Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
So we're going to talk about Christmas and New Year towards the end of the podcast. But for now, I just want to start with some introductory questions.
And the first one I have for you really is, What's the reason for picking this topic in the first place? Why is it even important to discuss? I'm always grateful that you invite me over. If I respond to your question, there are many reasons why this topic is very important. The first is, if you look at the reality of the Muslims today, You'll find and you'll see that the issue of imitating the non-Muslims is so high and so great.
A lot of Muslims are imitating the non-Muslims. They are following the Christians, the Jews, the atheists. Social media has now become that place where you go to even if you want to do something.
If you want to dress in a certain way, social media, you take it. There's someone on Instagram or someone on Twitter or someone on Facebook, who you'll take as your own model and you'll follow. And they will set you guidelines of what to do and what not to do.
That's one important reason why I think this topic needs it. Secondly, it's to clarify the truth. What I mean by that is, in everything Allah has commanded, there's always a people who go extreme in exaggeration and there's always people who are extreme in negligence.
There's always ifrat and tafrit. And Islam always propagates, encourages us to be in the middle path. The middle path is what Allah and His Messenger say.
It's not what you and I feel is the middle path. Someone could say for example, there's a woman who's wearing niqab and everything and she's wearing jilbab and another woman is wearing trousers and there's one who's wearing miniskirt. The one who says, I'm wearing trousers, I'm in the middle.
I'm the middle path. I'm not extreme like the one who's wearing a miniskirt and I'm not extreme like the one who's wearing niqab and she's jilbab and blacked out. I'm in the middle, I'm wearing trousers, I'm still there.
Now we say, what is middle is set by who? Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and His Messenger. So everything Allah commands, there's always extreme exaggeration or extreme negligence. And so you find a group of people when they talk about this issue of imitating the non-Muslims, they go extreme.
And they sometimes prohibit what Allah has permitted for the people. قُلْ مَنْ حَرَّمَ زِينَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي أَخْرَجَ لِعِبَادِي وَالطَّيِّبَاتِ مِنَ الرِّزْقِ So they say that you can't wear this, you can't do this, you can't do this. They go overboard in the concept of imitating the non-Muslims.
And another group of people, they are extreme negligent. They're careless. What's the problem? Why can't we imitate them? So I always like to bring the issue to that middle path.
Inshallah Ta'ala, hoping that Allah Ta'ala may allow me to clarify with the evidences from the Qur'an and from the Sunnah. You see, Islam as a religion, which is the third point, Islam as a religion has tried and exerted many efforts. Our religion exerts efforts and encourages, let me use this word, Islam encourages for a person to be independent in his personality.
It's very important. Islam wants the Muslim society to be very unique. They want to make the Muslims independent from all other nations and all other groups in the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
And in the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, you find that it's common. Bringing this personality out of a Muslim. And that a Muslim is not هَمَجٌ رَآءَ اَتِبَعِي كُلِّ نَائِكَ That he follows everybody he sees.
For example, when the Prophet ﷺ saw Umar ibn al-Khattab reciting the Torah to the Prophet ﷺ, he said وَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ I swear by the Lord, my soul is in his hand. لَقَدْ يَجِئْتُكُم بِهَا بَيُضَاءَ نَقِيَّةً I have come with this religion clear. It's a pure, clear religion.
لا تَسْأَلُهُمْ عَنْ شَيْءٍ فَيُخْبِرُكُمْ بِحَقٍ فَتُكَذِّبُوا بِهِ أَوْ بِبَاطِلٍ فَتُصَدِّقُوهُ بِهِ وَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ لَوْ أَنَ مُوسَى كَانَ فِيكُمْ حَيًّا مَا وَسِعَهُ إِلَّا أَنْ يَتَبِعَنِي حتى موسى ﷺ said, if he was alive today and he was amongst us, there would be no other path open for him except to follow me. So that's نبي الله موسى. And موسى is from the five chosen prophets.
There are five chosen prophets Allah chose. They are called أُولُو الْعَزْمِ مِنَ الرُّسُلِ according to the strongest opinion. And Allah mentions them سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى in Surah Al-Hazab.
وَإِذَا خَذْنَا مِنَ النَّبِيِّينَ مِثَاقَهُمْ وَمِنكَ وَمِن نُوحٍ وَإِبَرَهِيمَ وَمُوسَى وَعِيسَى So those are the five chosen prophets. نبي الله محمد نبي الله نوح وَمِنك مِنك means you محمد وَمِنك وَمِن نُوحٍ وَإِبَرَهِيمَ وَمُوسَى وَعِيسَى Those five are the five chosen prophets. عِيسَى is one of the five chosen prophets.
مُوسَى is one of the five chosen prophets. نُوحِس is one of the five chosen prophets. إِبَرَهِيم is one of the five chosen prophets.
And نبي الله نوح عليه السلام And Prophet Muhammad عليه الصلاة والسلام So مُوسَى, if he was amongst us, the Prophet said, there would be no other path open for him. So the Prophet was teaching Omar you have to be independent as a Muslim from following their scripture. You know, stay away from that.
Be a Muslim. You have an identity. You have a source to take your legislation from.
You have a source to take your clothing from. You have a source where you can take from how you carry yourself and the way you act. Okay, there's a couple of things I want to pick up from your answer.
So the first is you mentioned as part of your answer that this is a reality that exists in the modern world that we live in. For example, social media, and we have people imitating the Jews, the Christians. My question is, is there a historical development back like before our time? Is there a historical development to this kind of problem occurring? So this issue is not وَلِيدَةُ أَصْرِنَا It's not something that just came about this time that we're seeing it.
But rather, it goes back to earlier stages. If you look back, Ben Israel, for example, asks from نبي الله موسى عليه السلام (Prophet Musa, peace be upon him), speaking to نبي الله موسى عليه السلام. And they say to Musa عليه السلام, Allah mentions it in the Quran:
وَجَاوَزْنَا بِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ الْبَحْرَةَ فَأَتَوْا عَلَىٰ قُوْمٍ يَعْكُفُونَ عَلَىٰ أَصْنَامٍ لَهُمْ قَالُوا يَا مُوسَى اجْعَلْ لَنَا إِلَهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ آلِهَا قَالَ إِنَّكُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُونَ (And We caused the Children of Israel to cross the sea, and they came upon a people intent in devotion to their idols. They said, "O Musa, make for us a god just as they have gods." He said, "Indeed, you are a people behaving ignorantly.") (Quran 7:138)
Musa عليه السلام, they said to him, اجْعَلْ لَنَا إِلَهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ آلِهَا (Make an Ilah for us like they have an Ilah). In other words, بَنُو إِسْرَائِيل (the Children of Israel) were imitating who? مُتَشَبِّهِينَ وَمَتَشَبِّهَاتٍ بِالْمُشْرِكِينَ (They were imitating the pagans). So, you can see that this is something that came very early. And then he said to them, Musa عليه السلام said, إِنَّكُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُونَ (You are nothing but ignorant people). He gave them that characteristic of جَهَل (ignorance), which, insha'Allah, we are going to revisit later when we speak about some of the statements that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم made about imitating non-Muslims, as he referred to it عليه الصلاة والسلام in the حديث أبي ذر الغفاري. We will see that, insha'Allah, in our podcast.
Also, Quraysh—whom the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was sent to—were upon the دين إبراهيم صلى الله عليه وسلم (the religion of Prophet Ibrahim, peace be upon him). But a man came to them called عَمْرُو بنُ اللُّحَي. He went to شام (Syria). What he saw in Sham amazed and fascinated him. He then came back with an idol and brought it to Quraysh. Imam Ibn Kathir mentions this in his كتاب البداية والنهاية (Book of Beginning and End), and Ibn Hisham mentions it in his سيرة (Seerah) that he saw something when he went to Sham and said, مَا هَذِهِ الْأَصْنَامِ الَّتِي أَرَاكُمْ تَعْبُدُونَ (What are these idols that you are worshipping?). He said, عَمْرُو بنُ اللُّحَي (Amr ibn al-Luhay), "What are these idols you guys are worshipping?" And they said to him, هَذِهِ أَصْنَامٌ نَعْبُدُهَا (These are idols that we worship), فَنَسْتَمْطِرُهَا (and we ask it for rain), فَتُمْطِرُنَا (and it brings rain down upon us), وَنَسْتَنْصِرُهَا (and we ask it for victory), فَتَنْصُرُنَا (and it gives us victory).
Then he said to them, أَلَا تُعْطُونِ مِنْهَا صَلَمًا (Why don’t you give me one of these idols?), أَسِيرُ بِهِ إِلَىٰ أَرَضِ الْعَرَبِ (I will take it to the land of the Arabs), فَيَعْبُدُوهُ (and they will worship it). Quraysh and Makkah, جزيرة العرب (the Arabian Peninsula), I will take it back to them, and insha'Allah Ta'ala, they will benefit from it. So, they gave him an idol which they called هُبَل (Hubal).
He brought it to Makkah, فَنَصَبَهُ (and he placed it in front of them), وَأَمَرَ النَّاسَ بِعِبَادَتِهِ وَتَعَظِيمِهِ (and then he told the people to worship it and glorify it). So, this was a man who imitated the Mushrikin. In other words, in reality, Quraysh were not upon this religion. They were upon a religion of حَنِيفِيَّة (Hanifiyyah), the religion of وَرَقَةَ ابْنُ نَوْفَلٍ (Waraka ibn Nawfal) and others. This group was known as حَنِيفِيَّة (Hanifiyyah), which means مَائِلٌ عَلَى الشِّرْكِ (far from polytheism). They were upon توحيد (Tawhid).
But this man, عَمْرُو بنُ اللُّحَي, when he came back and gave them this idol, imitating the Mushrikin of that time, brought it to Quraysh and led them astray. So, even the Mushrikin of Quraysh, whom the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was sent to, were initially upon a religion that was closer to monotheism. However, they entered into polytheism only because of a man who imitated the other Mushrikin and brought their practices into theirs. That’s the reason why they became misguided.
Even our Prophet محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم at his time, when he saw the people imitating the non-Muslims of that time, he would go against them and do things differently. He would oppose them. Like بَنُو إِسْرَائِيل (the Children of Israel), for example, the Jews. When the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم moved to Medina and the Jews were his neighbors, there were three tribes of Jews: بَنُو قُرَيْضَة (Banu Quraiza), بَنُو النَّذِير (Banu Nadir), and بَنُو قَيْنُقَاع (Banu Qainuqa'). All three tribes of the Jews were neighboring the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, and each brought their covenant with him, of course. He fought them, عليه الصلاة والسلام. بَنُو النَّذِير (Banu Nadir) are mentioned in Surah الحشر (Al-Hashr), where Allah تبارك وتعالى speaks about them:
يُخْرِبُونَ بُيُوتَهُمْ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ وَأَيْدِي الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فَاعْتَبِرُوا يَا أُولِي الْأَفْصَارِ (They destroy their houses by their own hands and the hands of the believers. So take heed, O people of understanding.) (Quran 59:2)
And they, in everything, he would try to go against them. The Jews themselves said: مَا يُرِيدُ هَذَا الرَّجُلُ (What does this man want?), أَنْ يَدَعَ مِنْ أَمْرِنَا شَيْئًا إِلَّا خَالَفَنَا فِيهِ (There is no matter except that this man wants to oppose us in it). He did everything differently from them. This is specifically talking about نِسَاءُكُمْ حَرْثُوا لَكُمْ فَأَتُوا حَرْثَكُمْ أَنَّا شِئْتُمْ (Your women are a tillage for you, so come to your tillage as you wish) and يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْمَحِيضِ قُلْ هُوَ أَذَىٰ فَاتَّزِلُوا النِّسَاءَ فِي الْمَحِيضِ وَلا تَقْرَبُوهُنَّ حَتَّى يَطْهُرْنَ (And they ask you about menstruation. Say, 'It is harm, so avoid women during menstruation and do not approach them until they are purified.') (Quran 2:222). The Jews, what they used to do is that when a woman was on menstruation, they would push her away, build her a tent, a little hut, and say to her, "Stay in there. You're not going to come close to anyone," as though she were filth.
And what did the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم say? When his Sahabah asked him, he said: إِفْعَلُوا كُلَّ شَيْءٍ إِلَّا النِّكَاحِ (Do everything to your wife except sexual intercourse). And then this is when they said, "Look, مَا يُرِيدُ هَذَا الرَّجُلُ (What does this man want?)—أَنْ يَدَعَ مِنْ أَمْرِنَا شَيْئًا إِلَّا خَالَفَنَا فِيهِ (There is no matter except that this man wants to oppose us in it). Everything he wants to oppose us in it." So this shows us that this was something present even in the time of the Sahabah.
When Islam spread and went to lands where Muslims were now interacting with other communities from different backgrounds, such as Persia and the Byzantine Empire, which were now being taken down, Muslims were spreading through شام (Sham) and other lands. Umar رضي الله عنه, when the Muslims spread and began interacting with people from other civilizations, said to his workers and to the people of the land: "Stay away from the clothing of the disbelievers. Don’t wear their clothing." He was warning them against this, and that’s the same problem that Umar رضي الله عنه was concerned about. He had to send a letter to remind the Muslims of that time about this issue. It’s the same issue that we find the Muslims have fallen into today. Muslims now go to the land of the disbelievers, and when they go, you find that a person is so similar to the non-Muslims that you wouldn’t even know they are a Muslim. And that’s not right.
Because a Muslim is صَبْغَةُ اللهِ وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللَّهِ صَبْغَةً وَنَحْنُ لَهُ عَابِدُونَ (The coloring of Allah, and who is better than Allah in coloring? And we are His worshippers). The Mu’min (believer) is تَمَيُّزٌ (distinct). Like when you see a Muslim from afar, you recognize that they are a brother. Even when the colonizers came to the lands of the Muslims and colonized their lands, that’s what they did—they tried their best to make the Muslims become like them, act like them, and be like them. And when they left, they didn’t leave; they left behind televisions and brought corruption into the lands of the Muslims. So even though their armies left, they still affected the community and society.
Another thing I want to pick up from your first answer is that you mentioned that Islam places a big emphasis on having a distinct personality. Why does the religion of Islam feel so confident in itself to say that we don’t need to follow anybody or anything? There are many things that Islam is distinct and unique in. Our religion, first of all, is عام (general). It’s not restricted to a time and a place. Our religion is for everybody. It’s for Christians, Jews, anyone—come into Islam. Allah mentions in these verses that the Prophet was sent to every single person, that he is a mercy to all of mankind:
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالمِينَ (And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the worlds.) (Quran 21:107)
So, نَبِيُّ اللَّهِ مُحَمَّدٌ صلى الله عليه وسلم was sent for everybody. His دَعْوَة (call) is not restricted to a place or a time, and it is not restricted to a nation from another nation. It is for everybody. The whole world is meant to embrace Islam. That’s one reason why our religion doesn’t need to follow anyone or anything.
Secondly, our religion is comprehensive in all matters of life. It solves its problems. Why would it need to copy a lifestyle that is incompetent? Allah says to the Prophet and to the believers:
الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا (This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion.) (Quran 5:3)
Also, Allah says that Islam was sent down with guidance—هُدًى وَرَحْمَةً (guidance and mercy)—which is beneficial knowledge. He is the One who sent the Prophet with guidance, which is beneficial knowledge, and the religion of truth, which is good deeds, to show it to the whole religion so it becomes apparent over all other religions.
The third reason why Islam doesn’t require following anyone or anything is because it abrogated every religion that came before it. All the prophets that came and their legislations—what they brought—were abrogated with what نَبِيُّ مُحَمَّدٌ صلى الله عليه وسلم brought. It abrogated everything. So, it didn’t just abrogate what the previous prophets came with, but it also abrogated all other ways of life. And if this Qur’an abrogated the تَوْرَاة (Torah), the إنْجِيل (Gospel), and the زَبُور (Psalms), how would it not dismiss and ignore man-made laws?
By the way, the Torah is what Allah said. Allah raised the Torah with His own hand, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. The Injil and Zabur are abrogated, and these were legislations from Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala once upon a time. How would it not dismiss and ignore man-made laws by humans?
So, this religion is here to guide the people, to take them out of the darkness. Allah says in the Qur'an: O People of the Book, our Messenger has come to you to make clear to you much of what you used to hide from the Book and to pardon much. A light has come to you from Allah and a clear Book, by which Allah guides those who follow His pleasure and the ways of peace, and to take them out of darkness to the light by His permission and to guide them to the straight path. Through this legislation, what is He doing? He clarifies for you many things in which the Jews and the Christians used to hide once upon a time from the people.
Also, the Prophet ﷺ has come with light and a clear Book by which Allah guides those who follow His pleasure and the ways of peace. Anyone who follows it is on a path that’s blessed and pleasing to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Through this religion, Allah will take the people out of darkness and bring them to light, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, and He guides them to what? To that which is the straight path.
So, this religion, that is why it is one that doesn’t need to and doesn’t have to adhere to any other laws or regulations.
Okay, my final question before we move on from the introductory questions and get into a bit more of a discussion, Insha'Allah, is: Are there any books that have been written on this topic, perhaps for the advanced students of knowledge to benefit from?
There are many books that have been written on it. One of the greatest books written on it is Iqtidaw al-Sirat al-Mustaqeem Li Mukhalifati Ashabi al-Jaheem by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya. Ibn Taymiyya’s book Iqtidaw al-Sirat al-Mustaqeem is actually considered to be one of the most comprehensive and one of the strongest books. Ibn Taymiyya clarifies the position a Muslim should take when it comes to imitating non-Muslims. He brings many ayat, ahadith from the Prophet ﷺ, and unanimous agreements (Ijma'). He talks about types of tashabbuh, the bad consequences that tashabbuh has, and he focuses on issues such as celebrating non-Muslim festivals and participating in them. He also discusses innovations (bid'ah), myths (khurafat), and the practices Muslims might engage in during celebrations.
It was also summarized by Shaykh Muhammad Ali Ibn Muhammad al-Ba'ali Al-Hambari, with the tahqiq of Shaykh Ali Ibn Muhammad al-Imran (Dar al-‘Alam al-Fawaid). He called it Al-Manhaj al-Qawim Fi Ikhtisari Sirat al-Mustaqeem. It's a summarized version. If you can’t read the full version, you can always go back to the summarized version.
And the best taba‘a of the Ikhtisari Sirat al-Mustaqeem so far is the taba‘a of Shaykh Nasser Abdul Kareem al-Aql, published by Dar al-‘Asim. Before that, Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqhi published it, and he worked on it, placing a content page and everything, etc. However, there are many mistakes in that version.
Also, there is a book called Tashabbuh al-Khassis Bi Ahl al-Khamis, written by Imam al-Dhahabi, Rahimahullah, who passed away in the year 748 Hijri. This book is called Tashabbuh and some copies fell into a mistake, like those of Bashar Awad Maroof and others, who called it Tashbih al-Khassis. It’s not right to call it Tashbih; grammatically, it’s better to call it Tashabbuh. I won’t go into that now. Al-Tashabbuh al-Khassis refers to the people of the Christians, who believed in something known as Al-Khamis al-Sughra and al-Khamis al-Kubra, which they used to celebrate.
This Jizad is very beneficial. There’s a taba‘a of the book with Tahqiq by Dar al-Ammar, with the Tahqiq of Shaykh Ali Hassan al-Halabi, Rahimahullah, Rahmatan Wasi‘ah.
Also, there’s a Risalah written by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, who passed away in 852 Hijri. He called it Al-Qul al-Thabt Fi al-Sawm al-Yawm al-Thabt. This book is from the Kitab al-Mathqud (unpublished). We only know about it because Hafidh al-Hajar mentions it in his Fath al-Bari. He says, "This issue of Tashabbuh with the kuffar, I have collected the Ahadith related to it and mentioned that there are 30 rulings related to this issue." He also mentions that all of this and other points have been written in his book Al-Qul al-Thabt Fi al-Sawm al-Yawm al-Thabt.
There’s also a book called Husn al-Tanbihi (I’m sorry, Husn al-Tanabuhi Fima Warada Fi al-Tashabbuh), written by Najm al-Din al-Ghazi al-Shafi‘i. When it first came out in 2012, I remember buying it then (Islamic Calendar, 1432 Hijri). He passed away in 1061 Hijri, and it was published by Dar al-Nawadir in 12 volumes. It’s a very good copy. This one is the biggest book in terms of quantity and the topic; it’s like an encyclopedia on the issue of Tashabbuh bil-Kuffar (imitating the non-Muslims).
He divided the whole book into two categories:
- The first part talks about the commandments (al-Amru bit-Tashabbuh) regarding imitating the non-Muslims, the angels, the righteous people, the martyrs, the prophets, and the Prophet ﷺ himself in his mannerisms. He discusses the Tashabbuh we are commanded to do.
- The second part talks about the Tashabbuh that we are prohibited from, such as the Tashabbuh of the Shaitan, the previous nations, and the transgressors, wrongdoers, innovators, etc.
Shaykh al-Albani, Rahimahullah, in his book Jilbab al-Mar'at al-Muslimah (originally called Hijab al-Mar'at al-Muslimah), talks about the conditions (shurut) of the Jilbab. One of the conditions he mentions is that it should not resemble the clothing of the non-Muslims. He discusses this in detail. In his book, he mentions 31 Ahadith related to this topic of Tashabbuh bil-Kuffar.
Finally, there is a book called Masa'il al-Jahiliyya Allati Khalifa Fiha Rasulullah Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam al-Ahli al-Jahiliyya, written by Shaykh al-Islam Mohammad Ahmad Abdullah, Rahimahullah. Mohammad Abdullah mentions 128 things in which the Prophet ﷺ went against the practices of the Ahl al-Jahiliyya.
Let me quickly explain this term Ahl al-Jahiliyya: The word Jahiliyya comes from the root jahl (ignorance). The opposite of ignorance is knowledge. Scholars categorize ignorance into two types: jahl muraqab (compounded ignorance) and jahl basit (simple ignorance).
Jahl, which is basit, is the one when the person says, oh, yo, I don't know this. It's adam al-idaraqi bil kulliya, when the person says, yo, I don't know this at all. That's called jahl, which is basit.
Jahl, which is muraqab, is tasawwuru al-shay'a ala wajin yukhalifu ma huwa alaih. It is to perceive something in a way that it really isn't, but then you think you know it. It's compounded because it's hard to take that ignorance away from a person.
And it's powerful that Muhammad Abdul Rahab used that word, he called it masailu jahiliyya, because remember what we mentioned? So, the word jahiliyya comes in the Quran in many places, Allah used it, subhanahu wa'ta'ala. Al-jahiliyya was used in that. Also, when the Prophet ﷺ said to Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, Abu Dharr said something unpleasant to Bilal ibn al-Rabah.
And the Prophet ﷺ said, are you insulting him because of his mother? And then the Prophet ﷺ said to Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, You are a person who has jahiliyya in him. Bukhari and Muslim both narrated that. Also, the Prophet ﷺ used that word.
He said, The Prophet ﷺ said, anyone who leaves the obedience of the Muslim leader, and goes against the Muslim unity, and then dies, for verily his death is the death of jahiliyya. Muslim narrated that. The jahiliyya is two types, and I'm going to conclude at this point.
The jahiliyya is two types. There's jahiliyya which is a general type of jahiliyya, and that is, And before the Prophet ﷺ came out, we refer to that time as jahiliyya. We call this jahiliyya.
The time of the jahiliyya. It's the one Allah mentions in Surah al-Jumu'ah. That was jahiliyya before Islam.
And then there's jahiliyya which is al-juz'iyya. Al-jahiliyya al-juz'iyya means that jahiliyya is restricted to places, and times, and regions. Not necessarily the entire people don't have it.
Because Allah mentions, أَمْ تَحْزَبُ أَنَّ أَكْتَرَهُمْ يَسْمَعُونَ وَيَعْقِلُونَ إِنْهُمْ إِلَّا كَالأَنْعَامِ بَلْهُمْ أَظَلُّ السَّبِيلَ And these are ignorant people. They're like the cattle. Their jahiliyya is restricted.
As the poet said, It's a person who has knowledge of the worldly affairs. He knows the worldly affairs. He has mastered it.
But he's jahil and he's ignorant when it comes to his religion, and the issues related to that. So the point I want to mention from this is jahiliyya. We have to understand it.
There's two types of jahiliyya. Jahiliyya which is ammah, and jahiliyya which is al-juz'iyya. And that's why Muhammad Abdul-Rahab when he wrote the kitab, مسائر الجاهلية, he is discussing this issue that we mentioned.
Okay, let's go into the issue a little bit more detail then. And as always, I'd like to start with definitions. So we're talking about imitating the non-Muslims, imitating the kuffar.
What exactly does imitation mean? Generally when it comes to definition of words, I think it's very important that we understand that definitions of words, we have to take it back to كتب القوامس, يعني معاجم, dictionaries and books like that. And one of the greatest books that I encourage students of knowledge to look back to, and it's a very beneficial قاموس, is معجم مقايس اللغة by Ibn Faris. Ibn Faris' kitab, the benefit about it is that if a word has many usages, it's got many usages, what he does is that he looks for the bare minimum in which he can bottle it down to.
So if you've got a word, it's got many usages, he tries to find one common... Something that's common for all the different types of use. Yeah, just to narrow it down for the person. One, two, three, he does that, which is a very beneficial kitab for that perspective.
Ibn Husayn Ahmed Ibn Faris, Ibn Zakariya, he spoke about the word التشبخ, and he said التشبخ من شبه, comes from the word شبه, which is الشين والباء والهاء. And he says أصل واحد, it goes back to one word now, يدل على تشابه شيء وتشاكله لون وصفة. It means when something resembles something in its form, the color, the description.
يقال شبه وشبه. That's what you say. It's something resembling something, it's something looking like something.
That's what it means in the linguistic meaning. As for the technical meaning, it means resembling... So by technical you mean how Islam uses it, how the Sharia uses it. In the Sharia there are many scholars who defined it, they gave it many different definitions.
المناوي has a definition, عبد الرؤوف المناوي. Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyya gave a different definition. The author of the كتاب حسن التنبؤ, نجم الدين الغزية الشافعي, he also mentions the definition.
But the definition goes back to resembling the non-Muslims in their عقيدة, in their عبادات, in their أخلاق, and in their عادات. Four things you mentioned. So four things.
In their عقيدة, what they believe. In their عبادات, the acts of worship that they do. الأخلاق, in their mannerism.
And their عادات, their norms. Inshallah ta'ala we'll unpackage each point, and what each one is. Are they all the same levels? How do you divide... Is the اعتقاد و العبادات و الأخلاق و العادات all the same? Inshallah ta'ala.
I'm hoping that we can unpackage it in the podcast. Okay, and when we say imitation, and we're obviously talking about how you mentioned at the start that Islam wants its own distinct, unique mannerisms, or whatever you want to call it, personality if you want to say, which kind of implies that it's wrong or it's bad to imitate the non-Muslims. Does that mean it's wrong to imitate them in everything, or are there types of imitation? So, this is very important.
The تشبه of the Kufar is two types. Okay. The تشبه generally, not just the Kufar, but generally the تشبه in the Sharia is two types.
There's تشبه which is المنهي عنه, which is ممنوع. It's known as تشبه which is ممنوع. You're not allowed to.
Okay, so it's حرام. Yeah, حرام. And the second one which is التشبه which is مباح.
You're allowed to. Okay. If I start with the one that's prohibited, there are only a few of them.
It goes back to four, the ones that the Sharia prohibits. It goes back to four, four, four. If somebody, Inshallah Ta'ala, watches it and adds more to it, ولله الحمد والمنى.
But I've narrowed it down to those four. The first one is التشبه بالبهائن, imitating the animals. The second one is imitating الشيطان, التشبه بالشيطان, which is the second.
The third one is التشبه الرجال بالنساء, men imitating the women, and the women imitating men. And the fourth one is تشبه المسلمين بغيرهم من الأمم, the Muslims imitating other nations, like the Christians and the Jews and the Zoroastrians and أهل الجاهلية, pre-Islamic ignorance. Those four are the types which are prohibited.
If I go through each one, for example, the cattle, or the حيوانات. As you know, as Muslims, we believe that humans are being honored. Allah honored us as humans.
Allah mentions in the Quran, وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَةً Allah says, we have honored the humans. Allah honored us and He honored us in many ways. One of the ways Allah has honored us is, we're able to articulate ourselves.
We're also able to think. We have عقل, we're rational. These are things Allah has honored us with.
Allah says الرحمن, in there Allah mentions what? علَّمَهُ الْبَيَان The ability to articulate our points and say what we want. If you look at the Quran, when Allah speaks about the animals and the cattle, He mentions it في مقام دم and in places where He's putting it down. Allah says, مَثَلُ كَمَثَلِ الْكَلْبِ إِنْ تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْهِ يَلْهَتْ أَوْ تَتْرُكُوا يَلْهَتْ ذَلِكَ مَثَلُ قَوْمِ الَّذِينَ كَذَبُوا بِآيَتِنَا Allah mentions the dog, and He gives a resemblance to the disbelievers in that regard.
Allah says, مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ حُمِّلُوا التَّوْرَاتَ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَحْمِلُوهَا كَمَثَلِ الْحِمَارِ يَحْمِلُ أَسْفَارًا بِسَمَثَلُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ كَذَبُوا بِآيَتِ اللَّهِ Allah says, وَلَقَدْ ذَرَأْنَا لِجَهَنَّمَ كَثِيرًا مِنَ الْجِنِّ وَالْإِنسِ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لَا يُفْقَوْنَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ أَعْيُنٌ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ آذَانٌ لَا يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا أُولَئِكَ كَالْأَنْعَامِ بَلْ هُمْ أَضَلُ أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْغَافِلُونَ Allah says, وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يَتَمَتَعُونَ وَيَأْكُلُونَ كَمَا تَأْكُلُوا الْأَنْعَامِ وَالنَّارُ مَثْوَى لَهُمْ So when you look at the cattle, generally speaking, Allah talks about it in that regard. And then there's specific animals Allah has mentioned, subhanahu wa ta'ala. Oh sorry, the Prophet ﷺ has mentioned specifically these animals.
He mentions that they are ones that we shouldn't follow. Like for example, stretching out the forearm when the person is in the middle of the prayer, in sujood. Hadith al-Imam al-Bukhari and Abu Dawood and Tirmidhi al-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah narrated from Hadith Anas ibn Malik that the Prophet ﷺ said, اِعْتَدِلُ, i.e. be straight in sujood whilst in your prostration.
وَلَا يَبْصُطْ أَحَدُكُمْ ذِرَاعَهِ اِنْبِصَاطَ الْكَلْبِ Do not stretch out your forearms like the way the dog does. Also the Prophet ﷺ prohibited us from squatting like a dog. Iqa' al-Kalb.
Abu Huraira r.a said, اَمَارَنِي رَسُولُ اللهِ صَلَىٰ وَسَلَىٰ وَسَلَىٰ وَسَلَىٰ The Prophet ﷺ commanded me بِثَلَاثٍ He commanded me three وَنَهَانِي and he prohibited me from three. وَفِيهِ نَهَانِي عَنْ إِقَاعِي كَإِقَاعِي الْكَلْبِ And from what he prohibited me from was to squat like a dog. Al-Imam Ahmad narrated this in his Musnad and Ibn Majah on the authority of Ali ibn Abi Talib.
Also, not to imitate the camel. Al-Imam Ahmad and Abu Dawood al-Nasa'i narrated it, and Hafidh ibn Hajar in his Kitab al-Ulugh al-Maram said, "أَخْرَجَهُ الثَّلَاثَةَ," that the famous hadith narrated by Abu Huraira, "إِذَا سَجَدْ أَحَدُكُمْ فَلَا يَبْرُكُ كَمَا يَبْرُكُ الْبَعِيرُ وَلِيَضَعْ يَدَيْهِ قَبْلَ رُكْبَتَيْهِ" (If a person wants to go down to sujood from coming up from the ruku' and they stood up, and they want to go to sujood, the Prophet ﷺ said, "Do not go down on your knees, don’t go down like the camel"). So, what should you do? "وَلِيَضَعْ يَدَيْهِ" (Place your hands first), "قَبْلَ رُكْبَتَيْهِ" (before your knees).
That last part of the hadith has a long discussion regarding it: Is it maqloob? Is it back and forth? And the scholar Ibn al-Qayyim has a view in his Zad al-Ma'ad. It’s not for this podcast right now, and we won’t discuss it. Even though I don’t agree with Ibn al-Qayyim’s view, I don’t think he got the correct view on this issue.
Also, the third thing that we're prohibited from, specifically from the animals, is the ghurab (crow). We are prohibited from imitating the crow. The Prophet ﷺ, in a hadith narrated by Ahmad, Abu Dawood, Nasa’i, and Ibn Majah (also in Darimi) narrated from Abdullah ibn Shiblīn, said, "نَهَا رَسُولُ اللهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم عَن نَقْرَةِ الْغُرَابِ" (The Prophet ﷺ prohibited us from pecking like a crow). Also, the pecking of the deek (rooster) is prohibited. The Prophet ﷺ said, "وَنَهَانِ عَن نَقْرَةِ كَنَقْرَةِ الدِّيكِ" (He prohibited us from pecking like the rooster). Ahmad narrated this in his Musnad in the hadith of Abu Hurayra.
Also, we’re not allowed to imitate the fox, for example, looking around and things like that during prayer. Abu Hurayra narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, "وَنَهَانِ وَالْتِفَاتِ كَالْتِفَاتِ الثَّعْلَبِ" (He prohibited us from looking around like the fox). Ahmad narrated this in his Musnad.
This is the first type, which is imitating animals. The second type is men imitating women and women imitating men. You know the famous hadith narrated by Ahmad, Hakim, Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi, and Darimi from the hadith of Abu Hurayra: "لَعَنَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ الرَّجُلَ" (The Prophet ﷺ cursed a man) "يَلْبَسُ لِبْسَةَ الْمَرْأَةِ" (who wears the clothing of a woman), "وَالْمَرْأَةَ تَلْبَسُ لِبْسَةَ الْرَجُلِ" (and a woman who wears the clothing of a man).
Abdullah ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنهما) also narrated, "لَعَنَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ المُخَنِّثِينَ" (The Prophet ﷺ cursed the mukhannathīn), "مِنَ الرِّجَالِ وَالْمُتَرَجِّلَاتِ" (the men who dress like women and the women who act like men). The Prophet ﷺ said, "أَخْرِجُوهُمْ مِنْ بُيُوتُكُمْ" (Take them out of your houses). "فَأَخْرَجَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ فُلَانًا وَأَخْرَجَ عُمَرُهُ فُلَانًا" (The Prophet ﷺ expelled such individuals and Umar also did the same). Ahmad narrated this.
So, men are not allowed to imitate women, and women are not allowed to imitate men. Also, Ahmad narrated in Tabarani from Abdullah ibn Umar (رضي الله عنهما) who said, "سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ﷺ يَقُولُ" (I heard the Prophet ﷺ saying), "لَيْسَ مِنَّا مَنْ تَشَبَّهْ بِالْرِّجَالِ" (He is not from amongst us, the one who imitates men), "لَيْسَ مِنَّا مَنْ تَشَبَّهْ بِالْرِّجَالِ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ" (and the men who imitate women), "وَلَا مَنْ تَشَبَّهْ بِالنِّسَاءِ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ" (and the women who imitate men).
The third prohibited one is Shaytan. Allah says, "إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌ فَاتَّقِذُوا عَدُوًا" (Indeed, Shaytan is an enemy to you, so take him as an enemy). We’re told to take Shaytan as an enemy; we can't resemble him, we can't want to be like him. Allah also said, "قَالَ فَبِمَا أَغْوَيْتَنِي لَأَقْعُدَنَّ لَهُمْ سِرَاطَكَ الْمُسْتَقِيمُ" (He (Shaytan) said, "Because You have led me astray, I will sit in wait for them on Your straight path"), "ثُمَّ لَأَتِيَنَّهُ مِنْ بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِيهِمْ وَعَنْ أَيْمَانِهُمْ وَعَنْ شَمَائِرِهِمْ" (Then I will come to them from before them, behind them, from their right, and from their left), "وَلَتَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَاكِرِينَ" (and You will not find most of them grateful).
Shaytan made a promise, saying, "قَالَ فَبِمَا أَغْوَيْتَنِي لَأَقْعُدَنَّ لَهُمْ سِرَاطَكَ الْمُسْتَقِيمُ" (Because You have led me astray, I will sit in front of them on Your straight path), "ثُمَّ لَأَتِيَنَّهُ مِنْ بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِيهِمْ وَعَنْ أَيْمَانِهُمْ" (I will come to them from all directions), "وَلَتَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَاكِرِينَ" (and most of them will not be grateful).
Allah says in another verse, "وَلَأُذِلَّنَّهُمْ وَلَأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ آذَانَ الْأَنْعَامِ" (And I will surely mislead them and fill them with false hopes, and I will command them to cut the ears of livestock), "وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللَّهِ" (and I will command them to change the creation of Allah). "وَمَنْ يَتَّخِذِ الشَّيْطَانَ وَلِيًّا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ فَقَدْ خَسِرَهُ سَرَانًا مُبِينًا" (And whoever takes Shaytan as an ally instead of Allah has certainly lost, in clear loss). Shaytan wants to misguide them, giving them false delusions. Allah mentions, "وَمَا يَعِدُهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ إِلَّا غُرُورًا" (And Shaytan does not promise them except delusion).
And then after that, Allah says, "وَمَنْ يَتَّخِذِ الشَّيْطَانَ وَلِيًّا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ" (Anyone who takes Shaytan as an ally instead of Allah), "فَقَدْ خَسِرَهُ سَرَانًا مُبِينًا" (has certainly lost, in clear loss).
Before that, Allah says: فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللَّهِ ("He will try to make you change the way Allah created you"), which we will speak about later. He takes methods. Also, there is something that I generally see in circles of knowledge that people tend to do: when they come into a circle of knowledge, as they sit down and listen, they scatter around. They don't come together united. The Prophet ﷺ told us in a hadith narrated by Abu Dawood, Ibn al-Habban, and Ibn al-Bayhaqi, with an isnad (chain of narration) deemed muttasim al-Sahih (sound), and insha'Allah Ta'ala, from the hadith of Ta'alabah al-Khushani, that the Prophet ﷺ came to the companions, and each one went under a tree because they were looking for shade. I don’t understand why people do it in masjids, but the Sahabah did it because of the shade. Whenever they saw a shade, they would sit there, and if another one saw a shade over there, he would sit there too.
So, the Prophet ﷺ said to them: إِنَّ تَفَرُّقَكُمْ فِي هَٰذِهِ الشِّعَابِ وَالأَوْدِيَةِ ("Indeed, your scattering in these valleys and hills"), the Prophet ﷺ said: إِنَّمَا ذَلِكُمْ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ ("This is only from Shaytan"). The Sahabah (رضي الله عنهم) — the narrator mentions: فَلَمْ يَزَلْ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ ("After that day") when the Prophet ﷺ said that, the Sahabah became united, and the narrator went on to say: لَوْ بُسِطَ عَلَيْهِمْ ("If a garment was spread out and thrown over them, it would have covered them all") — that’s how tightly they were sitting together.
So, if someone might be doing that and not realizing that they are imitating Shaytan, and if someone has a health issue and needs to sit by a wall, is that okay for them to do? Yes, definitely.
There's another thing that's commonly done by people as well, which is also imitating Shaytan. There’s a hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah (رضي الله تعالى عنهم) in Sahih Muslim: The Prophet ﷺ said: المؤمن القوي خير أحب إلى الله من المؤمن الضعيف ("The strong believer is more beloved to Allah than the weak one"). Then the Prophet ﷺ said: وَفِي كُلٍّ خَيْر ("And in both there is good").
Then the Prophet ﷺ said a powerful statement, which I say is the key for personal development: احرِسْ عَلَى مَا يَنفَعُكَ وَاسْتَعِينْ بِاللَّهِ وَلَا تَعَجَزْ ("Strive for what benefits you, rely on Allah, and do not give up").
Then the Prophet ﷺ made a powerful point: وَإِنْ أَصَابَكَ شَيْءٌ فَلَا تَقُلْ ("And if something befalls you, do not say"): لَوْ أَنِّي فَعَلْتُ كَذَا لَكَانَ كَذَا وَكَذَا ("If I had done this, this would have happened"). Instead, say: قَدَّرَ اللَّهُ وَمَا شَاءَ فَعَلْ ("Allah has decreed it, and what He wills, He does"). The Prophet ﷺ said: فَإِنَّ لَوْ ("For indeed, saying 'if'") opens the doors of Shaytan.
Also, the Prophet ﷺ told us about eating and drinking: إِذَا أَكَلَ أَحَدُكُمْ فَلْيَأْكُلْ بِيَمِينِهِ ("If one of you eats, let him eat with his right hand"), وَإِذَا شَرِبَ فَلْيَشْرَبْ بِيَمِينِهِ ("And if he drinks, let him drink with his right hand"), فَإِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ يَأْكُلُ بِشِمَالِهِ وَيَشْرَبُ بِشِمَالِهِ ("For indeed, Shaytan eats with his left hand and drinks with his left hand"). This is narrated by Muslim in his Sahih.
As for the hadith that people mention: أَلْأَنَاتُ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَالْعَجَلَةُ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ ("Deliberation is from Allah, and haste is from Shaytan"), this hadith, narrated by Imam al-Tirmidhi, is weak because of the narrator عَبْدُ المُهَيْمَنِ بِالْعَبَسِ. It is weak, and Tirmidhi mentioned that many scholars have spoken about him, and Imam al-Bukhari said: مُنْكَرُ الْحَدِيثِ ("The hadith is rejected"), while al-Nasa'i stated that he was not trustworthy. إِنْدَارَ قُطْنِ حَافِظَ مِنَ الْحَجَّرِ ("He is weak in narration").
Being calm is from Allah, and hastiness is from Shaytan. The meaning might be right, but to attribute it to the Prophet ﷺ is wrong. The last example hadith I want to mention regarding imitating Shaytan, I think this is very important for me, is the hadith of مُطَرِّفِ مِنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ الشَّخِيرِ. He said, قَالَ أَبِي مِنْ شَخِيرٍ انطَلَقْتُ في وَفْدِ بَنِ عَامِرٍ: I went out in a delegation of Bani Amirin to the Prophet ﷺ. فَقُلْنَا: We said, we went with this delegation to the Prophet ﷺ and we said, أَنتَ سَيِّدُنَا: You are our Master, O Prophet of Allah. أَنتَ سَيِّدُنَا: You are our Master. فَقَالَ أَبِي مِنْ شَخِيرٍ: The Prophet ﷺ said, السَّيِّدُ اللَّهِ: The Master is Allah. فَقُلْنَا: Then we said, وَأَفْضَلُنَا فَضْلًا: You are the most virtuous one amongst us, وَأَعْظَمُنَا طَوْلًا: You have the highest and greatest position of the Messenger of Allah. Then the Prophet ﷺ said, قُولُوا بِقَوْلِكُمْ أو بَعْضِ قَوْلِكُمْ وَلَا يَسْتَجْرِيَنَّكُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ: The Prophet ﷺ said, some of that which he was saying or the speech that you were saying before, say that, وَلَا يَسْتَجْرِيَنَّكُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ: and do not let Shaytan slip you. Imam Abu Dawood narrated this, and it's now, Inshallah, it's Mutasinin. All of the Rijalah are Inshallah Ta'ala Siqat, as Imam Abu Dawood himself mentioned.
So this is the Tashabbuh of Shaytan. Then the last one is تَشَبُّوا بِالْكُفَّارِ: imitate. Inna, which is really what our podcast is going to be. This is what our podcast is. This is the fourth one, which is a prohibited one, and this is from the Tashabbuh, which is Mamnoor; it's prohibited. There are many ayahs that have come regarding it. There are many Ahadith that have come regarding it. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the Quran, وَالَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ يَفْرَحُونَ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ. قُلْ إِنَّمَا أُمِرْتُ أَنْ أَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ وَلَا أُشْرِكَ بِهِ. إِلَيْهِ أَدْعُوا وَإِلَيْهِ مَآبُ. وَكَذَلِكَ أَنْزَلَهُ حُكْمًا عَرَبِيًّا. وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ بَعْدَ مَا جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلَا وَاقَى. The last part of the ayah is what concerns me, which is وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ: Muhammad, if you follow these people's path بَعْدَ مَا جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ: after knowledge has come to you, which is the revelation, مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلَا وَاقَى: you are not going to get any support or aid from anyone.
Allah says, وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحُكْمُ وَالنُّبُوَّةَ وَرَزَقْنَاهُمْ مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ وَآتَيْنَاهُمْ بَيِّنَاتٍ مِنَ الْأ مْرِ فَمَا اخْتَلَفُوا إِلَّا مِن بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَهُمُ الْعِلْمُ بَغْيًا بَيْنَهُمْ. إِنَّ رَبَّكَ يَقْضِي بَيْنَهُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فِي مَا كَانُوا فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ. ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَاكَ عَلَى شَرِيعَةٍ مِنَ الْأَمْرِ فَاتَّبِعْهَا وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءَ الَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ. That part where Allah says, ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَاكَ عَلَى شَرِيعَةٍ مِنَ الْأَمْرِ: We have placed you upon a legislation. You have a path. Also, Allah says in another ayah, أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنْ تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ وَلَا يَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلُهُ فَطَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَمْدُ فَقَصَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ فَاسِقُونَ. Here Allah mentions, وَلَا يَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ: Do not be like the people of the scripture before you. Don't be like them. Allah is telling the Prophet ﷺ. Allah says to the Prophet ﷺ companions, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لا تَقُولُوا رَاعِنَا: Don't use this word راعِنَا وَقُولُوا إِنظُرْنَا: Say look. وَاسْمَعُوا: And listen. أَنْ لِسْنَ وَلِلْكَافِرِينَ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ. Hafidh Mahajer mentions, رحمه الله تعالى, He says, نهى الله تعالى المؤمنين أن يتشبه بالكفار في مقالهم وفعالهم: Allah prohibited the believers to imitate the disbelievers in their statements and in their actions. This is because the Jews used to use words where they sometimes played with it.
They would say to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم "رَاعِنَا" and their intent is يَرُونَا بِالرُعُيَّة. They refer to رُعونَة (stupidity, foolishness). They're using the word رُعونَة, and that's the word they intend, which is to belittle the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and put him down. So, when they would come and use that word, the Sahabah were told not to use it because they were using it to belittle the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Just stay away from them.
Allah also says:
وَلَن تَرْضَ عَنكَ الْيَهُودُ وَلَا النَّصَارَىٰ حَتَّى تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمْ قُلْ إِنَّ هُدَىٰ اللَّهِ هُوَ الْهُدَىٰ وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ بَعْدَ الَّذِي جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ Allah says, if you follow them, first of all, the Jews and the Christians will never be pleased with you until you follow their religion. Then Allah سبحانه وتعالى says to Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, "Say to them that verily the guidance from Allah is the true guidance. And if you follow their whims and desires after the truth has come to you, after knowledge has come to you, after revelation has come to you, then know that you have no one to give you victory and aid."
Allah says:
وَلَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ تَفَرَّقُوا وَاخْتَلَفُوا مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ وَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَلِيمٌ Do not be like the disbelievers who disagreed, had discord, and differences amongst themselves.
Also, Allah says:
وَمَن يُشَاقِقِ الرَّسُولَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ الْهُدَىٰ وَيَتَّبِعْ غَيْرَ سَبِيلِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ نُوَلِّهِ مَا تَوَلَّىٰ وَنُصْلِهِ جَهَنَّمَ وَسَاءَتْ مَصِيرًا Whoever opposes the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم after the truth has been made clear to him and follows a path other than the path of the believers, we will allow him to follow what he has chosen, and we will expose him to Hell, and that is an evil destination.
Finally, Allah says:
وَأَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَمُهَيْمِنًا عَلَيْهِ فَحْكُمْ بَيْنَهُمْ بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ عَمَّا جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ لِكُلٍّ جَعَلْنَا مِنْكُمْ شِرْعَةً وَمِنْهَاجًا وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَجَعَلَكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَلَكِنْ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ فِي مَا آتَاكُمْ فَاسْتَبِقُوا الْخَيْرَاتِ Allah سبحانه وتعالى says to Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم: "Do not follow their whims and desires, and He says, 'For each of you, We have made a law and a way.'
This concept of having a separate law and way was something all the Prophets followed. For example, Nuh عليه السلام said to his people:
إِذْ قَالَ لِقَوْمِهِ يَا قَوْمِ إِنْ كَانَ كَبُرَ عَلَيْكُمْ مَقَامِي وَتَذْكِيرِي بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ فَعَلَى اللَّهِ تَوَكَّلتُ فَأَجْمِعُوا أَمْرَكُمْ وَشُرَكَاءَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُنْ أَمْرُكُمْ غُمَّةً ثُمَّ قُضُوا إِلَيَّ وَلَا تُنظِرُونَ He reminded them of Allah, and when they wouldn't listen, he said to them: "If my reminders and my speaking about Allah have become something intolerable to you, then come together, plan your actions, and do what you feel is necessary. But my trust is in Allah alone."
Ibrahim عليه السلام said to his people:
وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ لِأَبِيهِ وَقَوْمِهِ إِنِّي بَرَاءٌ مِّمَّا تَعْبُدُونَ "I am free from you and have nothing to do with what you worship."
The last point is: Imitating the non-Muslims. Staying away from imitating the non-Muslims is a مقصد من مقاصد الشريعة (an objective of our religion). As you can see, the hadith in Sahih Muslim, narrated by Anas, mentions how this man Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم never wanted to do anything but oppose us in everything. This is why the scholars speak of مقاصد الشريعة (the objectives of the Shariah).
They first of all start the introduction by talking about How do you recognize طرق معرفة مقاصد الشريعة? How do you know this is مقاصد الشريعة? Then they speak about الأسس التي تقوم عليها مقاصد الشريعة, the foundations in which مقاصد الشريعة stands on. And then after that, they mention four topics, which are part of what مقاصد الشريعة is. They speak about المقصد الأعظم of the شريعة, which is تحقيق عبودية لله, establishing servitude for Allah تبارك وتعالى. And then they go to the second type of مقصد, which is المقصد الكلي الكبير للشريعة, which is بتحصيل المصالح وتكميلها وتعطيل المفسد وتقليلها, that Islam comes to bring about good and increase it, or it comes to repel harm or even lessen it. If you can't remove it fully, it lessens it. And then the scholars talk about المقاصد العامة للشريعة, which is حياة القلوب واطمئنانها بالإيمان والعمل الصالح, and things like that. And in there, they speak about مخالفة الكفار وعدم التشبه بهم. And that's what Ibn Taymiyyah did in his كتاب اختضاع الصراط المستقيم. He mentions from the مقاصد العامة للشريعة is مخالفة الكفار وعدم التشبه بهم. From the مقاصد الخاصة, which is the fourth that the scholars talk about of the شريعة, are issues that are specific. And then they mention خاتمة, which is قواعد الصحيحة to act upon مقاصد الشريعة.
Okay, so I want to summarize just kind of what you said for the people, and please do correct me if I get anything wrong. So, you said that imitation can be divided into two types: permissible imitation and the حرام or the impermissible imitation. And out of that impermissible imitation, you've broken it down into four categories: Imitating the animals, Men imitating women or women imitating men, Imitating Shaytan, and then the final one, which is really what we're going to be discussing in a lot of detail on this podcast, is imitating the non-Muslims. And you brought many ayat and ahadith to prove your claims. And the final point you mentioned was that this issue of imitating the non-Muslims is such an important issue in our religion that it's actually one of the objectives that the شريعة came to achieve.
Okay, I want to pick up on something you said. You said before you started that you came up with four. If anybody out there can think of any more, they can add it on. What gives you the right to distinguish this is permissible, this is impermissible, this is allowed, this is not allowed? Is this just from yourself? No. التشبه which is not allowed is already mentioned and it's stated and it's unanimously agreed upon, which is the شبه of the non-Muslims. That is not allowed, is مختصوا به, that which they are uniquely known for.
Okay, so the شريعة prohibits us to imitate the non-Muslims in that which they are known اختصوا به, they are uniquely—it’s uniquely theirs. For example, the priest, what he wears, the clothing he wears, that’s clearly an act of worship. Are we just talking about acts of worship?
It can even be عدات if you want. It can be norms. If it gets known by a group of people that they wear it, it's not necessarily an act of worship, but they are known to wear it. What's the proof of that? Why are you bringing that into it? I understand acts of worship; I think most Muslims will. But why are you bringing norms, even if they are just unique to them?
So, first of all, I need to distinguish one thing, which is the going against the non-Muslims happens in two ways, and it will all become clear. The going against the non-Muslims happens in two ways. The first one is we actually oppose them in the action itself, like for example, celebrating Christmas or celebrating New Year. This action, in and of itself, we don't act. We don’t follow the means. That's it. We don't imitate them. We can't do it because they do it. No, this is one. We're going to talk about that later on.
The second type is: no, we do it, but we differ with them in the way we do it, في وصفه (in the description of it), in the way that it’s being done. So it's مخالفة في أصل الفعلي (opposition in the action itself) or في وصفه (in the description of it). As Ibn Taymiyyah stated, an example of the وصف is, for example, fasting in general. As you know, fasting is something legislated for us, and it's also legislated for them. Allah mentions in the Qur'an: يَا أَيُّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous.
So, how do we go against them, and how do we distinguish us from ourselves? What we do is we do something that makes us different from them. The Prophet ﷺ told us, فَصْلُ مَا بَيْنَنَا مَا فَصْلُ مَا بَيْنَا الصِّيَامِنَا وَالصِّيَامِ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ أَكْلَةُ الصَّحْرِ (The distinguishing factor between our fasting and the fasting of the People of the Book is the meal of Suhur). Imam Muslim narrated this. The way to distinguish our fasting from their fasting is the way we do it. We do what's known as Suhur, and they don’t have that. So the Prophet ﷺ, that's what he would do عليه الصلاة والسلام.
As you know, we fast on that day. The Prophet ﷺ said, Let's do it on the 9th because they do it on the 10th. Let’s add the 9th on it. So this is مُخَالَفَةُ فِي وَصْفِهِ (opposition in the description of it). We go against them in the description and the form in which it’s done, لكن (but) not in أصل الفعل (the essence of the act), because it is legislated in our religion.
Now, Shaykh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned something very powerful. He said: أَنَّ الْمُشَارَكَةِ فِي الْهَدْيِ الظَّاهِرِ (Imitating the non-Muslims from the outer appearance) تُورِثُ تَنَاسُبًا وَتَشَاكُونَ بَيْنَ الْمُتَشَابِهِينَ (leads to a connection and resemblance between those who imitate each other). What it does is that it makes these two people become one. يَقُودُ إِلَى الْمُوَافَقَةِ فِي الْأَخْلَاقِ وَالْأَعْمَالِ وَهَذَا أَمْرٌ مَحْسُوسٌ (It leads to agreement in character and actions, and this is something tangible). If someone starts to copy someone in the way that they look and everything, you start acting like that person.
He gave an example that everyone can relate to. He said: فَإِنَّ اللَّابِسَ لِثِيَابِ أَهْلِ الْعِلْمِ (If someone wears the clothing of the people of knowledge), يَجِدُ مِن نَفْسِهِ نَوْعًا مِن نَوْعٍ إِنضِمَابِ إِلَيْهِ (he feels that he's part of a group, he's part of the scholarly circle, that’s what he starts to think). وَاللَّابِسُ لِثِيَابِ الْجَنْدِي (And the one who's wearing the clothing of the jundi, an army man), المقاتلة مثلا (the one who fights, for example), يَجِدُ مِن نَفْسِهِ نَوْعًا تَخَلُّقِ بِأَخْلَاقِهِمْ (he finds within himself a tendency to adopt their manners).
And this imitating of the non-Muslims—what would he do?
It would lead us to loving them, مُوَالَتْ, and this is something in the Sharia, as you know, the ayats that have come regarding it. The Prophet ﷺ would make sure he taught his companions that the outer appearance has a very powerful effect. The Prophet ﷺ said to his companions, لَا يَغْلِبَنَّكُمُ الْأَعْرَابُ عَلَىٰ اسْمِ صَلَاتِكُمْ فَإِنَّا فِي كِتَابِ اللَّهِ الْعِشَاءُ فَإِنَّا تُعْتِمُوا بِحَلَابِ الْإِبَلِ. The hadith of the Prophet ﷺ: He said, Don't let the Bedouin people overcome you by changing the name of your prayer. The Prophet ﷺ said, And don't imitate them.
So, what I'm trying to say to you is that we have to understand that the تشبه المباح (permissible imitation) is, number one, أَلَّا يَكُونَ هَذَا الْأَمْرُ مِن تَقَالِيدِهِمْ (this is not from their عَدَات and their symbols that they are distinct and unique). Number one: not religious symbols. You're just talking about their customs, even their customs and their تقاليد. I'm talking about their customs. Number two is: أَلَّا يَكُونَ هَذَا الْأَمْرُ مِن تَقَالِيدِهِمْ (it also can't be a matter of their legislation), okay, which has been mentioned that it's from their شرع (law). And it's stated, you have evidence to prove that this is from their legislation, and a reliable source you have it from. Either Allah mentions it, or the Prophet ﷺ mentions it, or there is a متواتر (mutawatir, widely known) that this is their legislation.
Like, for example, the prostration of greeting, it's called سجدة التحية. Previous nations, as you can see from the Qur'an: فَقَرُّوا لَهُ سُجَّدًا (So they fell to the ground in prostration to him). Nabi Allah Yusuf عليه السلام. They all fell into prostration for him. This سجدة التحية, which is جائز في الأمم السابقة (permissible in earlier nations), you find that it's permissible. Adam عليه السلام, prostration was done for him. They were prostrated for him. This is something that is in their legislation, allowed. But in our legislation, لا (no). The Prophet ﷺ said, لو كنت آمراً أحداً أن يسجد لأحد (If I was to command someone to prostrate for someone), لأمرت المرأة أن تسجد لزوجها (I would have commanded the woman to prostrate for her husband), لأرض من حق عليها (because of the rights that he has upon her). But no one is allowed to prostrate for anybody.
The Prophet ﷺ also said: the third one is, ألا يكون في شرعنا بيان خاص (there should not be a specific ruling in this matter). Therefore, if we have a specific ruling in this matter, then we don't definitely go to them. We definitely don’t take anything from them. Makes sense?
Number four: the fourth point is, ألا تؤدي هذه الموافقة إلى مقارفة أمر من أمور الشريعة (The following of them should not lead to any harm or any problem to a legislation within our religion).
Number five is, ألا تكون الموافقة في عيادهم (We can't follow them in their celebrations) because of the statement of the Prophet ﷺ. When he came to the city of Medina and they told him about their celebrations, then he said to them, Allah has exchanged for you all of the celebrations into these two. The Prophet ﷺ said: I want to go into that, no problem.
And the sixth one is, أن تكون الموافقة بحسب الحاجة المطلوبة (Also, if there is a need for us to follow in it, then it has to be, as we’re going to mention later, Insha'Allah Ta'ala). It has to be in issues in which there is a need for us to follow in it, and we should also increase in that. I'm not going to deny here, and I'm not going to sit here and say, You know what, the Prophet ﷺ didn’t follow the non-Muslims in anything. We find that he followed them in matters of the world—worldly issues. For example, issues of battles: Do you know the term الخندق (the trench)? It's actually not an Arab word; it's actually a Persian word. It comes from the word كندة (كندة), and it came from سلمان الفارسي (Salman al-Farsi) in the battle of the trench (غزوة الخندق). That’s what سلمان الفارسي رضي الله تعالى عنه mentioned.
The people of Seerah mentioned that Salman Al-Farsi رضي الله عنه said, "Ya Rasulullah, we were in Persia, and when we were besieged, we dug a trench around ourselves." This was not known to the Arabs; the Arabs did not know it. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Okay, that's good. Let's adopt that." Not only did they adopt the practice, but they also adopted the term. So, the term itself was not Arabic, and the concept was also not Arabic.
Also, the concept of using a na'ash (a bier or coffin) for a woman, where her body is placed on it without being physically touched, was something adopted by the Muslims. Imam Al-Tabarani mentions in his works through Khalid ibn Rashed and Abu Uthman, who narrated from Dawood ibn Abi Hind, that Asmaa' bint Umays رضي الله عنها said:
"A daughter of the Prophet ﷺ, Ruqayya, passed away, and both men and women were carrying her. I said, 'O Messenger of Allah, I was in the land of the Abyssinians, and they make a na'ash for their women.'"
The Prophet ﷺ responded, "Make it." She was the first to make a na'ash in Islam.
Additionally, regarding the concept of ta'rikh (history), it is like the government’s electronic directory service today, where the data of all the people in a country is collected. Ibn Sa'd mentions in his Tabaqat that Umar رضي الله عنه consulted the Muslims on creating a directory service. As the Muslims were spreading across lands and conquering territories, Umar رضي الله عنه asked, "What do we do about the directory service? We need to collect all the data of the people."
Ali رضي الله عنه suggested, "My idea is to distribute all the wealth you have, do not hold anything back, and give it all out to the people." However, Uthman رضي الله عنه said, "I see that this wealth is too much. It's enough for the people, and even if it's not restricted, we need to know who took it and who didn’t."
There has to be خشيت أن ينتشر الأمر. الوليد بن هشام بن المغيرة said, "يا أمير المؤمنين، قد جئت الشام." I came from Sham and saw its kings. قد دونوا ديوانا وجندوا جنودا. I’ve seen that the leaders of Sham and its kings have their government’s directory service, and their policies are registered, and their people are registered.
عثمان رضي الله عنه then said, فأخذ به. He said, "Good, even history. Do you know that right?" تاريخ in Islam, as mentioned by حافظ محمد in فتح الباري, is history. We don’t have a specific time; we have هجرية. Right now, هجرية is what? It’s after the Prophet’s migration to Medina. Why is it starting from there and not from the time of Mecca? Why is it not starting from the Prophet’s birth (peace be upon him)? Where did this even come from?
The issue of تاريخ: ابن سيرين mentioned that a man came from Yemen and said, "I saw in Yemen something they call تاريخ." He went to Yemen and saw them doing something known as تاريخ. يكتبونه من عام كذا وشهر كذا. They have, like, a diary where they write inside: "This year, this happened, this month, this happened," and it’s called history.
He said, فقال عمرو هذا حسن. "This is good." They write the history. So, these are non-Muslims, and it’s being taken from them.
One last final point I want to add to prove that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم followed the practices of the أهل الجاهلية in some issues, which he affirmed صلى الله عليه وسلم, is a matter that the أصوليين and the فقهاء, especially the فقهاء, speak about, known as القسامة.
If a person is being killed, or a person is being murdered, and there's no conclusive evidence to point toward who the perpetrator of this crime is, they don't have enough evidence. For example, little kids might say, "We saw him doing it," but in an Islamic court, little kids are not considered reliable witnesses. Or the blood of the person is on the accused—there are stains of blood on him—but that's also not conclusive evidence in Islam. All of these are not conclusive, and there are no witnesses. So, the family who lost their loved one has a strong suspicion that this particular person did it.
So, there's this concept called Al-Qasama that existed before Islam. Imam Muslim narrated it in his Sahih, and also Nasa'i narrated it. All of them narrated it through Ibn Wahb. He said, he said, he said… (repeated narrations). This concept of Al-Qasama is mentioned in the hadith narrated by Imam Muslim in his Sahih, where he said, "يقسم خمسين منكم على رجل منهم فيدفعوا برمته". So, the 50 people from this side have to swear upon a particular person. It can even be a particular group of people, but they have to name the people they believe committed the crime.
Also, the Awliya (guardians of the victim) must all agree on this issue. The Awliya in this case have to agree. Last but not least, there has to be وجود اللوث. The issue of لوث means there's a dispute, and there are two opinions on what لوث means. Some of the Ulema say that لوث means العداوة الظاهرة—there has to be animosity between the deceased and the one they are accusing of the murder. But the strongest opinion is that لوث means مارجح جانب المدعي في دعواه. This opinion is reported by Ibn Muhammad, and also Ibn Taymiyyah chose it, which is that there are sides that point out that this person is the one who committed it. So it's not just a mere claim.
Therefore, Ibn Hajar brought إجماع on this matter. He said, "اتفق كلهم على أنها لا تجيب القسامة لمجرد دعاوى الأولياء حتى يقترن بها شبهة يغلب الظن الحكم بها". So, this concept of القسامة is one of those things the Prophet affirmed. He confirmed القسامة as it was in the pre-Islamic جاهلية. It's something that the Prophet took from the pre-Islamic جاهلية and affirmed it. So, I'm not denying that there are things within our religion that were taken from the pre-Islamic جاهلية. They were taken from them, but they were modified and corrected.
But not everything was taken from them. So, I'm going to go into celebrations and clothing in a lot more detail later on in the podcast, like you mentioned before. But I just want to understand something here because I'm struggling to get my head around this. I think everyone among the Muslims would agree that we can't follow the non-Muslims in their religious practices, whether that be their celebrations or their clothing specific to their religion, like the priest collar that we discussed earlier. But you also said that we can't follow them in other non-religious matters. Then you came up with lots and lots of examples of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and his companions following the non-Muslims in matters other than their religious practices.
So, give me something tangible. Give me a principle. How can someone at home distinguish between, "I can follow them in this, but I can’t follow them in that"? And I'm talking about customs, not acts of worship. But how can I follow them in this, and not in that? Give me a principle.
Okay, when it comes to the previous nations, there are things that are legislated in their religion, and sometimes those same things are legislated in our religion as well. They were given a command in this issue, and so were we. Allah says in the Quran, "For those of you who believe, fasting has been prescribed upon you, as it has been prescribed on those who came before you." So now we do this. Am I unanimously agreeing upon that? We’re doing it mainly because it's mentioned in our religion, but we also clearly know that they did it as well.
The second point is, there isn’t a sahih (authentic) evidence to point out that they did it. We don’t have it from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم clearly and categorically. We also don't have it, meaning they didn’t do what, sorry? That this action is something that is part of their religion.
Okay, you've moved on from fasting and you're talking about general principles. Yeah, so the first point is something that is clearly and categorically mentioned in their religion, and it’s also mentioned in our religion. To affirm it, we’ll do that one. But the second point is, it's not authentically transmitted from their religion that they did it. It's transmitted here or there, or even say there is an authentic evidence to prove that it's legislation for them, but there is also clear-cut evidence in our religion that abrogates it.
And our religion is saying, “This one”—whether it’s one of those two situations—it is abrogated, it’s sorted. We don't give it any consideration because Allah Ta’ala told us that it was removed from us. In other words, our religion abrogated all of those things, and it’s sorted.
Now, the third thing is there is a dispute among the ulema on this whole issue. Something is authentically mentioned in the Quran, and it's also mentioned in the Sunnah that it's something they practiced. Okay, even if it has been transmitted to us through a khabar ahad (single narration), for example, it doesn't matter. But we don't have something in our religion that affirms it or proves it; we don't have it. Also, we don't have something that's nullifying it or abrogating it; we don't have it.
The majority of scholars are of the opinion that this type is a hujjah (proof). There is a large number of scholars who say the legislation that came before us in this is a hujjah, and we can act upon it. These are a lot of scholars, or the majority, I could say. Ibn Taymiyyah mentions it, Al-Futuhi mentions it, and Amin al-Shankirti also mentions it.
However, when we look at the Quran and the Sunnah, from my humble research, the zahir (apparent) view is that the Quran says no in this case. This is the Madhhab of Imam al-Shafi'i and also the opinion of Ibn Hazm, which is: Allah says in the ayah "We have made you upon a legislation". Also, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, "I was given five things that no prophet before me was given". And from those, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, "A prophet was sent to his people specifically, and I was sent to all people". Then that prophet’s legislation is restricted to his people.
These are things that are not necessarily clearly ordered. I'm talking about matters of legislation in the religion—five things the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said were given to him and haven’t been given to them. And from those things, he said "A prophet will be sent to his people specifically, and I was sent to all mankind." Bukhari and Muslim both narrated this, so this shows that our Sharia (Islamic law), the Sharia of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, is not upon us to have to follow their legislation.
Ibn Hazm argued strongly on this issue in his Kitab (book) in the second volume and also in his Nubad (book), page 91. However, there is a hadith that might say something different: a hadith from Sahih Bukhari. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم used to love agreeing with the People of the Book in matters that were not ordered. So this hadith is saying that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم used to love agreeing with the People of the Book in matters where there is no clear command.
For example, Allah is not clearly commanding us to be different from them. He actually used to follow the legislation that goes exactly against what you're saying right now. This hadith is narrated in Sahih Muslim, which states that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم used to love agreeing with the People of the Scripture in matters in which he wasn’t commanded to do something. For example, Istighbar Bayt al-Maqdis (reverence for the Al-Aqsa Mosque) or, for example, agreeing with the Jews in fasting on the Day of Ashura. Some scholars mention this.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah responded to this in three ways.
The first point is that the matters in which the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم agreed with them were at the beginning, in the early stages of Islam. Then, it got abrogated, and it was legislated for him, and he was later commanded not to follow them. If you look at the same hadith you mentioned, it is clear that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم let his hair down in agreement with them, but after that, what did he do? He then distanced himself. Imam Muslim narrated in his Sahih that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم changed his practice of following them at the beginning of Islam. This is an issue that I want you to understand: it’s not always the case.
As for the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم agreeing with the Jews on the Day of Ashura, no—the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم actually used to fast it before he migrated to Medina. Yes, he used to fast it. Aisha (ra) mentioned that the Quraysh used to fast it before Islam, and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم used to fast it in Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic days). When he came to Medina, he continued fasting it and commanded the people to fast it. However, when fasting during Ramadan was ordered or commanded, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم left Ashura fasting. Imam al-Bukhari narrated this, as well as Ibn Abi Shaybah, and it is authentic. This clearly supports my point: the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم fasted Ashura not in agreement with the Jews but rather because it was a day that the Prophets used to fast. At the end of the hadith, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم mentioned, "We are more rightful, we are closer to Musa than you are."
Now, I want to rephrase the question I asked because I’m not talking about religious matters or things in the deen of Islam, like fasting for example. I'm talking about matters from the dunya (worldly affairs) which we know are generally permissible. You said that we can't copy or follow non-Muslims in matters of the dunya. Let's not just talk about Jews and Christians; let's bring it into the modern-day context. We can't copy non-Muslims in worldly matters. Then you went on to bring many hadiths and narrations, for example, Amr ibn al-Khattab bringing governmental systems that he saw from the non-Muslims at that time.
Help someone at home understand: if they see practices from the non-Muslims, are they allowed to copy them? How can they determine what they can copy and what they can’t?
I mentioned this to you: if this issue has become something that they’re known for, something that becomes a symbol, something they are distinctly known for, then we must be cautious. What do I mean by that? For example, if I wear something that they wear, like a priest’s collar, that’s because it's part of their religion to wear that. That’s why we say the priest wears it. I'll give you an example: when I wear the imamah (headgear) today and I wear the bisht (cloak) on top of it, what do you think of me right away? You think I’m a scholar.
This matter is not halal or haram (forbidden or permissible); I’m not talking about that. It’s uniquely known for the ulama (scholars) to wear it. That’s my point. I might not be great with examples, by the way. There’s an important point I think we need to understand: sometimes examples are used to reject a principle. What do I mean by that? For example, a principle is mentioned, it’s elaborated upon, or evidence has been brought for it, and then someone tries to push that principle based on an example here or there. The poet Sahib al-Maraqi said you can’t reject a principle just because of an example.
I’m giving you this example just so you understand the principle. My example might not even be the most accurate one, but the idea is just to get the understanding closer to you.
Okay, then people reject the example because it doesn’t quite fit, and as a result, they go on to reject the principle. Let’s just focus on the principle then. You just said your principle is that things that are uniquely theirs—what does that mean exactly? Does it mean only they do it? For example, when you look at trousers, do you think that’s uniquely for the non-Muslims?
It’s not just that Muslims are doing it—it’s not known for anybody. It’s something fine. I want to look at someone wearing trousers, and you want to look at someone wearing trousers. But it only became like that because the Muslims took it on. Let me break down the issue of trousers. I don’t really know the full history behind trousers, but let’s say, for example, the non-Muslims invented trousers. It’s not the fact that they invented it that’s an issue; that’s fine. But as long as we’re allowed to follow them, the fact that they invented it is not a problem. They invented trousers, but my point is now that people who were wearing trousers at that time—John, Matthew, Luke, Brian—these are all non-Muslims. Then Abdullah comes along, and at that moment in time, only the non-Muslims are wearing trousers. It’s only now, because Muslims took it on, that we say trousers are not known for a particular kind of people; everybody wears trousers. But Muslims took it on when it was actually only for the non-Muslims.
No, no, no—you’d have to prove that. If we say anything that the non-Muslims invented at one moment in time, no Muslim had it because they invented it, you have to prove that they invented it.
Okay, let’s just say the internet, cars, or something like that. There’s something in the dunya (world) that only the non-Muslims invented. Let’s just say cars, for example. The concept of inventing and the concept of being known for something are two different things.
Now, we need to define what it means to be “known.” We have to act upon the ‘urf (custom) and the norms of the people. These are some issues we have to look at: the ‘urf, the customs, and the norms of the people. For example, the shawakamis (traditional Arab dress) you guys wear—did I pronounce it correctly? Men and women both wear it, right? Is it something known for men but not for women? No, they both wear it. So now, no one can come and bring the hadith about men imitating women. But was there a point when it was just known for men? It could change over time. Okay, but at that point when men wore it and then women started wearing it, did they do something wrong? Do you see my point? The people who did it would be considered sinners, no doubt, but those who come 100 years later—we judge things based on how they are regardless of what happens.
Yeah, it doesn’t matter. Anything that is, by the way, related to worldly matters—these are conditions in worldly matters. These customs and symbols are distinct and unique. The second condition I mentioned is that it can’t be from their religion. This can’t be a matter of their religion, which we agree on. The third one is that there can’t be a specific ruling for us in this issue that repels what they are upon. Number four is, for example, us following them in this issue cannot lead to abandoning a rule from the Shari'ah.
Exactly. The fifth one is that we cannot agree with them in their celebrations. The sixth and final point is that it has to all be in line with the needs. So, even then, when it comes to worldly issues, we shouldn’t try to overly follow them if there’s no need for it. Because even then, we still want to have our unique things. Even though it is something no problem, we still want to establish our independence as Muslims and our unique existence. So, even if it’s trousers or jeans, no one can make it haram, but it’s good to avoid.
I think most of the people watching will probably agree with many of the conditions: we can’t follow them in matters of their religion; we can’t follow them if it goes against our religion. But I really want to pinpoint this thing about matters related to the dunya. I know, at the end, you said even then it is better to avoid, but you did say it’s mubah (permissible). So, what’s the point of even discussing this? Someone might look at something and say, "I believe that is uniquely for the non-Muslims," while another person might look at the same thing and be like, "No, I don’t really think it is." Therefore, this is just an ijtihadi (scholarly opinion) issue. Why are we even talking about it? Why not just focus on the religious bits and let the dunya do what you want?
This goes back to an issue I mentioned before. It goes back to the custom and the ‘urf, and the ‘urf is not determined by one person’s feeling. The custom is determined by what the community sees. If I walked in today and a non-Muslim came walking to you right now with a bisht and iqal (traditional Arab headgear), what would you say to him? He didn’t say anything to you, but just by seeing him, you would immediately think, “Oh, he’s one of them." I remember one time it was Halloween, and they knocked on my door. One of them was wearing that as a costume, and I said, "Assalamu Alaikum," and he said he was a Muslim. I said, “Oh, I’m not a Muslim."
The point I’m trying to make is that clothing that is unique to a people makes people start to believe you are part of those people. You are one of them. If I were wearing soldier’s clothes, or police officer clothes, it would be illegal to wear police officer clothes. Why are you not allowed to? Because someone is going to think you are a police officer, and it is illegal—you can be arrested for it. The concept of your outer appearance and the way you dress—if it is in line with the non-Muslims, but there is no tamayyus (distinction), and they are not uniquely known for the non-Muslims, then, inshallah, it is fine. Muslims can wear that, and this can change from time and place.
Let’s move on from the clothing. I have some very specific questions.
I know these are examples, feel free to say what you want about that. Is there anything wrong with wearing a suit? I don't believe it is specific to the non-Muslims. Again, my humble research, I don't see how that is unique for the non-Muslims. Muslims can wear it. I'm not saying it is haram. I call it monkey suits. You can wear it if you want to, you can dress yourself in that way. There is nothing haram about it, as long as your aura is not showing, your physique is not appearing, no problem, it is fine.
You said men are not allowed to wear clothing that imitates women. Women are known to wear dresses. You are wearing a dress that is not known. There is a type of clothing, a type of it, that is known for women, and the other type is not known for women. Explain it a bit more. The clothing that is known by, for example, when you see a meniscus, that is what women wear. But then you see a Scottish man, you wouldn't think this is a female. This is what they wear, but if they go outside their land, this is considered to be what? It is considered to be a women's clothing. So if you saw a brother walking in front of you and he was wearing a thobe, would you think he is imitating women? No, but if he goes out of his land and goes to the UK, are you saying he shouldn't wear a thobe based on your example? No, it is not, because it is something the Prophet wore, it is sanctioned by the Prophet. This concept of "can you or can't you" is generally used for something the Prophet never wore, like jeans or things like that. For example, if you wear jeans in one particular land, it is not haram. Again, is it sanctioned or is it just a culture? For example, did the Prophet wear anything different to Abu Jahl or Abu Lahab? Of course not, they just wore the same clothes. It is not sanctioned as part of a religion. It was their culture.
In the UK, it is very much known for women. That is why when you go to a land and their clothing is not wrong, it is fine to wear their clothing, as long as you cover the whole land. If I go to Indonesia, I wear their clothes. If I go to India, for example, I wear the Indian clothes. If I go to Africa, I dress the way the Africans dress. That is fine, there is nothing wrong with that. For example, when I went to India, I wore the Indian clothes. If I go somewhere in West Africa, one of the first things I would ask is, "Can you guys give me your clothing?" It is fine, there is nothing wrong with it. It is actually nice that you integrate with the society and you look like them. It is fine, as long as their clothing is not haram.
What I mean is that, are they known for this clothing? It is a different discussion. If it is something they are distinguished by, it is a problem. What if someone sees something that the non-Muslims are known for and he finds it very beautiful, for example, and he tries to bring in the hadith, "Allah is beautiful and loves beauty," and he says, "For this reason, for example, I want to wear the clothes of the non-Muslims." That is the hadith. It is placing the hadith in the wrong place. Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty. The hadith is like that. Those are general evidences. Someone could say, "Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty," and a sister says, "I am going to wear a miniskirt. It is beautiful, people like it," and she can use that hadith in the wrong place. We have to understand the hadith in its context. The shariah is there to allow us. The Quran and sunnah are there to govern us, to control us, to tell us what and where we can do things. Take all the evidences together, don't just take one random hadith.
Last question on clothing. Wearing things like football kits, you see Muslim children wearing it. It has become a culture. The concept of football is a discussion, it requires itself a discussion. Let's suspend that. It is not just wearing clothes. There is a concept of allegiance here, there is a concept of love and hate. If you wear that t-shirt, but you go on the wrong side of the bench, you are wearing a Chelsea t-shirt, it is a game. You accidentally sit down with the Manchester crowd, you are in big trouble, they will beat you up. The point is that the clothing of football is another discussion. A follow-up question on football, but it might be easier to answer because it doesn't require a big discussion. What about people that are specific to religious symbols? What if someone is wearing a football kit that has a cross on the badge? That is even worse than just wearing the clothing. It is levels.
I told you before the non-Muslims are known to do it, we go against them in its asal, we go against them in the description, in the way that we do it. We have mukhalafatul asli and mukhalafatul wasli, in opposition to the asal of this thing. I gave the example of Christmas or New Years; this is bad, it is sanctioned in our religion but we have to disagree with them in the way that we do it, which is wasf. Fasting is something that is sanctioned, it is legislated for both of us, but we come here and we go against them because of the suhoor. This one, if you don't do the suhoor and then you just fast, it is less than the one that the asal. We don't even do, and even worse than that is issues which are kufriyat.
There is an extensive hadith that the Prophet came from, specifically the issue of imitating them in issues which are kufr. So, there is a hadith he narrated it, where the Prophet said, "I was sent out with the sword just before the hour until Allah is worshipped and He is not associated with partners." The Prophet said, "My provision has been placed under my spear," the Prophet's provision, he took his rizq from the spoils of war, he wasn't taking it from any other means. Then he said, "Humility, humility," and the word "as-sagaru" he says "as-sagaru" means Allah humiliated them by them giving them the jizya. Anyone who imitates a people, he is from them.
This hadith really shows us anyone who imitates a people. Ibn Abi Shaybah narrated it, Ahmad narrated it, Tahawi narrated it, Abu Sa'id narrated it, all the 6 great Imams narrated it. Bukhari narrated it, he narrated the last sentence which is, and he mentions that last sentence, Bukhari also narrated it, Abu Dawood also narrated the last sentence. The point is the hadith is sahih, many great scholars have authenticated it. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, his hadith is very good. Hafidh al-Iraqi, who is the teacher of Ibn Hajar, he said the chain is authentic. Hafidh al-Iraqi said the chain is authentic and he also said that Ibn Hibban authenticated it, he mentions that, and there are 4 companions who narrated it: Abdullah ibn Umar, Abu Hurairah, Anas ibn Malik, and Hudayfah ibn Ulyaman. All of them narrated it. The Riwayah of Abu Hurairah is Mursal even though Hafidh al-Iraqi narrated it. Anas ibn Malik is also weak because there is Bishr ibn Hussain, Hudayfah ibn Ulyaman and Haitham except Ali ibn Ghurab.
So this hadith in it, there is something I need to take from it which is anyone who imitates a people is from them. And this is an Asl of this hadith. This hadith is one of the most powerful points. Sheikh of Islam Taimur says the bare minimum we can say about this part of the hadith, the bare minimum we can say is, the bare minimum is that it is haram for you to imitate the non-Muslims. Even though from the apparent, how can you say that the bare minimum is that it is haram? He mentions it after that, he says, even though from the apparent, it does seem like it is leading towards that direction. He brings an ayah to support it: anyone who takes and disbelieves as his allies, he is verily what? From them.
Sheikh of Islam Taimur then says, he says this hadith is referring to the general imitation, unrestrictedly. This is the point I want from it, powerful point. If the person imitates the non-Muslims in a matter which is kufr, then he takes the same ruling as him, and that was the question you asked. If he imitates them in an issue which is sin, he imitates the non-Muslims by drinking alcohol. If he imitates them in something good, then he gets a reward. Something good that they did, good matters, you get rewarded for it, if it is permissible. Always remember that issues which are good are always either directly or generally mentioned by our religion. Saying good to the people, so a non-Muslim showed you how to do that, you take it from him, no problem in that.
You said earlier that obviously we can't copy them or follow them in things that are specific and known to them. What if that thing that is specific and known to them is something permissible, for example? Why are you saying that it's haram when this hadith would mean that it's permissible? Let's just say something is specific to them and the whole culture.
Everybody agrees it's specific to them, this issue is specific to them, but it's something permissible. I'm not good at examples either. If it's specific to them, it can't be something permissible. It's not part of their religion. For example, it can't be permissible; it's a world issue that only they're known for. Let's just say it's really hard to find examples. There is a non-example: let's just say there's a particular field of study that only the non-Muslims go into, a particular field of science. I'm struggling to find an example because I can't think of anything that is specifically known to them apart from religious stuff. You said that even from the dunya, something specific to them. Give me an example, what is specifically known to them?
My question to you is: that the priest, what he wears, is that a religious thing? What he puts on, the thing that the priest wears? Yeah, it must be because it's only the priest who wears it, not the normal layman Christians. I like to argue and say just because the priest wears it doesn't make it religious. It's something, yes you're right, it's known for the priest to wear it. It's like the ulema, what they wear in Saudi Arabia. They're known to wear that type of clothing, the bisht. By the way, I remember I was in the Haram one time, I liked it and I thought about wearing it, and then I wore it. I was in the Kaaba, I had my thawb, I had my bisht, I had everything, I liked the culture, and I wanted to dress like that.
So a person pulled me over, because you know in the Haram there's people who answer questions, and they generally wear those clothing. So a few people came running to me and asked me, "We have a question, can you answer this question? What's the ruling in this issue? I did tawaf, and I left this, and I left that," and I started to realize, oh, it's a bit serious. I'm calling for something, I'm asking for people to come and ask me questions. But no one would say that this clothing that the ulema are wearing or the Saudi scholars wear, no one would say that it's a religious thing. It's just become known to be their clothing.
So, anything I bring to you, if it's uniquely known by the Christians, it's a religious issue, that's who you're going to flip it to. Difference between Christians and priests: if it was uniquely known to the Christians, then I would say it's probably a religious thing. Hence, that's why it does become something they consider it. I don't think the clothing he wears is a legislation from their religion. I don't know, by the way. I'm just speaking from the top of my mind. If anybody knows other than that, they can bring it to our attention. But the point I'm trying to say is that what really concerns me personally is not the example. What concerns me more is the principle, because when the example comes to me, wherever it comes to me from, if after this podcast I come to know about an example, I would bring it back to this general principle.
What about the first part of the hadith? Because it's quite controversial. The Prophet ﷺ is saying that he's been sent to kill people until they believe in "la ilaha illallah." So, your concern is the first part of the hadith? The Prophet ﷺ, as you know, went through stages in his life. There was the first part, which was Mecca, and there was a part where he was in Medina. The Madani part is different from the Meccan part. And the Madani part was that the Prophet ﷺ had strength, and he had power, and he had the ability. Now, he was able to defend himself. He was not only able to defend himself, but he was able to spread his message and So when he came to Medina, the stage that he was at when he mentioned this hadith was the stage where he could spread Islam. If the person didn't want to take Islam, they had another choice, which was there was an amount of money that they had to pay. And I don't think anybody in his right mind would argue that that is unjust—a sensible person, I'm talking about right now. If you wanted to be in a certain country, for example, you would have to pay tax in that country. The tax makes you eligible for many things; you get a pension from it when you grow older, your tax gets turned into pension benefits, and you receive benefits from it.
So this non-Muslim, the jizya he pays, is for his protection. He's taken care of. He was told to take Islam, and he wouldn't have to pay that if he chooses otherwise. He pays the jizya, and I think we're probably going to have another podcast on that where we dissect that a bit more. But the reason why I ask the question is why then aren't you consistent in this hadith and the last part of the hadith? Why can't you say that if the Muslims are in a land where Islam is prevalent—it's a Muslim country, for example—then I agree with you, he shouldn't imitate the non-Muslims. But if he's in the UK, where he's weaker now and it's a different kind of period, it's a different context, then why can't he imitate the non-Muslims then and be consistent with the first part of the hadith?
Because there's two مسائل you're talking about. It's been brought together here. Just because something has been brought together doesn't mean that both of these issues talk about the same point. It doesn't necessarily mean the case. It's a sentence by itself, independent from the previous sentence. It stands by itself as a sentence. This is talking about the concept of jihad. And we know, as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned, that the ayats that came down in Mecca—Allah says that once it was said to them, "Hold back your hands, establish the prayer, give the zakat, don't fight." That was what was said in Mecca. Turn away from the ignorant ones, don't fight back. That was what was said in Mecca.
And then when Medina came, Allah says that was the second stage, where they were told to defend themselves. So, what we need to do is: all of those verses, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah says, revolve around the reality of the Muslims. When the Muslims are weak, they are incompetent, they don't have the strength, they don't have the physical strength, and they don't have the spiritual strength, they go back to the ayats that came down in Mecca, which is, "Hold back your hands, pray the salah, establish the zakat, command the good, turn away from the ignorant people, just mind your own business now." But when you get strength, of course, you go back—you go to those verses that came down...
Okay, let's talk about celebrations now, which is the next part of this podcast that I want to dissect. So obviously the first one that we should be mentioning, I suppose, because of the relevance for this particular week that this episode is going out on, is Christmas. Many Muslims will argue the fact that Christmas is no longer a religious celebration; it's actually a commercial celebration. Muslims are living in the West, for example, and it's really just something fun for the kids. There's no real religious connotation left anymore. On that basis, are they allowed to celebrate Christmas?
Christmas was never a religious celebration; it's not part of Christianity. It was introduced by the church fathers. They introduced the celebration. It has nothing to do with Christianity as a religion, and it falls under what they innovated. So, it was never a religious thing. Atheists celebrated it, but it's something distinctly known for them. It is something which is uniquely known for them, and the Prophet (peace be upon him) told us in a hadith. This hadith is mutawatir. Imam al-Bukhari narrated it in his Sahih in two places. The first one he narrated it in, and also Imam Muslim narrated it in the chapter that Nawawi gave it, and Imam Muslim also narrated it in his Sahih. All of them narrated it. This hadith has come; it's mutawatir. It's a multitude narration. Amir al-San'ani mentions that it's mutawatir.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said there's two ways of saying it: you can say, by the way it was, that's how it used to be, was put into it. So, it was the original. "Was" was a word put into it, which is to emphasize on it, which takes the place of... and then the "has" a what? Has a sukoon on it, then the noon, which has a shedda on it. What's gonna happen? It's two noons, right? So the first noon has a sukoon and the second noon has a fatha. What happened here? The "wa" was dropped out of the word. Both ways, it can be said. So, this word the Prophet is swearing by Allah—you will follow Ibn Hajar and Nawawi, they chose the best pronunciation to be. It can also be "is" what they chose to strengthen that view as well, which means span by span and cubit by cubit.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) mentions, and this is from the miracles of the Prophet (peace be upon him), which is: you will follow them span by span, cubit by cubit, to the extent that if they enter the hole of a lizard. The Prophet said, "You will follow them."
"O Messenger of Allah, also?" you can say. The Prophet then said, "And who else?" as if to say, "Of course." So, this hadith shows the hadith was narrated by so there is no doubt about its authenticity. But there is also Abu Huraira, which Bukhari also narrated separately.
So I actually have the other word from Abu Huraira, and it says, and now this is something crucial because I've got a couple of questions on this. It's a similar kind of hadith that it's talking about. It goes on to say the same thing that you just said, but crucially, it says, "My question is that the Prophet (peace be upon him) is actually saying here that the whole of his Ummah are going to end up copying the previous nations."
How do you reconcile that with the fact that we also know from another hadith that there was always going to be a group from his Ummah that is upon the truth? This hadith that you mentioned, that Imam Bukhari alone narrated, Muslim didn’t narrate it with him, the Prophet (peace be upon him), the Prophet then said. This hadith, by the way, is authentic and it's sahih.
How do you reconcile that with the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him), where he said, and the other wording where the Prophet said? So, the first one was the riwayah which was narrated by Bukhari and Muslim. The Prophet said Muslim only narrated, which is another wording. 14 sahabas narrated this. There's no contradiction that this means the majority of my Ummah, the overwhelming majority of my Ummah, are going to follow the non-Muslims.
If we have a general statement and we have a specific one, we have to try to reconcile it. We have to always try to bring the two evidences together. We have to say Muslim narrated this two narrations is specific. We have to try to bring it together. The jama'ah is done in that way.
There's a second part of the hadith when you went on to narrate the full hadith of Abu Hurairah. Towards the end, it actually says, where the companions say, "Do you mean the Persians and the Byzantines?" Whereas in the first hadith, you said the companions asked, "Do you mean the Jews and the Christians?" How is that not a contradiction?
By the way, this hadith has been narrated in three wordings. One is the one we mentioned in the beginning, which is the Christians and the Jews. The second narration is, and there's another one which Ibn Abbas narrated. May Allah be pleased with him and his father. This hadith was narrated by Hakim in his Mustadrak, and Sheikh Nasir authenticated it, and they have agreed with it.
This one, Ibn Abbas's narration, is general. It's saying that you will follow the path of those who came before you.
It doesn't mention who. Fair enough. Then the one I mentioned, Hadith Abu Sa'id al-Khudriya, it mentions al-Yahudah wal-Nasara.
Correct, Jews and the Christians. And Jews and the Christians. And the third one is al-Rumu wal-Furth.
Yani, al-Rumu wal-Farith. Now, how do we reconcile between that? It's very simple. There are some explanations, Hafiz Mahajer mentions in Fath al-Bari that Karamani, what he said, Karamani is one of the Shurah al-Bukhari, what he mentioned, that this is an example, because the Hadith, what did he say? Karamani wal-Farith, sah? Yes.
What is the word in Hadith say for you? The Hadith of Abu Hayra. Kafaris wal-Rum. Kafaris wal-Rum, right? So the Kaf in there, what is what? Like, like.
Like. But what, I don't think that's convincing. Yeah.
The reason it's not convincing is because the Prophet at the end, what did he say? Wa min al-nasi illa ulayk. Yeah, correct, yeah. Who is the people except? Yeah.
The Prophet at the end, he said, wa min al-nasi illa ulayk. Wa min al-nasi illa ulayk. Wa min al-nasi illa ulayk.
Who are the people illa ulayk except these people? So it can't be tashbih or tamthil. So anyways, that which seems apparent when we're in the light is that this falls under what the Usuliyin call at-tanseesu ala ba'di al-afraadi bi-dhikri. At-tanseesu ala ba'di al-afraadi al-aami bi-dhikri.
If I say, for example, Muhammad, stand up. And I say, everybody stand up. Muhammad, stand up.
They don't contradict one another. It's because you narrow it down. The one we say, man kana qabalakum hadith bin Abbas, in general, and the hadith that mentions the Christians and the Jews and the Romans and the Persians, it's just, it's at-tanseesu ala ba'di al-afraadi al-aami bi-dhikri.
Sahih al-Muraqi, he says, wa da'da meera al-ba'di wal-asbaaba wa dhikra ma wafakahu min mufradi. And Allah used that a lot in the Quran. wal-mutalliqatu yatarabbasuna bi-anfusihna talatata quroo'in.
After that, Allah says, wa bu'ulatuhunna ahakubi raddihinna. Doesn't, Allah says, haafidhu ala as-salawati wa as-salati al-wustaa. Yeah.
Wa qumu lillahi qanitin. So it's common that the Quran does this kind of tariqa. So I think that's, inshallah ta'ala, a response.
It's not strong as well. It's not 100% sharp answer. Lakin, that which seems apparent, wal-'ilmu indallah.
So that's some of the technical aspects, the more technical aspects with the hadith. And it really shows the virtue and the benefit of getting detailed Arabic language, Arabic grammar, because it can really help you distinguish between some of these questions. However, I then want to go into the meaning of the hadith.
What exactly do you take from this? I think the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, mentioned to us, alayhi salatu wa sallam, that you will follow the nations before you, and the Christians and the Jews. You will follow them. Shibran bishibrin wa dhiraan bidhiraan hatta lau dakalu juhra dabbin lattaba'atumuhum.
You will follow them. Yeah. So it's basically a prophecy.
It doesn't say it's wrong to follow them. It doesn't say you shouldn't follow them. It's just a prophecy saying that this will happen.
Nothing wrong with it, right? Yeah, the Prophet told us, alayhi salatu wa sallam, this is gonna happen. This is gonna take place. There's no dispraising it.
It's not saying you shouldn't follow them. Would we agree? No, no, the hadith doesn't mention it, no. Okay, cool.
Okay. Okay, so we're going back to Christmas then. You said that- But there's something you're falling here into.
I'm wondering why you let me pass on so quickly. Yeah, yeah, there's a point you're falling into right now is that you're trying to take al-hukm ul-qawni, a universal ruling that the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, mentioned here, and you're trying to go against a legislated ruling. But not in this hadith, a legislated ruling elsewhere.
Yeah, yeah, so this is a universal ruling. Somebody might come and say, look, if the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, had told us, لَتَتَّبِعُنَّ سَنَنَ مَنْ كَانَ قَبْلَكُمْ شِبْرًا بِشِبْرٍ وَذِرَاعًا بِذِرْعَعٍ حَتَّى لَوَ دَخَلُوا دُحْرَ ضَبٍّ لَتَبَعْتُمُهُمْ أَمَنْ لَدَخَلْتُمُهُمْ From what you said, it can be sensed from it that you're saying that universally, this is going to happen. So why fight it? So why even argue about it? Why even, if Allah wants this to happen, in other words, He wants this.
What we say is this is something that, قبل الإسلام, from the time of the Prophet ﷺ, something that they did, they took the universal signs and they tried to use that to push away the legislated evidences. For example, the non-Muslims, they said, يَسَيْقُولُ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا أَشْرَكْنَا وَلَا آبَاءُنَا وَلَا حَرَّمْنَا مِنْ دُونِهِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ They said, if Allah Ta'ala willed, we would not associate partners with Allah Ta'ala. We wouldn't, our forefathers wouldn't.
Allah wanted us to do this. He's pleased with us doing shirk. That's what they said.
Allah mentions also, وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ أَنفِقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقَكُمُ اللَّهُ If they are told, give from what Allah gave you, سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ قَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا The disbelievers, they say, قَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنُطْعِمُوا مَنْ لَوْ يَشَاءُ اللَّهُ أَطْعَمَهُ Are we going to provide for people Allah chose them to be poor? Again, don't think to yourself that they didn't know that this is universal and this is legislated. They knew it. They were doing it out of stubbornness and arrogance and hard-headedness.
They even said, لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا عَبَدْنَا مِنْ دُونِهِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ If Allah Ta'ala did not will, we would not have worshipped anybody other than Him. We say that's Haqq, that's true. You're right.
Everything in this world happens بِمَ شِيءَةِ اللَّهِ تَبَارَكُ تَعَالَى Okay? All of it happens بِمَ شِيءَةِ اللَّهِ تَبَارَكُ تَعَالَى And Allah even mentions that, سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى He says, وَلَوْ شِئْنَا لَا آتِنَا كُلَّ نَفْسٍ هُدَاهَا If we willed, we would have given every soul His guidance. We believe that. But the question here is كَرِمَةُ حَقٍّ أُرِيدَ بِهَا بَاطِلٌ It's a statement which is true but it's intended for medieval.
Okay? Because we know Allah Ta'ala is not pleased with Kufr. Allah Ta'ala He says, وَلَا يَرْضَى لِعِبَادِهِ الْكُفْرُ Allah is not pleased سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى disbelief for His people in no way, shape or form. So we're not going to anyway accept a person to take a universal sign to kind of repel a Shari'i.
The Prophet is telling us here something that's going to happen which is not good. The Prophet ﷺ, he said to us in another hadith لا تقوم الساعة The hour will not strike صلى الله عليه وسلم حتى تضطرب until the legs of a woman, of the people of Daws goes to the Khalas, an idol that was worshipped at that time. Pay attention to this.
لا تقوم الساعة حتى تضطرب اليات بني دوس على ذي خلس The hour will not strike until a woman or the people will go to the idol of Dhi Khalas. Dhi Khalas is an idol that was worshipped, that was destroyed. Okay, this is going to happen.
People are going to revive this again. The point I'm trying to take from this is a universal sign. The Prophet said this is going to happen.
People are going to go back to عِبَادَةُ الْأَصْنَام Worshipping idols. Does that mean Allah is pleased with us worshipping idols? In no way, shape or form. So the Prophet prophesied it.
Okay, so going back to Christmas, you said Christmas is not a religious holiday for the Christians. And you said obviously it was never like that. And even now it's not like that.
Atheists will celebrate Christmas, etc. But you said we still, as Muslims, can't celebrate it. And the reason for that is because it is known for the non-Muslims.
And I would probably agree with that. But I would like to counter that and say that if with time, because you also said previously in the podcast that things can change over time, and they don't take the original ruling, they take the ruling as of that time and that society, if over time, which we've seen actually in the last 10, 15, 20 years, Muslims do start to embrace this holiday, then can we get to a stage where in maybe 100, 200 years time, it is no longer something that is unique to non-Muslims. It is shared and therefore we can celebrate Christmas as well.
Why? Because Eids are matters set on stone. What do you mean by Eids? Eid means celebration. Okay.
Celebrations and festivals for Muslims is set on stone. In other words, the Prophet ﷺ, when he came to the city of Medina, and he saw the companions, and they told him about their celebrations that they had, the Prophet ﷺ, he said to them, إِنَّ اللَّهَ أَبَدَّ لَكُمْ Allah has exchanged for you, سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى Allah has what? He's exchanged for you. Your celebrations, changed for you means, it's all of it, as Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned, that everything that you are currently celebrating, all of it has been eradicated.
And it has been changed with what? It's been changed with these Eids, Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. No problem. Also, Hold on, hold on.
Because I've got the hadith with me as well, and I'm not really sure what you're taking from that. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to Medina, the people had two days on which they engaged in celebrations, for example. He asked, what are these two days? What is the significance? They said, we used to engage ourselves on them in the pre-Islamic period.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, Allah has substituted for them something better than them, the day of sacrifice and the day of breaking the fast. Inna Allaha qada abdalakum bihima khayran minhuma Okay, Jameel, no problem. My question is, where in this did you get the understanding that you then can't add on a third or a fourth? I'll give you a worldly example.
You have two throats for you, and I can see that they've got maybe a little bit worn out, and I say, I've replaced these two throats for you with something better. Does that mean that I've restricted you from going out to buy a third, or a fourth, or a fifth? Of course not. Nothing in my wording has restricted anything.
I just replaced it with two that are better. When the Shariah replaced it, it means we've abrogated everything else. From previous, correct.
I'm talking about new ones that come up. When I replace your throats, I've taken them away. I agree with you.
But I've not restricted you from going out to buy a third or a fourth. Why did the Shariah substitute their celebration to a new celebration? Because these celebrations, maybe they have shirk in them, maybe they've got kufr in them. The same thing, all the celebrations that Christmas has.
We just said it's not a religious celebration. Which one? Christianity. Sorry, Christmas is not a religious celebration.
You said that, not me. I'm not saying that it's not religious. I didn't say that.
I said it has shirk and wrong things in it. What shirk does Christmas have in it? They're glorifying Isaac and Mary. Okay, agreed.
What shirk does New Year have in it? What shirk does New Year have in it? Okay, but first we agree on Christmas. I agree with you on Christmas. Christmas is, by the way, when I said Christmas is not an act of, it's not an act of religious, it's not part of their religion in reality.
They do consider it to be part of their religion. They look at it as a religious festival. But the reality of the matter is, we will say they introduced this, they innovated it.
Arafat? Yeah, okay, I understand what you're saying. But still, we would stay clear of it because it is still associated with their religion, even though it wasn't part of their religion originally. It's something they did.
But I still want to go on things on New Year's, anniversary birthdays, for example. These are all permissible. And that hadith that you mentioned, to me, and we agreed that Asal of the Dunya is permissibility.
And that hadith that you mentioned has not restricted them. Issues of Eid celebrations are matters of religion. It's seen as a matter of religion.
Eid is an act of Ibad. Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha. Yeah, totally, I agree with you.
No, Eid, the concept of Eid celebration in Islam is an act of a repetition of a year. You know the word Eid comes from the word Adha. Okay.
That keeps repeating. Islam is set for us. It's every celebration that was there.
By the way, when the Prophet was talking to Quraysh, he was also talking to everybody who was on the other side of the world. He's telling them, these are the only two that you guys have. And he's talking to anyone to come after.
You can't restrict. His statements are not only restricted to the people he's talking to. He's talking to everybody who comes later.
Yeah, and we agree with the statement that he replaced those two with two new ones. But nothing in the statement said that you can't. In other words, what he's saying to them is, the word is Sariha from the Prophet.
He's trying to say to them is, what was there has been removed. Correct. And now what has taken its place.
In other words, everything has been abrogated. Everything. Everything from before has been abrogated.
No problem, I'm with you. Yeah, been abrogated. One of the meanings that the word Naskh in Arabic language has, the word Mansukh.
What does that mean? Abrogated. From the wordings that it has inside it is Al-Badal. It's to change.
Substitute. Yeah, okay. Substitute.
That's the word that the Prophet used. He did, yeah. Which is that he substituted for them.
Yeah, everything from before. I'm with you. Not just before.
It's, لُؤُنذِرَكُمْ بِهِ وَمَن بَلَغْ The Aqa'id is general. It's for those to come as well. He's not.
In Arabic they say, إِيَاكَ وَأَعْنِي وَاسْتِمَعْيَا جَارَى He's talking to these people. He's talking to the companions that are sitting in front of him, and he's also discussing with those to come. To abrogate something by default, by the definition of the word, or to substitute, or to replace, however you want to term it, by default that is talking about something that already exists.
By the way, also the, yeah. It can't be talking about future things which don't exist yet. That's not abrogation.
That's not substitution. That's not replacement. The, it's not abrogation, you're right.
If it comes after, the person has to be in line with this. That's what he was meant to be with. He must have took something and added on to it.
Do you understand my point? Someone on the way had to add something on to celebration that the Prophet ﷺ never sanctioned in the first place. So what we know as Muslims is that we only have two celebrations. Shaykh Husam Timur, in his Kitab, اختضاء صراط المستقيم للمخالفة أصحاب الجحيم This is one of the points that he stuck on deeply and discussed it strongly.
رحمة الله و رحمة الواسعة So I can't recall it all, but he never brought it with me as well. But Shaykh Husam Timur has a nice Baht on this issue. Okay.
Okay. So what about the argument that this is talking about Islamic celebrations whereas going out for dinner on your birthday is nothing to do with Islam and it's not, in fact, let's get rid of that even and let's just say a non-recurring event. Let's just say, I graduated from university.
Can I go out and celebrate that graduation? Am I allowed to do that? The issue of birthday, remember, it's a reoccurring thing, so it's not going to happen once. It's not a reoccurring event. As for other than one or something happened good in your life and you want to celebrate it, it's not Eid.
That doesn't take the term Eid. It just takes a hafla. We give it other namings.
Eid is something that keeps reoccurring. For example, your son finished the Qur'an and you celebrate it and it's when the Malik used to do that, رضي الله تعالى عنه Does that make sense? But a reoccurring, yearly thing that the person keeps doing, it falls under the hadith that I was just going to mention before. The hadith of Ibn al-Bukhari narrated in Sahih in the Bab of من طلب دم مرئ بغير حق where the Prophet ﷺ رضي الله تعالى عنه أبغض الناس إلى الله ثلاثة The most hated people to Allah are three.
ملحد في الحرم The word الملحد in the Arabic language it means المائل عن الحق It's like the ayah وَمَن يُرِد بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ نُذِقُهُ مِنْ عَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ وَمَن يُرِد فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ إلحاد means المائل عن الحق المائل عن القصد some scholars mentioned that as well. It's someone who is diverted from the truth. Okay? So the Prophet ﷺ mentioned in the hadith three are most hated to Allah تبارك وتعالى A person who wants to bring corruption and harm to the Haram.
The second one is مُبْتَغٍ فِي الْإِسْلَامِ سُنَّةِ الْجَاهِلِيَةِ which is the issue of bringing a pre-Islamic ignorance practice and that person tries to bring it into Islam that's what the person يَعَلِي مَن يُرِيدُ بَقَاءَ سِرَةِ الْجَاهِلِيَةِ someone who wants جَاهِلِيَة practices to remain within Islam Okay, but it's something very important you said مُبْتَغٍ فِي الْإِسْلَامِ So those, these people are a lot of people because remember, I told you already the concept of Eid is an Islamic practice The two Eids are 100% Islamic Eid is a religious practice What makes you think that? Like for example, you're talking about Eids outside of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha How can you say it's Islamic? The Prophet ﷺ when he said that, oh Muslims every Eid, these are the only two that's been given to you guys In other words, you're only allowed these two Anyone who says I have a third one or message of Allah to add to or I've got a fourth one to add on to you have to bring evidences for that or else what you're doing is The Asal of the Dunya is Mubakhir We already decided, we already agreed that Eid is not issues of the Dunya That's what we already said, we took that out at the beginning of our conditions when we mentioned I said to you, the matters of the concepts of Eid are matters which are textually based They're not Ijtihad They're not independent reasoning There's no person looking into issue If you bring Eid, then it means you're bringing it into Islam, because it's a religious issue وَمُبْتَغِن فِي الْإِسْلَامِ سُنَّةَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةَ وَمُطَلِّبُ دَمٍ مْرِئٍ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍ لِيُهْرِيقَ دَمَةً وَمُطَلِّبُ دَمٍ مْرِئٍ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍ لِيُهْرِيقَ دَمَةً So you're saying people who celebrate their birthdays are from the most hated people to Allah? I know Okay, there's another And it's powerful because it's been mentioned under a person who wants to bring harm to the Kaaba You know, somebody who's trying to Some of the scholars, they said وَمَنْ فَعَلَ الْمَعْصِيَةِ وَهُوَ فِي الْحَرَمِ Someone who does sins in the Haram and doesn't observe the Hurma of the place that he's in then the ayah takes him وَمَنْ يُرِدِ فِيهِ بِالْحَادِ بِظُلْمٍ نُذِقُهُ مِنْ عَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ So within this principle obviously comes anniversaries Anything that reoccurs on an annual basis or not just an annual, it could reoccur every six months or something like that What if someone says, I work in an office and every Wednesday, every first Wednesday of the month we go out for dinner celebrations, that comes into this hadith now? Repeat that again I work in an office, and just as a team building kind of thing, we say first Wednesday of every month, we go out for dinner as a celebration So it's not restricted to a particular date Yes, it is, it's a first Wednesday of every single month It's difficult, isn't it? No, it's not difficult, it's actually not difficult I'm just saying that I don't see that as to be an Eid But why can you say that and not say that about anniversaries? Eid, I'll tell you what it is An anniversary, you can bring an example I'll put another example here I'm just trying to show you there are differences as well that you need to observe Anniversaries, for example, is a particular date not day, date there is a particular date on the 27th of February that's Muhammad OK? The second one is a person has a birthday the 1st of January is the day I was born because a lot of Somalis are born on the 1st of January The 1st of January, for example you're celebrating on the 1st of January that date it reoccurs Christmas is on the 25th of December stuck to that date Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha is stuck to a date on a particular date In the Islamic calendar Now, pay attention here But me celebrating the finishing of the Qur'an is not a particular date It can happen any time, I don't have control over that But I say to my team in the office on the 4th of every month the 4th of November, 4th of December, 4th of January Yeah, that's problematic You're making it very difficult on the people We're not allowed to see In Islam celebrations by the way that particular surah I need to really think deep about it But I'm saying it's different from my heart That particular example I need to look into and think about it But the point I'm trying to focus on right now and I really want to keep my focus on and not get distracted by is that which we're seeing people do I was born in this day, so I want to celebrate it No, it's not allowed There's one other doubt and question that people bring about this particular hadith and that is that this is talking about a communal celebration and it clearly says كنا نلعبوا We used to play it on these particular days The Prophet ﷺ replaced it with two These are communal As in the whole of the Muslims celebrate the two Eids A birthday is not a communal celebration It's just me and my family Me and my wife's anniversary That's a community though Me and my wife's anniversary This is not something that is for the whole Muslims We're not legislating across the whole Muslims Who said that from the early scholars of Islam? Anyone can say what they want Anybody who says something But the Asr is Mubahhar Why are you bringing it into this? No, I just said to you Eid, no Eid I said to you, no Celebrations, no Islam sets it on stone Okay, that covers New Year Valentine's Day, birthdays, anniversaries etc The next thing I want to move on to is haircuts Another controversial topic that many say Are we allowed to imitate a non-Muslim's haircut? For example, a football player He has a particular kind of haircut, looks good I want to do the same You see, the Prophet He observed the outer appearance Our outer appearance in Islam Don't you think to yourself that the Prophet never made sure he looked at his Sahabas Not just the Can I just even go to the women and then come back to the men as well However you want to do it I want to show this is both sides Humayd ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf He said, I heard Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan May Allah be pleased with him and his father The year of Hajj Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan He went on the pulpit He went onto the pulpit And he started to talk And what he did was Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan He took a portion of hair It was in the hand of a guard It was in the hand of one of the guards He said, give it to me And he said, O people of Medina Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan He said, O people of Medina Where are your scholars? I heard the Prophet ﷺ saying I heard the Prophet ﷺ saying Banu Isra'ila were destroyed Banu Isra'ila were destroyed When their women took these fake hairs When their women took these fake hairs Imam Ahmad narrated this Bukhari Bukhari Bukhari Bukhari ... ... The second one Ahmad narrated Bukhari ... ... ... This hadith shows us that women are not allowed ... He said So that is for the women As for the men He said ... I came to Anas Ibn Malikin and he said I came to Anas Ibn Malikin and he said my sister Mughira told me she said either let your whole entire hair go or cut it all don't leave some and let some go because he said this is the dressing of the Jews Abu Dawood narrated this in his Sunan rahimahu allahu ta'ala, rahmatan wasi'a. So, and the hadith is hasanun, inshallah ta'ala there are some narrators in there whose khifat ad-dabt in ba'da al-rurwat, like in the hadith has al-shahid, by the hadith of Imam Ahmad al-Bukhari, and Muslim Abu Dawood, and Ibn Majah al-Nasai narrated, which is, naha rasulullahi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam al-qaza'a. That the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had prohibited us from qaza'a.
And qaza'a means, somebody shaves part of the hair, and he leaves the other part of the hair. Okay, so if you see a haircut, for example, that is specific to the non-Muslims, we shouldn't be doing it. But if it's a haircut like we discussed earlier, that is used by Muslims, non-Muslims, whatever, it's just a style, as long as it doesn't have that qaza'a, then it's okay.
Okay, the next thing I want to go into is, obviously, me and you both born and raised in the UK, we know the situation in the UK, we know the crimes committed in the UK, we know that much of this is related to the gang culture, and with that, there is a particular way that people speak, known as slang, for example. Is it wrong for Muslims to talk using slang? Oh, definitely, of course, it's not just... But it's not specific to the non-Muslims, this is something that Muslims and the non-Muslims do. No, slang is not just seen as non-Muslims, it's also seen as the fusa'a, and the mujrimin, you're following a particular type of people, criminals and drug dealers and thugs, those are the type of people you're following.
Even an educated person, before even a Muslim, an educated person will look down at you when you start speaking in that way. You see, the fact that you speak in that certain way, they will look down at you because you're putting yourself down and low. So la shakka wa la rayb, it falls under the bad akhlaq that a person shouldn't have, and this is tashabbuh, also for the fusa'a, you can't do that, you can't imitate fasiqs, people who are criminals and thugs, imitating them, you're not allowed to do it.
So when the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, wa man tashabbaha bi qawmin fahuwa minhum, the qawm is not just Jews, Christians, these big groups, because he also said Persians and Byzantines, which obviously brings it down to a smaller level. So even, for example, we see that there's a particular way of talking amongst the gangsters, or let's just say the hip-hop, the musicians, the artists, the rap artists, even that is not allowed. That person, the same person who speaks slang, when he goes for a job or an interview or he goes places, he throws that all out of the window and he speaks with a standard language, he uses a standard language.
So, by the way, many people use slang, slang is not just attached to blacks or it's not just attached to Somalis or it's not attached to just Asians or whites. It's something all of the drug dealers, criminals do, whether it be white, black, Somalis, all of them, they're all in there. They're all in there.
They use that language, that's the language they use. As a person who's tahir, who's clean, who's cleansed, who's, that's not what you wanna, you don't wanna speak like those people, how the drug dealers talk to each other when they're selling drugs to each other. You don't wanna adopt that.
Look, Shaykh, we have the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam right now in the world, before I mention the hadith, right now in the world that we're in, is a person shaving his beard and grooming himself, is that something seen, like respectful, like nice? Shaving their beard and grooming themselves. Yeah, it's seen as something clean, shave your beard. That's right, right? The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam prohibited us from imitating them in that, which they consider to be beauty, and mashallah, sharp, and you look mashallah, tidy, and you look in shape, and everything looks good, everything looks right, you're ready for the job, you look ready.
Ma'a dhalika, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say to the Prophet's sahabas, he said, khalifu al-mushrikeena waffiru al-liha wa ahfu al-shawariba, ibn Umar radiyallahu anhu, only when he would go Hajj or Umrah, he would take from his liha a portion of it. So what did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say in English? He said, khalifu al-mushrikeena, go against the mushriks. And do what? Waffiru al-liha, let your beards grow.
Wa ahfu al-shawariba, and shorten your moustache. Could that hadith not be turned around on you right now in the 21st century, where we see actually the Jews, for example, they also have long beards, as do the Sikhs. So should we not start shaving our beards to be opposite from them? Remember what I said at the beginning? We might sometimes agree with them in the asl al-hukmi, but then we will go against them in the wasfi, in the description.
So the Jews, they don't, yeah, the Jews don't let their moustache grow. So they let their moustache grow. We trim ours.
We shorten our moustache. We trim it. And the Sikhs also let theirs grow as well.
Yeah, so we do. So it's like fasting ashura, where you take it on, but you change it by adding an extra thing. You change some attributes, which you have to, by the way, covering, women covering up, also the orthodox Jews, they do that as well.
They do that. So we're not gonna leave it for them. We're not gonna leave that for them.
So this hadith, by the way, is sahih. Imam al-Bukhari narrated it in Kitab al-Libas. Muslim also narrated it in Kitab al-Tahara, by Haqqin Sunan al-Kubra, min tariqi Yazid ibn al-Zurai'in.
So it's authentic. Ahmad also narrated it as well now. Is there not a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari that talks about the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, talking to an Ethiopian girl in her own language? You aware of this hadith? The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, spoke to who? An Ethiopian girl in her own language.
I don't remember that. Okay. I think some people use this to show that there's nothing wrong with talking in slang, for example, because you're talking to the people in a way, and it's a principle as well, right? You can talk to the people in a way that they understand.
So most of the people understand slang, especially people of a certain age. What's wrong with just using that kind of language around them? I haven't come across the hadith, but let's say for argument's sake that he did. Does that mean he spoke to her in slang? Not in slang, but the shahid from the hadith is that he spoke to her in her language, which she understood.
And the kids on the street, they do understand slang much better. They're accustomed to it. It's natural for them.
They don't understand standard English. They probably do, but it's easier for them. They're more used to slang.
That's not, that's far-fetched. This is a far-fetched argument. They speak it.
When they go to school, when they do their dissertations, when they do GCCs, they all speak English. But when they go sell drugs, they speak another language. And if someone says, I've been doing it for 25, 30 years, it's just become a part of me now, should they try and fight that? Of course, definitely.
Look, it's not just, look, I'm not coming at it just from the perspective of the dean as well. Morally, it's not even right. Even, it's a bad reputation for the community and the people you're in.
When they see you dressed that way, your trousers sagging, you're speaking in that way. I remember a teacher in my school used to say, when she used to see those kids in secondary school, she would come in and she would say, you all need insurance on your trousers, on your jeans. Allah is gharib jidden.
I mean, the surah that you gave, the perception of Islam, it's not pleasant. It's honestly not pleasant. So you're a da'iyah, you're someone who calls to Islam.
Allah make me one. I mean, put yourself in the UK, you're around people who are non-Muslims, you're trying to bring them into Islam. And we obviously know psychological techniques, for example, conversation skills, like for example, mirroring, where you copy the same body language, give that kind of relatability to one another.
That, and in da'wah, obviously, our main goal is to try and, after pleasing Allah, is to try and bring people to Islam. You want them to be able to relate to you. However, you're now saying that let's be completely different from them and let's isolate ourselves from them.
Not isolate physically, but let's be different from them. Doesn't that, isn't that gonna be counterproductive to your da'wah and to bringing people to Islam? And that's why many people actually see Islam as a Pakistani religion, as an Arab religion. They don't feel like it can suit me.
I'm a white British guy, for example. It doesn't really suit me because you guys have just your own culture. Can you see where I'm coming from? It's a two-edged sword.
What I mean by that is that some people might even see you as a sellout by just leaving your own Islamic heritage and the way your religion is and you're changing your name. Your name was Harith and you changed your name to Harris. And you now call yourself Michael because you've come to their country and you use the argument, actually, names are not a problem.
It's got no bad thing in there, so no problem. And you dress like them, you talk like them, all of that. Even deeply, they might see you as, well, these guys, what's he trying to do? Stick up this much? So I think it's a two-edged sword.
That's point number one. Point number two, sometimes it might even spark a nice conversation, to be honest. Oh, why are you wearing this clothes? I actually like this.
Where did you get this from? It happened to me in Toronto when I landed. Yeah, a woman came up to me, an elderly woman, maybe a grandma, you know, she was very old. And she came up to me and she said, oh, where did you get this from? It looks very beautiful.
And then from there, I just go dawah. That was it, that one. And thirdly is that the UK specifically, that we're both from, is a cosmopolitan city, like London specifically.
So that's the whole, like you see. Yeah, but you still wouldn't see many people in thobes. No, but you see Jamaicans wear their clothing.
You see the Ghanaians wear their clothing. You see the Somalis wearing their clothing. You see the Asians wear shawarma.
You see the whole city, everyone, that isn't, when you look at London, I don't know about St. Albans, but if you look at London, what is the clothing of London? There isn't like, this is the clothing that everyone wears. Everyone wears what they want. And no one really like, only a group of people have hate in their heart, you know, animosity, who wanna target Muslim women and Muslim men who know this clothing of Muslims.
They're the ones who would say what they want. But I'll be honest with you, I've lived UK nearly all of my life, subhanAllah. And I've never been targeted personally because of the clothing I was wearing.
Now, I never thought a conversation came to an end because of clothing I was wearing. If anything, it starts because of clothing. Actually, to be honest, it started.
But then again, I'm not gonna make my experience of everyone else's experience. There are people who are targeted for their clothing, what they wear, may Allah make easy for them. I mean, people who live in other parts of Europe where obviously it's not as multicultural, if they decide to wear jeans and a t-shirt for the sake of giving da'wah, sometimes you even have da'wah online.
Again, it's allowed, it's allowed. No one's saying it's haram. As long as it fulfills the criteria and the obligation to cover your awrah.
Yeah, it's not haram. But it's something I wouldn't feel comfortable. I wouldn't feel comfortable in going to, I'm not saying it's just my personal preference.
I don't wanna impose it on everybody else because my personal preference is only mine. But I'm saying that as a Muslim, I don't know, I just, as a Muslim, I wanna be different. And that might mean, that might mean me wearing Pakistani shawakamis.
I prefer that way before wearing a suit. I prefer wearing an Arab Muslim's clothing which Ulema wear or clothing Somalis wear or clothing which Africans wear. Then, you know what I mean? Then jumping on the clothing worn by, generally worn by non-Muslims.
I just wanna look different to them. Not that I'm saying that the Somali ma'wis that we wear is like somehow from the Prophet's, it's a sunnah that was made by the Prophet. But coming to the monkey suit, I call it monkey suit.
Coming to the monkey suit, don't you think to yourself that, subhanAllah, some people who wear it, we could actually say that their suits are haram. Because the trousers are so tight. It's too tight.
Yeah, and the blazer is too tight. Yeah, I think that's a potential argument. I also think that, I mean, in that situation, what is someone to do when their office mandates upon them? You can't wear a thob in the office in a corporate world in Canary Wharf.
No, but why can't you just wear a bit, you know, like. A looser one. A bit looser one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because remember, the wad saraweel, the wad saraweel, mamlu' min as-sarf, right? The wad saraweel, it's, in the Arabic language, it's different from the wad bantalon. Trousers bantalon, what the people wear.
Okay. The tight stuff they wear. Saraweel, like, it's the one in the Indians, they wear it as well, the Pakistanis.
Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. The big one, the leg, the bottom, the knee. But you can't wear that in the office, man.
No, I'm saying that's good. That's nice. That's very nice, because it doesn't show his fath.
It's very good. I'm not saying that. I'm saying, if you were gonna wear the wad saraweel, the monkey suit, make sure it's not too tight, because some people, they come to the masjid, they pray, and then you can see their backside.
They're out of showing, it's so tight. Even when they walk, it's like they're struggling. So, I'm talking about.
And of course, above the ankles as well. And again, it has to be above the ankles. There are things that you have to observe.
By the way, it can't be below the ankles. That's what it is. It can't be on the ankle, by the way.
Okay. We just loosely say above the ankle. Yes, so you're right.
And I think just one more thing that I'd add probably from the Dawa perspective is that I can actually see, and I've seen experiences where people actually dress, for example, in the Islamic dress, actually are more productive in giving Dawa, because there's an element of that, the person who is giving Dawa to, looks at him and is like, you really believe in what you believe, don't you? Like, it's changed your whole life. Like, it really affects you. And that kind of conviction that you can see in you can often be a means for him to really think about, am I really convicted about my own beliefs? Whereas when someone thinks, oh, for the sake of Dawa, I'm gonna wear jeans and a t-shirt so they can relate to me, they're just thinking, there's not really much difference between you and me.
You know, I can just carry on living my life the way I am. Don't you think, like, even your personal experience, don't you think like sometimes the clothing you wear has an effect on your reactions and your dealings? 100%, I've actually come from previously the corporate world where, for example, I was wearing a monkey suit, as you would call it, and it affects the way you think. It affects the way you, your action affects the way you move.
Even an act of worship, like the Salah, for example, in the masjid, wearing a suit is not the same feeling as doing it in a thobe. I just, it's hard to put your finger on it, but there's a profound effect between the clothing you wear, and I suppose this is why the sharia plays such a huge importance for me, the clothing you wear and the actions and even your mindset. I'm not gonna lie, even me personally, when I'm driving and, you know, I've got my imamah on, I've got my hat on my head, I've got my thobe on and it's visible, and a car cuts me, I'm calm.
No problem, brother, take care. Make sure you watch next time. Honestly, and I'm not the type to get angry anyways.
I don't have this road rage that people have and they get angry and they assault me, but generally I don't even have that. They cut me as just, you know, you might cut someone else and they might do something to you. But the way I react, I might not be happy with what this person does, but I never respond, I'm never vulgar, of course.
But I act more sensible, because I know I'm resembling something. I have to uphold what the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam would have done in this situation. What would he have done, alayhis salam? And I know a brother, subhanAllah, a group of brothers actually, to be honest.
They said to me that when they're in the roads and they get road rage, they get angry, they're like, whenever we wanna get at this person and assault them, we take off our hat, we put it on the front seat and we start saying things. And then when he leaves, we put our hat on. SubhanAllah, I remember subhanAllah, here, UAE, I basically was driving and I had got lost.
You know, this country, the signs are a bit sometimes hard. So the sat-nav said, turn right, turn right. I was like, oh no, I looked.
I just had, and I cut the front car. So he got angry, really took it personal. So he came, cut me, and he braked right in front of me, you know? So for me it's, I did it to you, you did it to me.
But then he came to, we came to the traffic light, he got out of the car, he got angry, came to the window, very angry, he was very angry. Because what made him even more angry is because I smiled. And I was only smiling, like.
As in, like, don't worry about it, we're so good, like, you know, to be polite. Yeah, you did to me. He thought you were laughing at him or something, maybe.
So he came out the window and he said to me, as soon as he saw me, and he saw my thawb, he saw my imamah, he saw, you know, he said, you're a practicing brother, man. Why are you doing, and I said, look, brother, I'm using this hand now, I don't know the city. I cut you, you did it to me, and I smiled because you got me back.
I have no rights to get angry. But look how it is, clothing makes people say you have to uphold a particular, do you understand my point? Yeah, it's so true. It's so true, I know, I know, but like, people in the UK, for example, it's not just limited to clothing, even the beard, for example, it will actually stop you from committing sins.
Yeah, it does. There might be people who would normally, before they grow their beard, they might be thinking about going to the club, for example, you never dare walk into a club with a beard. It's just, you know that I don't belong in here.
It's just automatic. And the kabhi will not go to a club. Yeah, so true, yeah.
Well, in any case, all these acts, the outer appearance that we have as Muslims, we have to understand it's to actually tell us in advance what we're gonna fall short in. I know a sister who fell off. I asked her a question, I said, she came to help me, I had problems.
Okay, first question. What was the first thing that happened before you, you know, and you started listening to music, you started doing this, what was first? She's like, I took off my hijab. It is a hijab, not physically, but it's also a spiritual hijab.
It conceals all these problems from you. The woman, she takes off her niqab, just the niqab that she takes off. Then the jilbab comes.
Then it becomes a khimar. Then sometimes the hair is showing. Sometimes this is, the point I'm trying to come to is the outer appearance has a strong effect on the heart.
Definitely. That's why the Arabs, they say, wa kullu ina in billathi fihi anbahu. Every vessel will swear what's inside it.
So the body, you know a person. That's why when we say, at-tashabbuh bil-i'tiqad, we wouldn't know that. Yeah, it's internal, isn't it? With that, the scholars, they say, when you imitate the non-Muslims, you don't have to intend to imitate them.
No one conditions that. The strongest opinion is that you don't condition that. Mujarradil mushabaha, just a mere.
For example, the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam mentioned that do not pray at the time when the sun rises. What's the reason? Because there are a group of people who are worshiping shaytan, right? You're not intending to be like them. You're not trying to be like them.
You're just trying to worship Allah. You're doing it, you're worshiping Allah. They're worshiping shaytan, but you look the same.
You're doing it at this time, and you stay away from it. Yeah, I see, I see. So Shaykh al-Khattab emphasized on this point.
So some people will say, actually, I didn't even know the Christians were doing this. No problem, no sin on you. Alhamdulillah.
But now that you know, you have to stay away from it. Okay, that actually brings me on to the next part of the podcast, which I just want to move on to some closing questions now before we finish the podcast, inshallah. And you mentioned there's something very profound that even if they don't intend to imitate the disbelievers, it's just that they happen to be doing it at the same time or the same place.
A lot of people ask the question, during Christmas, everybody's off work, everybody's off school. Is it allowed for us just on the same day? Because of organization purposes, just bring the family around, everyone's free, and just have a dinner at the same, you know, Christmas Day dinner. They don't call it that, but they just want to have a dinner on that day because everyone's available.
No, they're not allowed to. Even though everyone's available, it just happens to be right. The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, when the man said, Ya Rasulullah, I made a nether, I made a covenant to slaughter.
Then the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, was this place a place where the people used to slaughter something? He said, La, Ya Rasulullah, I know. Then the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, asked him, he said, if that's not the case, if that is the case, that in Alhamdulillah, no one used to slaughter here and it's not specific, then the Prophet said, fulfill your covenant that you made, the oath that you made. So the Prophet asked him, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, so Sahabas, they were new to Islam.
Muslims, new Muslims. They didn't know, they were new Muslims. Hadith Abu Waqid Al-Laythi, radiallahu ta'ala anhuma, wa radiallahu ta'ala anhu, marfu'an.
The Prophet said to him, Subhanallahi, hada kama kala qawmu Musa, ija'al lana ilahan kama lahum aliha, wallidhi nafsi Muhammadin biyadihi, la tarkabunna sunnata man kana qabalakum. Another wedding, it said, ija'al lana ilahan kama lahum aliha, make for us a ilah, the way that they have a ilah, that's what they said. No, they just said, it was that anwat.
It's a tree, right? They just wanted, sorry. They didn't actually say that. They only said that, ya Rasulullah, we just want a tree.
You know, put our weapons on there and you know, find barakah from it. The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said, Subhanallah, and they're new Muslims. He said, kama kala qawmu Musa.
This is exactly what the people of Musa said. ija'al lana ilahan kama lahum aliha. Then the Prophet said, wallidhi nafsi biyadihi, la tarkabunna sunnata man kana qabalakum.
You will follow the path of those who came before you. The lafd of Tirmidhi says, okay, well, that was the lafd of Tirmidhi. The lafd of Imam Ahmad, rahimahullah, mentions, qultum wallidhi nafsi biyadihi, kama kala qawmu Musa.
Wallahi, you guys have said exactly what the people of Musa said, which is what, ija'al lana ilahan kama lahum aliha. innakum qawmu tajhaloon. And then the Prophet said, innaha sunan, la tarkabunna sunana man kana qabalakum, sunnatan sunnah.
So, these sahabas, what they said, they didn't intend, ija'al lana ilahan kama lahum aliha. That wasn't their intent. That wasn't what they intended.
They just intended to, the hadith, by the way, Abd al-Razzaq ibn Hammam al-San'ani authenticated, al-Humaydi authenticated in his Musnad, and he narrated it there. Tirmidhi also narrated it in his Kitab al-Fitan. Ibn al-Hibban al-Tabarani fi al-Mu'ajam al-Kabir, Ibn al-Jalil and Ibn al-Kathir, both of them in their tafsir, all of them through the authentic chain of Ibn al-Shihab al-Zughri, al-Sinan ibn Abi Sinanin, al-Duali, you can say it, or al-Dili, both ways you can pronounce it, no problem.
Al-Abi Waqidi al-Layti, radhiAllahu anhu. So it's authentic. The first one is Zuhri Muhammad ibn al-Shihab, Muhammad ibn al-Muslim ibn al-Ubaidullah ibn al-Shihab, ibn al-Abdullah al-Qurashi al-Zuhri is fine.
Sinan ibn Abi Sinan is al-Dili, al-Madani al-Thiqa, Waqidi al-Layti is al-Sahabi al-Jalil. So these Sahabas were not intended in any way, shape or form to follow the non-Muslims in that particular statement, in ja'al lana ilahan kama lahum aliha. Yeah, I see.
I'm just asking these questions, I know they're very common for people. What about the next day, there's a boxing day, you know the 26th of December, again it's a public holiday in the UK. It's not Christmas Day.
If people want to just gather with their family, they're allowed to do it. It's not any day that they have a celebration, they have a gathering. From the dhahil, you're not allowed to implement it.
Don't do it. Make it a week later, or make it a week earlier. Okay.
If you have a family gathering you wanna do. Okay, if somebody says Happy New Year to you, can you say it? No, you don't. We don't say anything.
Are you allowed to have New Year's resolutions? No, we don't have any of that. Muslims should have a daily resolution. وَحَاسِبُواْ أَنفُسَكُمْ قَبْلَ أَن تُحَاسَبُواْ وَزِنُوهَا قَبْلَ أَن تُزَنُواْ عُمَرَ ذِي الْعَانُ وِسَلِيهِ He said, account yourself every day.
Scale your deeds every day. Question yourself every day. Allah says, يَا إِلَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اتَّقُواْ اللَّهَ وَلْتَنظُواْ النَّفْسُ مَا قَدَّمَتْ لِغَدٍ وَاتَّقُواْ اللَّهُ Every day we should question ourselves and interrogate ourselves and think about the day.
اليومَ نَخْتِبُ عَلَيْهَا أَفْوَاهِمْ وَتُكَلِّمُنَا أَيْدِيهِمْ وَتَشْهَدُ أَرْجُلُمْ مِمَا ثَالِ وَكْسِبُونَ Every day, we have to ask ourselves these questions before we go to bed. What have we done today? عبدالله عمر بن عاص رضي الله تعالى عنهما When he saw a man who entered the Prophet's masjid three times and the Prophet said, anyone who enters that door is Ahlul Jannah and again the man entered and then the man entered and then three times the Prophet said that عليه الصلاة والسلام عبدالله عمر بن عاص said, I want to go to this man and see what it is that made him from the people of Jannah. And عبدالله عمر بن عاص when he went to his house and stayed with him, he asked the man, Hey, what is it that you do? I looked at you, I looked at your عبادة I saw nothing special about you.
He said, before I go to sleep at night, I just get rid of any animosity or hate or rage I have for any Muslim. I clean my heart. وَنَزَعْنَا مَا فِي سُّدُورٍ مِنْ غِلٍّ إِخْوَانٍ عَنَ سُّرُورٍ مُتْقَابِلِينَ The point is, he accounted himself every day.
True, yeah. I see. Yeah.
I was wondering where you're going with that hadith. But yeah, I like it. Okay, last question for me then and then I'll give you an opportunity to summarize what we've discussed today.
How do you respond to someone who's saying you're making things extremely difficult on the people right now by having this kind of approach and you're also making Islam a very reactive religion. Some people might just have a leisure activity. Suddenly, the non-Muslims make it specific for them.
We can't do it. Oh, this thing. We can't do that.
We can't do that. It's such a reactive religion and it makes things extremely difficult in the dunya. Islam said this way before all of these people came up with these things.
And the Messenger ﷺ has said, it wasn't Europe celebrating Christmas at that time. And it wasn't like that. So we have to understand this is these celebrations that we see are not only taking place in the lands of the non-Muslims but it's also taking place in the lands of some Muslims.
So we also have to respond to it. We have to give a ruling in all these matters. Last but not least, I kind of dealt with this issue in a series that I'm doing, the contradictions, the apparent contradiction that people come with.
People tend to say that religion is complicated, it's given too much rules and regulations. But then when that same person goes to a pharmacist or it goes to a doctor and the doctor prescribes a medicine for you, that doctor tells you, take this much medicine, take this much dose, take it this particular time, eat it, take it with an empty stomach and et cetera, you adhere. And I promise you that's, for me personally, that's so much rules and regulations.
Like I have to, on one tablet, yeah. And it's this red one you take. And the white one, you don't take it.
You take that one in the morning. Okay. And the way they scribble on the papers, it's unclear for me to even understand.
So I have to keep, you have that problem? Sometimes, yeah. I have to go back in and sometimes I go back in and I say, I don't know what I need to do here. It's too much rules and regulations for me personally.
But I don't look at the doctor and say, hey, listen, doctor, doctor, doctor. You're just trying to make life hard for the people. Just give us one medicine that does everything.
Why all this unnecessary stuff? I see. It doesn't work like that. Nothing works like that.
One powerful statement I came across, which is, it's the apparent contradictions of many of us. You fly to the UK. You fly to UAE.
You're coming up. You go on a flight. Do you know the pilot? No.
Do you know who he is? No, I don't. His profession, his experience, what he knows, whether he's drunk or not. No, I don't.
You trust Emirates to make sure that you land safely in Heathrow Airport. After trusting Allah, yeah. After Allah, you put your trust in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la awwalan.
And then after that, you believe that they're gonna do a good job, right? Yeah. Without knowing the guy, though. Correct, yeah.
Or it could be a woman as well. Yeah, yeah. You don't know who he is.
He explains himself to us like, we're gonna know who he is anyways. The point I'm trying to say is that we still trust them. And you can't trust your ulama.
You can't trust the companions. You can't trust the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. You can't trust the Quran.
And that's a clear contradiction here. JazakAllah khair. Let's just close out the podcast with, if you want, a summary of what we've discussed today.
My summary on this argument is that the tashabbuh of the kuffar is two types. There's a tashabbuh which is al-manhiyu anhu, is prohibited. And I mentioned four.
You can go back to the podcast to watch it, inshallah ta'ala. And then I mentioned which is mubah, is permitted. And I gave conditions for those which are allowed.
It can't be religious issues. It can only be worldly issues. And even worldly issues, I gave conditions.
I mentioned a few conditions, six or seven conditions. Also what I said is that, generally speaking, the prophets of Allah, like Nuh alayhi salam, wa tu'alayhim naba'a nuhu idh qala liqawmi inni idh qala liqawmi in kana kabur a'alikum maqami wa tadkiri bi-ayati allahi fa'alallahi tawakaltu faajmimu amurakum ila akhir al-ayah, Nuh alayhi salam, free him himself from his people. Ibrahim saying to his people, idh qala Musa liqawmi wa idh qala Ibrahim liqawmi ya qawmi inni wa idh qala Ibrahim liqawmi innan ibra'un mimma ta'budun When Ibrahim said to his people, I am free from what you guys are doing.
Prophets did that. They freed themselves. So try your best as a Muslim, to live as a Muslim.
This issue of tashabbuh is really, really... I used to only think at the beginning, wallahi, when I was young, I used to think, oh, it's a topic that needs to be spoken about, inshallah, that's it. Don't press on it too much. Until I saw when the COVID issue happened, where people were dying, where people were like, are they Muslims, are they not? Because you can't.
There's no science, there's no alamat. Someone's like, I think he was a Muslim, because he was assimilated with the non-Muslims, dressed like them, talked. Look how many things you lose out.
When I see a brother with a lihya and a thawb in the street, look, what does he get from me? At least that's a reward. And then, on top of that, I might make dua for him. Akhi, may Allah bless you.
The other day I told something. My daughter, wallahi, my daughter was wearing, you know, they wear jilbabs, right? My daughters, small daughters. We tailor-made jilbabs for each one of them.
A man came walking to us, and he grabbed me in an aggressive way, and I looked, and I thought, this guy, is he going to do something to me? And he said to me, brother, I just want to say jizakallah khairan. May Allah bless you, man. I made dua with you.
And I was like, what happened? What did I do? He goes, I just saw your daughter. You know, we're rare people. And he showed me his daughter.
I was like, oh Allah. He took half of me, just clothing. Just the clothing of my daughter, jilbab.
That's it. That's where the dua came from. So, I was thinking, all through the time, I was thinking, subhanAllah.
I got a reward just by the clothing that my daughter was wearing. So, I'm saying to you, you miss out on these things. You know what I mean? You miss out on things that Muslims would do for you.
You know, and some benefits that would come to you from it. Because we're out here for each other. We're here to take care of one another.
We're here to support one another. You know, I remember, subhanAllah, it was a rainy day. It was a rainy day in London.
I was driving. And I saw a Muslim man standing in the rain. I'm not going to let that happen.
I pulled over. But how did I know he was a Muslim? So, this brother, I picked him up. And I drove him to wherever he wanted.
It was actually a really far place. I actually had to drive way out of my way. But a brother, soaking.
Soaking, sorry. He was like, I need to help you. So, I wouldn't do that for a non-Muslim.
I'll be honest with you. I wouldn't. There's a lot of trust issues and things like that.
So, my point is that when you're wearing Islamic clothing, even before the ajal and the khayr that comes with it, but the worldly benefits that you get from it, as-salamu alaykum, the brotherly love, there are many issues that come with it. It's so true. And we talked in detail earlier on the podcast about how even it impacts your mind and your actions and your thought process, which is really profound.
There was one last funny story I want to mention. There was a brother, Hafidh Bikitab Allah Azawajal, qari, muqri, mashallah, mutqinin fil uloom al-shara'i. He was very good at it.
And it was actually the first time he said to me, I actually wore a non-Islamic clothing. Again, I don't want to say non-Islamic clothing because there are some, it's hard to say that. But the point is that he was wearing jeans and he was wearing that because he had to do something.
So he came into the masjid and the imam and the khatib didn't come. And so they asked him, can somebody really do the khutbat al-jumu'ah? And he said, I couldn't just because of what I was wearing. So it even prevents you from some khair and good and a lot of things, you know.
Like would you want somebody who's wearing jeans to lead the people's salah and jama'ah and everything like that? I wouldn't want to pray behind them if I was wearing jeans personally, I'll be honest with you. Obviously not saying it's halal to pray behind them. No, I'm not saying that.
It's just your personal preference. Yeah, definitely, definitely. Because I know this position was occupied by the Prophet, peace be upon him.
It has to be a certain type of dressing. So may Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, allow us to be like the righteous people. Because we can't be like them.
The poet says, إِلَّمْ تَكُونُوا مِثْلَهُمْ فَتَشَبَّهُوا إِنَّ التَّشَبُّهَا بِالْكِرَامِ فَلَاهُ We can't be like Abu Bakr al-Umar and Uthman al-'Ali. But at least we will imitate them. Really, imitating the righteous people itself is a virtue.
Itself is a virtue. JazakAllah khairan. I know it's been another long one.
I really appreciate your time. BarakAllahu feekum. SubhanakAllahu wa bihamdik.
Ashhadu an la ilaha illa ant. Astaghfirullah wa atubu ilayk.
