The Command to Differ from the Disbelievers and the Prohibition of Imitating Them

The questioner: What was their emblem.

The Shaykh: Yes, but not everyone may be able to understand this criterion first and apply it second. The way out is to remember that there is something broader than imitation, by which a person is saved from the need to know the criterion you are asking about, which is differing from the disbelievers. There is a prohibition against imitating the disbelievers, and there is a command to differ from the disbelievers. Differing from the disbelievers includes differing from them, or more precisely, intending to differ from them in matters where one has no choice but to resemble them. To remove this resemblance, there is a command to differ. The resemblance may be due to a person's action, or it may be without his action, something he is created with, such as gray hair, which he cannot control, and in which the Muslim and the disbeliever share. But the Lawgiver says to him: differ from the polytheists, dye your hair. They do not dye it, so you dye it. If the Wise Lawgiver commands dyeing to differ from the polytheists, then whatever crosses your mind—whether it is imitation or not—remember the principle of differing.