We request a detailed explanation of the similarity intended in the hadiths prohibiting imitation of the disbelievers.

The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. We request a detailed explanation of the similarity intended in the hadiths prohibiting imitation of the disbelievers... and knowing this similarity, and may Allah reward you with good?

The Shaykh : We say that anything that is a characteristic of the disbelievers and one of their customs by which they are distinguished from others, it is not permissible for a Muslim to adorn himself with any of those things. There is no doubt that this issue cannot be defined with precision, as it appears the questioner desires, because imitation has degrees. I will give you some examples to clarify. Muslims today, praise be to Allah, in most of their lands, still find it objectionable for a Muslim to wear a hat "the burnus" on his head. This hat is a symbol of the disbelievers, so if a Muslim puts it on his head, he has imitated the most prominent characteristic or specific attire of the disbelievers. There is no longer any doubt for one who is aware of this hadith and its like that this adornment and this clothing is not permissible. Because this Muslim, whom we assume, wearing this hat, if the expression is correct, and walking among the Muslims with it on, has undoubtedly lost his Muslim identity by doing so. And that necessitates that he has severed the strong bond between him and his Muslim brothers, which entails that he has rights over them and they have rights over him. We clearly remember the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) He mentioned first what he mentioned, then he said So when you meet him on the road and he is adorned with this attire, it does not occur to you at all that this person who passed by you and you passed by him is a Muslim man with these rights. Rather, you think he is one of those disbelievers, George or... or the like. So you do not rush to greet him, and that is your obligation because you are a Muslim and he is a Muslim. But the difference is that he has lost his Muslim identity with this clothing, the clothing of the disbelievers, so Allah has prevented mercy from him. I say this because you remember that I explained to you that the greeting which Allah has made specific to the Muslims is a name of Allah, as it came in the authentic hadith, and He placed it on earth So when a Muslim says to his Muslim brother "Peace be upon you" he is, in the Syrian expression, saying "The name of Allah is upon you" meaning you are surrounded by the name of Allah, the Peace. So because of his loss of his Muslim identity... he has lost this blessing which Allah has made specific for His Muslim servants. And this naturally entails other matters of distancing, severing ties, and turning away, because this clothing is not as many people, especially scholars and thinkers, imagine, having no effect on people's morals or no effect on their natures, but also on their hearts. It is not so.
The outward appearances have an effect on the inner realities. This is established in many legal texts, some of which I touched upon in past lessons, and it is sufficient for me to remind you now of the saying of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in the hadith of al-Nu'man, which says at its end So this clothing of the disbelievers is not rectitude, rather it is corruption. And this clothing affects the heart of its wearer and stamps it with the stamp of those people whose clothing he has worn. And here I want to seize this opportunity before I expand on the topic further, I want to draw your attention now to how the identity of the Muslims is in a state of continuous disappearance, in decline and dissolution.
A very strange phenomenon has appeared now, which has spread among many of the youth, and that is that they wear white shirts, either printed on the chest with something resembling a crescent or a quarter arc in Latin letters, and many of them have images of humans printed on them, and some are images representing some of the heroes they claim to be boxers or wrestlers or the like. And I recently saw in some mosques, while I was standing praying, a young man in front of me, and I know him, praying and maintaining the prayer, and all his shirt had images on the front, back, and sides, so the garment was printed with this print. And what are the images? Images of a man swimming, and this swimmer today has become part of his nature to have his clothing be the tban, in the Arabic language it is the shorts, meaning it does not cover except the two private parts, and in fact it does not cover them because it outlines them. So I am praying and in front of me is this image. So this is a severe negligence from these Muslims, the cause of which is ignorance of their Islam.
And this means that the Muslims, meaning every time a period passes for them, a not short time, they are moving away from Islam little by little. So where is the pride in Islamic dignity and... and the preservation of our customs which we inherited from our fathers and grandfathers? Astonishment that does not end, a person wears a shirt with a soldier pictured on it, what is the sweetness of this image? Everything has become strange to us, that we should emulate and follow.
This means that the Muslims no longer know the value of imitating the disbelievers. Therefore, out of the mercy of our Lord, Exalted is He, for us, He sent to us our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) with a Shari'ah which our Lord described in His saying, Exalted is He the verse, and He increased that with explanation in his saying, peace be upon him From what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited us, in order to preserve our religion and our Muslim identity, is that we do not imitate the disbelievers. Absolute imitation, but I gave you an example in which no person free from following desires can doubt that placing this hat on the head is a loss for this Muslim of his identity and a stripping of him from this Islamic society, if this society still has what deserves to be called an Islamic society.
And perhaps it is useful for me to mention to you a summary of a story so that you know the effect of imitation. The disbelievers know it, so all the more so we Muslims should know it. I was once on a train to Mada'a, and I met a Lebanese Maronite priest, and a long discussion took place between us, which we are not currently discussing, but the man criticized the Muslims for their strictness in... clothing and the prohibition of the burnus. And among their strictness was that they criticized Mustafa Kemal for that which he did not accept for his name, for himself the name al-Mustafa, so he gave himself the name Ataturk. He criticizes the Muslims, why did they criticize him for wearing the burnus, his wearing the burnus or imposing on the Turkish people the wearing of the burnus. Here now, unfortunately, many people live with this disbeliever's attire. So I discussed this issue with him, and as I said, I want to present to you the lesson from this discussion. He says that this is a global clothing, so what harms the Muslims to wear this clothing? I said to him, then, and as you understand from my description of him as a Maronite priest, the Maronite wears the, what do they call this long black thing?
Eid: The tarboosh, meaning.

The Shaykh : A long black tarboosh, this is specific to these Maronites. I said to him, then there is no harm for you to remove this black cap and put in its place the white turban on... the red, and he is wearing a black robe naturally... attire... The first thing I said to him this, he said no, we are afraid of this - here is the point - I said to him why? He said we are not allowed, we are men of religion. So I took him by this word, I said this is the difference between us, we Muslims, and you, you Christians. You have made yourselves two groups, men of religion and men without religion, so the men of religion have specific rulings, among which is that they have their specific clothing. So why did you flee from imitating Islam? Because you want to preserve your Christian identity. We, every Muslim, the smallest Muslim has, like the greatest Muslim, what is obligatory on the greatest shaykh among us is obligatory on him, and what is permissible for the greatest shaykh among us is permissible for him. So just as it is not permissible for you to imitate the Muslim, so it is not permissible for any Muslim, not the Muslim shaykh who is a man of religion for you, but for any Muslim, it is not permissible to imitate the disbeliever.
Furthermore, the issue of imitating the disbelievers is not a matter of worship; it is a very precise scientific and psychological matter. As philosophers and sociologists say today, nations survive by preserving their customs, their language, and their history. Unfortunately, Muslims are gradually choosing to abandon these foundations upon which their identity is built. Imitating the disbelievers has become very easy. I gave you a summary example with the fez. If we go down a level, there is this knot they call a tie. What is the purpose of it? Nothing at all, except that it is a dress of the disbelievers. The disbelievers brought it when they occupied our lands, and Satan made that dress attractive to us, so we imitated them and resembled them. Otherwise, a person of sound mind should realize the time wasted... if I may say so, standing in front of a woman and wasting minutes of the hour to adorn her, and then he is actually annoyed, just as every one of you is annoyed by the trouble of wearing these trousers... In conclusion, this is also intended only for imitation. However, there is no denying that the one who wears the tie is not like the one who wore the fez, as we used to hear some of the shaykhs here from my people say that the one who put the fez on his head meant he had put on the cover, meaning he declared that the man is not a Muslim. Then we go down to other levels. This dress that the masses of Muslim youth are afflicted with today, wearing trousers and shirts, especially the trousers, where we chase these innovators in the fashions they call... every time a new fashion comes, we are running after it. This reminds me of a joke that used to be told about women but is now told about men. I once read that a man saw his friend carrying something in his arm while running. He said, "Where are you going, my brother? Why are you in such a hurry?" He said, "By Allah, this is a dress I bought for my wife. I am going to deliver it to her before a new fashion comes out and I have to buy her another one." So, fashion and its renewal are no longer just for women, unfortunately, but also for the youth. All of this indicates and confirms to us that the minds of Muslims are with others. I wish these people were Muslims like them.
Finally, the levels are not limited at all, but it is sufficient for the Muslim to examine himself to know that imitation is anything that came to us from the disbelievers with no benefit whatsoever except following them; that is imitation. However, there is another level that, if the Muslim remembers it, I believe there would be no need for such a reason that requires detailing imitation and its levels. That is the intentional opposition to the disbeliever. Imitation is doing the action of the disbeliever, and as you saw, there are levels and degrees. But there is something in the Shari'ah that requires you to perform actions from which you intend to oppose the disbelievers, even in something that is not a ritual or... That is what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us of in the hadith of al-Bukhari When their hair turns white, you should intend to oppose them by dyeing your hair.
A person turns white-haired by the Sunnah of Allah in His creation There is no difference between a Muslim and a disbeliever, between a righteous person and a wicked one; they all must pass through this path, which is white hair. And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) turned white-haired, as we know, and he had white hair that did not cover his beard (peace and blessings be upon him). So, despite all this, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said Why? .
Therefore, we are not only prohibited from imitating the disbelievers, but we are commanded to intend to oppose them. That is, if they wear a certain dress, we must intend to wear something other than their dress, and we must make our entire life, in general and in detail, different from the life of the disbelievers. And as I told you earlier, this is not a futile matter. Outward appearances affect inward realities; if it is good, it is good, and if it is bad, it is bad. And perhaps this extent is sufficient, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Tourists.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Of course... but it is prescribed... and therefore you find that those wearing the fez enter the mosques and take off what is on their heads just as they take off what is on their feet. Does anyone have a question about the previous topic?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : About the previous topic? Please go ahead.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : The turban is a garment of the Arabs. So, if one wears it as an Arab custom, that is a good thing, but it is not a ritual sunnah. It is not as stated in some weak and fabricated hadiths "that a prayer in a turban is seventy times better than a prayer without a turban" It is one of the Arab styles, and they still use it, but let no one think that this turban is the one that is wound on the head in layers and degrees, with a degree in Paradise for each degree. This is something with no basis. The turban is this, this piece we put on our heads, which we sometimes use for cold or heat, and so on. And may Allah's peace be upon you.