Continuation of the discussion regarding the Shaykh’s debate with the Lebanese priest.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. As for what follows, this is one of the tapes from the *Al-Huda wa al-Nur* series of scholarly lessons and legal rulings by our Shaykh, Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani (may Allah preserve him). We ask Allah to benefit everyone with it. And now, with tape two hundred and one.
Because it is part of the perfection of Islam, as I said earlier, but with some detail there. I told him that the perfection of Islam lies in the fact that it established principles and rules that obligated Muslims to adhere to them in order to preserve their Muslim identity. So the Wise Lawgiver, just as He addressed the diseases of the hearts and souls hidden within bodies, likewise addressed the outward appearances by which Muslims appear in their bodies and in their conduct in life. I mentioned to him hadiths regarding the prohibition of imitating non-Muslims. I told him that Islam intended for Muslims to preserve their outward identity and not merge into the identities of other peoples or nations. I told him that, as I think you know, the weak imitates the strong, not the other way around; the strong does not imitate the weak. So if a Muslim imitates a non-Muslim, that means he has placed himself in a position of inferiority and submission to that disbeliever. I drew their attention to a wisdom regarding outward appearances in a book by a European author. I had read it long ago, thirty or forty years ago. Its title is very strange, but I benefited from it. It is called *The Philosophy of Clothing*. *The Philosophy of Clothing*. In fact, an example he mentioned caught my attention, even though this is something that exists and is observed. But people do not pay attention to it. This man says in this book that a person is so affected by his clothing that he is influenced by it. If he is wearing shabby, worn-out clothes, you find him walking like this, holding himself stiffly. But if he is wearing new, ironed clothes, and so on, you find him walking with his chest out, and his inner state says: "O earth, be firm, no one is above you." *The Philosophy of Clothing*. And you see this phenomenon among us all, among those who are influenced, those who are Westernized, those influenced by Western culture. You find that if he is wearing a tight jacket and tighter pants that are squeezing his thighs—and forgive me for mentioning his buttocks—he cannot even bow, let alone prostrate, because it would tear. He sees himself as civilized and cultured. Why is he doing this? Because his role models are the Europeans. His great men are the Europeans. So I said to this Maronite priest: Clothing affects its wearers. And therefore the Wise Lawgiver prohibited us from imitating others. I spoke, as Allah wills. Then I returned to the sensitive string. I said to him: If clothing has no effect, and the matter is only what is in the heart, do I understand from your words that you have no effect on you? If I take off the black cap and put a white turban on the red fez, I would appear as a Muslim Shaykh. He said: No. No. No. - The student brothers laughed, andThe Shaykh : (may Allah have mercy on him). O Father, this contradicts what you said earlier. The criterion, as I said, is what is in the heart. You are a Christian man. So if you put the turban on the red fez, you are not going to become a Muslim Shaykh. He said: No, we are men of religion. But he ended up, praise be to Allah, in the state we describe in Syria: he was under the rain and ended up under the gutter. - The Shaykh of the Sunnah (may Allah have mercy on him) laughed - He grabbed him by his collar, as they say in Syria. I said to him: This is the difference between us and you. You are a man of religion. You Christians are of two types: men of religion and men who are not. What is forbidden for you is permissible for the others, and what is obligatory for you is not obligatory for the others. But Islam has made all people equal: "Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you." There is absolutely no difference for us between the righteous, pious, scrupulous scholar and the ignorant Muslim. They are equal before Allah in appearance and in reality. Everyone is held accountable by Allah according to what is in his heart and according to his conduct in life. We do not have men of religion. Every Muslim is a man of religion. And therefore, if it is permissible for me to place this cap on my head according to the Shari'ah, it is permissible for every Muslim. And if it is forbidden for me, it is forbidden for every Muslim. And this difference between us is sufficient, and every vessel emits what is in it. This is the story I wanted to tell on that occasion.

The questioner: It is tied.

The Shaykh: Ah. It is tied, but look at this knot. It reminded me of something, or two things. After that, the conversation between him and me turned to their Trinity. At that time, you know, one thing brings to mind another. The British had entered Syria, after the French. In any case, the British brought soldiers from some of the colonies, among them Lebanese soldiers. There was a British-Lebanese soldier on the train. When I was debating with this Christian, what did this Lebanese Christian soldier say? He said: By Allah, O Father, you want the truth, speakThe Shaykh : correctly. He laughedThe Shaykh : and the students (may Allah preserve them). The point is, the train was taking us to Mada'a, about fifty kilometers away. We did not feel the journey at all. When we were about to get off, some of our brothers reminded me to prepare myself, as we were about to disembark. The man clung to me and said: If you would walk with us to Beirut so that we can enjoy your conversation, and so on. I said to myself: Glory be to Allah, if I had been sitting with a Shaykh from our Muslim brothers, the train would have exploded with us. The student brothers laughed. This is a Christian man who wishes the journey would be longer so that we could continue talking with him. It is a sad thing. The point is that the style is different; there is no difference between a Christian and a Christian, yes.