As-Salamu ´Alaykum, Your topic of choice is an interesting one indeed, and I wish I had the time to deal with it at the moment. As a humble student of the living Shuyukh of Tariqa Sanusiyya, there is much I would like to say. The Imam's approach to Taqlid and Ijtihad was colored by the opinions of his murshid, Sayyidi al-Qutb Ahmad bin Idris, radiya'Llahu ´anhuma. Initially even al-Imam al-Sanusy was sceptical to what seemed to be a rejection of the madhaheb. This was not true in its totality, but they were critical of the rigid text-book parroting of many of the ´ulama of their age, and felt that those equipped to do Ijtihad should do so. It was, to them, intellectual stupidity for a high ranking scholar not to apply their knowledge, and instead to blindly parrot the words of the´ulama of yesterday when one is able to do their own research. To put it bluntly, do not raise the ´ulama (of both Fiqh and Suluk) to the levels of Anbiya' (´alayhim as-salam) in practice. They received a lot of rejection from the Ottoman ´ulama for this very reason. This shows that the call for ijtihad was not a purely "Wahhabi" call, rather from "our" very won ranks. And this has always been strongly connected to the Tariqa Muhammadiyya phenomenon. This is another type of Salafism, if I may say so, that is not within the ranks of the Wahhabiyya (in both Aqidah and over-zealousness), nor is it a pro-Afghani, Abduh or Rida "Salafism". Sayyidi Ahmad bin Idris even had close ties with the Wahhabiyya in Hijaz (and he exchanged letters with Shawkani), even though he disagreed with them on both their Aqidah and their excess in combating what they saw as bid´ah. To understand their approach to Taqlid and Ijtihad, read the words of Shaykh al-Akbar ibn al-´Arabi, qaddasa'Llahu sirruh. To sum it up, in reality, following the Sahih Hadith is not "Ijtihad", for it is Taqlid of the Prophet, salla'Llahu ´alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, which goes before the taqlid of any Imam, any day. In addition, they obviously had lower requirements than some modern ´ulama in terms of who can do ijtihad, which to my limited understanding is also more in line with the books of Usul. I touched on this topic a little bit on this thread: http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/arch.../t-79158.html? wa'Llahu a'lam Eid Mubarak wassalam