The Shaykh’s visit to Britain and his discussion with one of the followers of Abu al-A’la al-Mawdudi regarding the issue of imitating the disbelievers.

The Shaykh : ... It was granted to me ten years ago to travel to Britain, and we toured some of the areas around London. The time was Ramadan, so one of the Islamic da'is there invited us to his home—I forgot the name of the place; I later understood that he was from the group ofThe Shaykh : Abu al-A’la al-Mawdudi (may Allah have mercy on him). He invited us to break our fast with him in Ramadan, so we went to him. The man received us well and we found in him soundness. The man was bearded and wearing a European suit, of course, a jacket and trousers, and he had put on a tie. From the soundness I perceived in him, I was encouraged to speak with him about Islam, the dress of Muslims, and not imitating the disbelievers. I said to him frankly, "By Allah, you are holding fast to what they call the Sunnah, which is more than a Sunnah; it is obligatory. Trimming the beard is obligatory, and shaving it is a sin, because it contradicts many authentic texts from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). So Allah has spared you from this and you have grown this beard. But I think you are aware—because you are a student of knowledge, I felt that you are aware—that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade the Muslim from imitating the disbelievers, especially since you live in a land of disbelief. Here, whoever looks at you can hardly tell that you are a Muslim. And the greatest dress that represents disbelief is the tie, because a person wearing a jacket means he is protecting himself from heat and cold, meaning he is guarding against the heat and the cold. But this knot—the tie—that a person puts on has no benefit except wasting time in tying it and in the way that suits the place and imitates the disbelievers. And out of the goodness of this man’s heart, and we were at the iftar table in Ramadan, he immediately untied it and threw it on the ground. He was quick to respond. But what upset me, after he had pleased me greatly with what he did, was that he said to me, "The truth is, we put on this tie because the British here look at the Palestinians with a look of insult and contempt because they leave their shirts like this, unbuttoned and without any tie." I said to him, "May Allah forgive you." He said to me, "Why?" I said, "You are equating these disbelievers with the contempt they show your Muslim brothers because of their not wearing the dress of the disbelievers. This is, as they say, an excuse worse than a sin. The point is that this good man could not help but be affected by that atmosphere. So this requires solid knowledge and proper upbringing. A Muslim can never live an Islamic life in the lands of disbelief, and the matter is very clear, except for the lands that have lived for fourteen centuries in the application of Islam..."