1. Man will be questioned about the religion, the guidance of God, His orders and prohibitions. There is no other way to fulfill this responsibility and be sure that one has obeyed God unless (a) one is himself a scholar in the matters of the Law, or (b) he follows the decisions of a well qualified scholar (c) or follows the law by means of observing precaution in order to be certain that whatever is done is within the Law, and no obligation is given up. No scholarly effort, following a scholar or observing precaution is required in the case of the obligations and prohibitions that are commonly known; such as the daily prayers, fasting during the month of Ramadan, unlawfulness of adultery and many others of the obligatory nature. Nor in the case of preferable and allowable acts known to people living in a religious community; that a young divorced woman after sexual intercourse, or a widowed woman, has to wait for a certain period of time before a second marriage; that there are certain informal preferable prayers to pray and that one is allowed to eat an apple, etc.
The same rule applies to the natural objects such as to see if some liquid is intoxicating or not. However, one who knows that the above ways are the only ones to obey God, but he follows none of them, his acts have no value according to the Law. Whatever is done according to none of the above ways is of no value except in the case of one who is ignorant of the whole matter and whatever he has done by chance are as required by the Law or according to the decisions of the qualified scholars.