issue. And if he delays this learning and the prayer until a time when the remaining time is too short for learning and ijtihad, or for one of them, his prayer is valid by taqlid, like the one who is able to learn the Fatiha, but the time becomes too short for learning it.

Section: If the mujtahid has ophthalmia (inflammation of the eyes), or some impediment that prevents him from seeing the proofs, he is like the blind man in the permissibility of taqlid, because he is incapable of ijtihad. Likewise, if he were imprisoned in a place where he cannot see the proofs, and he finds no informant except another mujtahid in a place where he can see the markers, he may imitate him, because he is like the blind man.

Section: When he begins the prayer by imitating a mujtahid, and someone says to him: "You have missed the Qibla, and the Qibla is actually thus," and he was reporting based on certainty—like someone who says: "I have seen the sun, or the stars, and I am certain that you are mistaken"—then he must return to his statement and turn toward the direction that he informed him is the direction of the Kaaba, because if he were to report that to the mujtahid whom the blind man imitated, he would be obligated to accept his report; therefore, the blind man is even more entitled to this. If he informs him based on his own ijtihad, or does not clarify to him what he is reporting from, and he was not more trustworthy in his own opinion than the first, he proceeds as he was, because he began the prayer with a proof based on certainty, and it is not removed by doubt. If the second was more trustworthy in his own opinion than the first, and we said: "He is not specifically obligated to imitate the one of higher status," then it is the same. If we said: "He must imitate him specifically," he returns to his statement, like the sighted person if his ijtihad changes during his prayer.