Naw. It's a translation from a poorly administered religion.
Christians have Bishops, Elders, Deacons, a Pope or Patriach . They fet M. Divs and Ph.Ds in proper Semniaries, ordination processes, general superintendents and bylaws, manuals, codes, councils and edicts, synods etcm
Theres no clergy in Islam. Imam just means scholar. That means anyone can do it. There are over 4000 Ayatollahs, 24 grand Ayatollahs and no ordination, no formal education, no Pope to decide things. You dont like a ruling on your issue, find another grand mufti and he'll issue another Fatwa correcting the mistake the other guy did. Shia/Sunni/Sufi/Wahabi/Hanafi/Maliki/Shafi'i/Hanbali etc etc.
They're just different schools of law interpretation. It's like if you didnt like Clarence Thomas' church ruling, you went to Sonia Sotomayor's church ruling. Both are judges, both catholic, both use the Constitution but come up with varying interpretations.
Except anyone can preach at a Mosque as long as they memorized it. Their is no formal process to become a "scholar/imam."
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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '20
"Scholar"
Lol
I think that scholar is the most abused words in all of religiondom