In Islamic canon law, the unquestioning acceptance of legal precedent.
The interpretation of taqlīd varies widely among the major schools of Islamic law. Taqlīd is compulsory for Sunnite legal schools, views are mixed; most scholars of the Shāfiʽī, Mālikī, and Ḥanafī schools embrace taqlīd , but those of the Ḥanbalī do not view the opinions of earlier scholars as necessarily binding. Support for the practice is based mainly on the belief that early Muslim scholars, being closer in time to Muhammad , were in the best position to derive authoritative legal opinions.