Explaining the ruling on imitating the disbelievers in their clothing.

The Shaykh : Clothing distinguishes itself from the clothing of other peoples, such as the Jews, the Christians, and the Persians. So when he (peace be upon him) was sent, he did not order his Companions to contradict their customs and traditions regarding clothing in general. However, he forbade them from imitating the other disbelievers, such as the Russians, the Romans, the Persians, and the like. We take this distinction from our study of the social life that existed in the era of the Messenger (peace be upon him), and your companion, this young man, has referred to it. From another angle, we take it from his (peace be upon him) general and specific hadiths that forbid imitating the disbelievers, both the general and the specific. The general, for example, is the famous hadith in "Musnad al-Imam Ahmad" and others, namely his saying (peace be upon him): . Among the specific hadiths, as it came in "Sahih Muslim," is that a man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and greeted him, so he said: .
The summary of the matter is this: Clothing, or any other thing besides clothing, that is specific to a disbelieving nation or people; this type should not be worn by the Muslim. I repeat and say: Any thing, including clothing, if it is specific to a non-Muslim people or nation, exclusive to them, it is not permissible for the Muslim to wear it. On the contrary, if there is a certain clothing that is specific to one people over another, or one nation over another, this does not represent the issue of imitation, because it is a common and general thing. If the Muslim observes this application, he can know what is not permissible from what is not permissible, and what falls under the category of imitation and what does not.
Glory be to Allah! This topic, too, is connected to some of the previous topics, because there may appear a contradiction between hadiths and other hadiths. For example, in "Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim," too, from the hadith of al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was on a journey, so the time for the Fajr prayer arrived. It was his (peace be upon him) custom that when he wanted to relieve himself, he would go far away. So he went to relieve himself, and al-Mughirah took with him a pitcher containing water. When the Messenger (peace be upon him) wanted to perform wudu, al-Mughirah says—and here is the point: "He was wearing a Roman tunic with tight sleeves, so he was unable to roll them up and tuck them in. So he took it off and placed it on his shoulders, then he washed his arms. And he was wearing his leather socks." Al-Mughirah said: "I was about to take them off for him." So he said: .
A Roman tunic. One might argue with this, like that young man, for example, and some have done so. We say: This tunic was not a symbol of the Romans at that time, and that is why the Messenger (peace be upon him) wore it; because the clothing of the Arabs, the Romans, and others was most like any garment we wear today, or a custom or tradition, like riding a car, for example, or riding an airplane; all these are ordinary, universal matters. But when the matter has an aspect of imitating a group of Christians or Jews or others, and this is part of their traditions and customs, if it is not part of their worship, then it is said here: ; these are the clothes of the disbelievers, so do not wear them.
And from my experiences and stories in this life: A train gathered me one day, and I was, of course, in Damascus. The train departs from Damascus to a summer resort called "Mada'a." The story has a lesson, and there is no harm in telling it. After the train departed from its first point, it stopped at a place to pick up passengers. One of the young men who were with me came to me and whispered in my ear, saying: "A priest has just boarded—as if he were saying, watch out for him." Where is he? He told me: "In such-and-such compartment." The summary: I got up and entered the compartment where the priest was. You know, in a train, there are two chairs facing each other. He was sitting in the chair in the corner, to my right. I sat here, far from him, not facing him, far from him, ... no confrontation ... that is what you mean. So I sat and thought; Glory be to Allah! How do I enter into conversation with him, I don't know him and he doesn't know me, and nothing else? By Allah, He gave me His support. A young man I knew boarded with those boarding in that area; he had recently married or was newly married, and the young men with me, his friends and brothers, did not know this. So I took the following path—by way of speaking to you, O daughter-in-law, and listen, O neighbor—I said to our brothers: "Your brother here married recently, so congratulate him with what our Prophet (peace be upon him) taught us to congratulate him with." So I said to him: "May Allah bless you, and bless upon you, and join you both in good." And I started speaking and speaking, and among the things that remained in my weak memory, I mentioned that the perfection and completeness of the Shari'ah is that the Messenger forbade the Ummah to drink from a cracked vessel; there was a hair in it, so he forbade them, and they stopped, but they did not know what the secret was. The secret in this time has been revealed, but they, by their obedience to Allah and their following of the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), lived in the best health. And thus is the favor of Islam. Now it has become clear that this crack contains millions of germs and microbes, and so on.
-- The questioner : Break it right away ... black.The Shaykh : Yes, black --

The Shaykh : So the point is, I spoke and spoke, and every moment I would glance at the features of this priest's face. I felt that he was full, about to overflow with what he had, so I stood firm. The man actually left, but without guidance, Glory be to Allah! And we said: Praise be to Allah; this is the difference between faith and disbelief. He said to me: "If Islam is like this—look how he entered the topic?—if Islam is like this, why did the Muslims declare Ataturk a disbeliever?" There is absolutely no connection between my research and the question, but he wanted to vent his frustration in a way he thought would succeed. And what was in it? He forced the hat on the Turkish people—this hat became a universal garment. I spoke with him for a very long time, too, about this Ataturk, and how he fought Islam, and that in the matter of the hat and forcing it on the Turkish people, there is ... = -- Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings -- = and the conversation from the station to the Mada'a resort by train was about an hour, and I was the whole session between me and this priest, until—and praise be to Allah—I remember that day the army they call the French entered, and these French are established in Lebanon; because it was occupied by France like Syria, but considering that the Lebanese Christians, most of them or all of them, were influenced by French culture and speak French well, and so on, there was a member of the French army, a Lebanese, when I entered into conversation with this priest about the oneness of Allah and the Trinity that they have, I saw this Lebanese Christian say to him, addressing him as God: "By Allah, O our Father, the speechThe Shaykh : is correct!! [Everyone laughs]
The Shaykh: I said to him: If this cap is a national dress and does not affect a person's belief or religion—consider that he is a Lebanese priest; what is his dress? It is black from his head to his feet; they wear a long cap... and a black robe, black socks... all black, black upon black—so he turned... I said to him: If this dress is related to religion, then there is no objection to removing this cap and putting a white turban on your fez—you become a Shaykh!! [Everyone laughs]. He said to me: No, no, no, that will not do. I said to him: Why? Is this a dress that has no relation to religion? He said: We are men of religion. I said to him: That is another matter. But he regretted what he said, and this is from Allah's favor upon His believing servants. I said to him: This is the difference between us and you. You Christians have two classes: men of religion and men without religion! As for us, the Muslims, the greatest and the smallest among us, we are all men of religion. What is not permissible for the greatest is not permissible for the smallest, and what is not permissible for the smallest is not permissible for the greatest; there is absolutely no difference between us. But you have men of religion, and what is forbidden to you is not forbidden to the common people, because they are men without religion. Allahu Akbar!! It was truly a historic journey. And when we were about to arrive at the station, which was the main purpose of our journey, some of our brothers came to me and said: O Shaykh, prepare ourselves, we have arrived. This wicked man said to him: Continue the road with us to Beirut, you will stay with us as a guest. I said—unfortunately—if it were one of these sessions with the Shaykhs... five minutes, ten minutes, the matter would be over. He does not have a scholarly spirit, a dialectical spirit. But these Christians, Allahu Akbar upon them!
The Shaykh: Where did it end? I had said to him: When Ataturk imposed the cap on the Turks, he did not impose it because there was a benefit in it, whether we call it economic or social or whatever, any benefit. If he had cared about religion, he could have imposed on the people to whom he imposed the cap that they wear—we call it a badge; meaning a mark—like what do you call the green or blue ribbon that women use?

Those present: An inch.

The Shaykh: An inch? That this cap should have a green or white mark on it, and so on; so that if a Muslim walks in the street, he is distinguished from others; and they are all wearing caps, but these ones would be distinguished by this mark. But he did not mean to seek the benefit of Islam and Muslims at all, and the proof is that he changed the system of inheritance and changed and changed.
So the dress of the disbelievers is divided into two or three categories—in light of his previous question about the issue of following a certain number of them: either it is a symbol of disbelief; in that case, it is forbidden, for example, the cap today. Or it is less than that, in which case it fluctuates between being disliked and being forbidden, for example, what is it called? The tie; because this has become—unfortunately—common among Muslims, except those whom Allah has protected, and they are few. Then they do not wear it—also—because there is a benefit in it... some of them make it have a tail, a long tail like the tail of a cow, hanging on his chest and belly, and some of them make it a single piece here at the neck, and some say that this refers to the cross in the past—there is no power nor strength except with Allah... But if it is a general matter, and if you see it, it never occurs to you that this is not a Muslim; then there is no harm in that, if Allah wills. These types are the three types that can be said regarding the dress of the disbelievers.
And from what happened to me—also—with some Islamic preachers when I was in Britain; one of them invited us to a village to break our fast with him in Ramadan, and I was told that he was one of the good Pakistani preachers. So we went to him, and the truth is, he was a noble man, possessing good, honorable Islamic morals. He set the table on the ground, even though this is very rare in that country, but Subhan Allah! He was wearing a tie.

The questioner: The pants of the suit, meaning.

The Shaykh: A suit, of course.

The questioner: Over a dishdasha!! Excuse me! [He laughs]The questioner ] .

The Shaykh: And we were talking, I drew his attention to his tie. Of course, we made an introduction that you are a preacher and you are such-and-such, and I reminded him of some of the texts mentioned earlier. Out of his goodness, he immediately took it off and threw it on the ground. So I praised him for this action, but soon he ruined it for me, unfortunately! He apologized for the tie and putting it around his neck, saying: Here, the English look at our Palestinian brothers with a look of hatred and enmity because they wear the shirt and unbutton it and do not wear a tie. They look at them with a look of intense hatred and aversion. Meaning, he wore the tie so that they would not think he is Palestinian. I said to him: May Allah forgive you, if you had kept silent about this! This explanation is worse than that. I said to him: You want to support your Muslim brothers by any means, and among them is that you imitate them, not that you imitate their enemies. And it was a word—Allah willing—that benefited him and benefited the people who were present with him.