A question regarding the difference between opposing the polytheists and not imitating them.

Al-Halabi : ... He is our Shaykh. Apparently, for the sake of scientific research, we benefit from our brother Waleed. He is convinced of the opinion of Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen that such matters are customary, meaning they are looked at in terms of the environment people are in or what they are accustomed to. Even something like this garment or the shirt we wear, or the turban—what they call the ghutrah—or something of this sort. By way of benefit, meaning if...

The Shaykh : Perhaps you have heard a study about the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) encouraging the opposition of the polytheists, and that opposing the polytheists is not the same as imitating the disbelievers?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : I say, perhaps you have heard, studied, read, or said anything, and that is acceptable from you. Meaning, there are two issues. The first issue: I believe it is not hidden from any Muslim, especially if he has some knowledge of the Shari'ah, which is imitating the disbelievers. This is a known matter to you, is it not?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : But there is another issue, which is the issue of opposing the polytheists. Do you have an idea about it?

The questioner : Opposing the polytheists??

The Shaykh : Yes. I mean in their customs, their traditions, even in what they do not have a choice in regarding their own selves. Do you have an idea?

The questioner : By Allah, I have some idea.

The Shaykh : Convince us with a little of it, so give it to us.

The questioner : By Allah, it appears to me, and based on what I have read in the book of the Shaykh al-Islam, *Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim*, and others regarding clothing, that what the polytheists have accustomed themselves to in their dress and what they have agreed upon in wearing it—meaning, a Muslim using it in his dress—meaning, to resemble the dress of the polytheists in his own dress, this falls under the category of imitation, perhaps.

The Shaykh : They would say about it, using the Syrian expression, "shakhalat," meaning you attached it, if you said "perhaps"—(laughs)

Another questioner : The Shaykh : The study distinguishes between the separation... You just mentioned imitation, you concluded your speech with imitation, your speech andThe Shaykh : his inquiry was about opposition

The Shaykh : No, he started his speech with opposition and ended with imitation.

The questioner : Perhaps you mean by opposition leaving it, and by imitation the act, meaning??

The Shaykh : What did I say by opposition?

The questioner : By opposition, leaving it, leaving it

The Shaykh : Leaving it?? No, I mean the act, the act that opposes their act. I wanted from my question, otherwise I would be blamed, is to save time. Perhaps, as we said earlier, that we would stay here for half an hour, so I wanted to reach with you the topic of the custom prevailing today in some Islamic lands of walking in the streets and entering prayer shirtless. I wanted to draw attention to the fact that this is a non-Islamic custom, but rather a foreign custom. And in that case, if it is said that there is no imitation in that, the least that can be said is that we must intend to oppose the disbelievers in what is among their customs. And what settles the matter is the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): And we all know that gray hair is not among the voluntary actions for which a person has the ability and choice not to grow gray; it is the Sunnah of Allah in His creation . Just as the Muslim grows gray, the disbeliever grows gray; this is an observed reality. Nevertheless, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), out of his concern for forming the personality of the Muslim, forbade us, if we grow gray like me, to dye our gray hair in opposition to the Jews. Here it is not said, "I imitated thisThe Shaykh : Muslim imitated thatThe Shaykh : disbeliever," this is not said, because it is not from his action nor from my action. But here the issue of opposition comes in, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) orders us to oppose the disbelievers in their gray hair, which is not of their making. Clear? So now, if there is a custom of the disbelievers, and we are now placing before you a practical example, perhaps you will first be convinced by it, and then follow us in it. You see now that most of us put the watch on our right hand, and the custom is that it is placed on the left. Whose custom is this?

The questioner : The custom of the one who invented the watch.

The Shaykh : Who invented this watch?

The questioner : Apparently, the people of disbelief.

Another questioner : Apparently and in reality.

The Shaykh : No, but look, the reservation says "apparently"—(laughs) this is the problem. And the truth, Professor? Is this the apparent and the reality??

The questioner : And it is the reality, if Allah wills.

The Shaykh-(laughs)- If Allah wills, no, this itself, if Allah wills, is just as Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "Verification, not suspension," is it not?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : So this watch, we mean the wristwatch, and we are not talking about the wall clock that I gifted, and in the Syrian expression, "Asq Allah," Harun al-Rashid gifted it to "Charlemagne." We are not talking about the wall clock, but rather we are talking about this wristwatch. The disbelievers invented it and they are accustomed to wearing it on their left sides. So we are now drawing near to Allah by wearing it on our right hands. Why?
Because we say, if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) orders us to oppose the disbelievers in something that is not of our making, should we not oppose them in something that is of our making? Ah, every day we perform wudu two or three times and we put it on our left hands? This is of our making, but we oppose them because we are able to do so and draw near to Allah thereby as a nearness. And by that, draw an analogy, may Allah bless you.

The questioner : And we, if Allah wills, are drawing near from now.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good, this is what I expect of you.

Another questioner : ... .

The questioner : No, and what makes me very reassured in putting it on the right hand is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) loved to prefer the right hand in all his affairs.

The Shaykh : That is another thing, yes.

The questioner : This is what increases the reassurance.

The Shaykh : ... It is so. But we raised this topic as an example of opposition.

The questioner : And you alerted us to it.

The Shaykh : Yes, may Allah reward you with good, and you see that the people of knowledge, students of knowledge, and the ignorant among the Muslims, all of them, do not pay attention to this point, and it is from the virtues of the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him).
And therefore, it was never the custom of the Muslims, I do not say one of them, but I say they, to walk as a group in the streets shirtless. This only happened after the disbelievers colonized some of the Islamic lands. Whoever knows the Islamic lands and is destined to travel through them finds the difference between a people who were colonized and a people who were not colonized. Now, you have lived in the Saudi lands. The Saudi lands, a few years ago, you did not see anyone shirtless, while shirtlessness in the Syrian lands, here, and in Egypt is sweeping among the youth.

The questioner : It is the customary practice.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : It is the customary practice.

The Shaykh : No. It is the customary practice, if I recorded your speech today, we would stand with you.

The questioner : I mean today.

The Shaykh : Yes. But we are in the process of asking where this custom came from?

The questioner : Imported.

The Shaykh : From the colonization of the disbelievers, may Allah bless you, and here is the point. The Saudi lands, and do not blame me because the speech will lead to speech, the Saudi lands before their colonization today did not know this custom except after the Saudis mixed with others because the permits for travel to Western lands and America were opened to them—and some of them in order to learn some sciences—in good faith or otherwise—not important—shirtlessness began to spread in the Saudi lands. We here in Damascus, I saw two phenomena other than shirtlessness. We in Syria were colonized, unfortunately, for a long period by the French, and you must have read or heard, the fashion among the youth was shaving the beard and the mustache because this was the custom of the French. So when the French left and the British came, the British grow their mustaches and shave their beards, so this phenomenon became widespread among the youth.
The soldiers in the French era were shaved without a system, so when the British came—and may Allah have mercy on you—they began to shave their soldiers an English shave, which is shaving them like this and leaving a little here. What is it most like?

The questioner : Like a bald patch.

The Shaykh : By shaving the head. These countries have been affected by Western currents, whether near or far, and this varies depending on whether the control of colonialism is direct or indirect. Therefore, this shaving is a foreign custom. The Muslims, as a nation and as a people, did not know shaving before. In fact, the later jurists mentioned in their books that if a man walks in the street with a shaved head, his testimony is rejected; they considered him to be compromising his dignity, let alone one who shaves his beard—without blame, for the land may be inhabited—let alone one who shaves his beard; his testimony is void, what is it? The intention is: We must observe the principle of opposing the disbelievers, not merely avoiding imitating them. And this is what our brother Abu al-Harith mentioned—and this is on his responsibility, I do not know for certain—that some of the shaykhs say that the matter regarding these customs is broad. I agree with this statement, but with the condition that it be a custom originating from the Muslims themselves. As for a custom imported from the disbelievers, whose cause is the colonialism of the disbelievers, whether national or intellectual, then this falls under this important principle, which is "Oppose the polytheists." I had collected the hadiths that came in this chapter to support one of the conditions of the hijab of the Muslim woman, which is that it must not resemble the clothing of the disbelievers; the hijab of the Muslim woman must not resemble the clothing of the disbelievers. I collected about forty hadiths at that time in which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) warned against agreeing with the polytheists and encouraged opposing them. Among them is his statement regarding some of the rituals of Hajj: This may be from the departure from 'Arafah or Muzdalifah—I have forgotten now. So this is the system of life for the Muslim in ordinary matters . Therefore, I do not wish for a Muslim, especially if he is among our brothers, the students of knowledge, to be influenced by the atmosphere in which he lives, because we fear that he will not stop at a limit in this, even if it is by some of the figurative interpretations in which some of those who are pointed to with the finger as being among the people of knowledge in some Islamic countries have fallen. For example, shaving the beard; for example, it has been found among us in Damascus and in Egypt, and the shaykhs of al-Azhar—you may know most of them—shave their beards. It has been found among them that some said that this is a custom.