Warning against imitating the dress of the disbelievers, and the danger of dividing the religion into shell and kernel.

The Shaykh : But we must observe one thing, which is as he (peace be upon him) said: , so eat whatever you wish and wear whatever you wish, but with one condition: do not lose your Muslim identity by blending in your appearance with a tribe of the tribes or a nation of the other nations that do not believe in Allah and His Messenger; for the Messenger (peace be upon him) forbade imitating the disbelievers. And this aspect—regrettably—is what the majority of Muslims today have stripped themselves of. You will hardly find a preacher, a moralist, a guide, or an author who writes, even briefly, to alert people to this phenomenon that has spread among Muslims: their turning away from the traditions, customs, and attire of their fathers and grandfathers to imitate the attire of the disbelievers. And this has become, regrettably, the habit of the youth today. Whatever fashion comes to them, they do not introduce any change or modification. If they had been as eager to preserve the Shari'ah in not changing or modifying as they are in this, they would have been victorious over their disbelieving enemies.
I am deeply saddened to enter the mosque and find young Muslim men praying—some of whom have adopted the call to the Book and the Sunnah—praying in front of me, and I wonder: is this a Muslim praying, or a hypocritical man praying? Why? Because he wears the clothes of the disbelievers: tight trousers, as they call them, that bite into his thighs and buttocks, and perhaps when he prostrates, what is between his buttocks becomes visible to those behind him. Is this the dress of Islam, people? May Allah be far from it (Mighty and Majestic)! But this is imitation. We were in an imitation from which we complained greatly and greatly, and now we are in an imitation more terrible than that; for in that, however it was, we imitated Muslims and imitated leaders in religion, but Islam wants us to imitate the religion directly. So what is it that we imitate today the leaders of the disbelievers who establish these systems in dress, whether for women or men or youth? What comes to us, we accept without any research or investigative question?
And the truth—and I speak the truth—I do not believe that the Muslim nation—and I do not mean eight hundred million Muslims; that is impossible, but a select group among them—can ever return to the glory of Islam while they are in the state in which they live.
Many of the Islamic writers today, and lecturers and the like, openly state that these matters which Islam made principles and rules are trivial issues, and these are matters considered to be the shell. We want to work now on the kernel. If only they would work on the kernel; for the one who does not preserve the shell cannot preserve the kernel; for our Lord (Mighty and Majestic), by His wisdom, just as He protected the material kernel with some varied shells, so too He protected the spiritual, moral kernel with other matters which these people call the shell. We call them, as He said in the Qudsi Hadith: and so on. Therefore, the living Muslim nation can never be Muslim in its heart and non-Muslim in its form; for Islam is a whole that is never divided. And although I see signs of hope in the present age, considering that I can count myself as almost a straddler of two eras—meaning I lived through a time when students of knowledge would attend the mosques carrying a foreign symbol in Islam, which is the scarf they call the "Lamani"—the yellow scarf on the red fez—this is a student of knowledge! While his beard is shaved, whereas the Qur'an, the Sunnah, and the four schools of jurisprudence emphasize growing the beard in a way they do not absolutely emphasize the turban; especially this turban that these students of knowledge wore. So I lived through that time, but now I find the issue has reversed, but this reversal needs correction.
Today, the manifestations of Islam and adherence to the religion in the believing youth are completely clear. First: in their eagerness to attend the houses of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Second: in their eagerness to adhere to this Sunnah, indeed to this obligation, indeed to this duty, with much that brings good news. But they must straighten out their path; for they are still walking in the streets bareheaded like the disbelievers. And this beard, some people may also do it as imitation of those they call the English and the like; for in Europe too, this phenomenon exists, though to a lesser extent than with us. So perhaps some youth do it as imitation of those as well.