Taqleed

Imitation, uncritical adherence to established authority or precedent.

Literally: imitation; following authority uncritically

Following established authority without independent examination. In law it can be legitimate deference to a qualified school, but Iqbal used it more often as a reproach: the unthinking imitation — of the ancestors, of crystallized jurisprudence, and later of the West — that he held responsible for Muslim decline. He set living ijtihad against frozen taqleed, urging believers to inherit the spirit rather than merely copy the forms.