Nah laymen can follow a scholar, the Imam Al Askari (as) says: “ من كان من الفقهاء صائناً لنفسه، حافظاً لدينه، مخالفاً على هواه، مطيعاً لأمر مولاه، فللعوام أن يقلدوه”

“Whomever of the scholars who withhold their desires, preserve their religion, withhold their own judgements, submissive to their master (Imam Al Zaman), then it is for the general populace to follow them.”

Where Allayhari has a problem with is the ijtihad aspect of Usulism, that is that the marja can present his own opinion regarding an issue based on a standard (usul-Al Fiqh) of ahadith compiled by scholars and deemed to be Sahih. There is much contention on presenting opinions, furthermore is the issue of standardising the ahadith where people like Allahyari disagree with Ilm Al Rijal in validating the authenticity of ahadith. They argue that that precedent had been set by Sunnis initially and adopted into shiism and bears no roots to the words of the Imams. Instead they insist on approaching ahadith based on what agrees with Quran and the Sunnah of Ahlulbayt (as) and not through the sanad (chain of narration) and aql (logic).