Thus it becomes clear that the Prophet had already instilled in his Companions the principle that anything labeled as belonging to the Age of Ignorance—whether a manner of dying, a form of killing, or the like—is reprehensible and forbidden. This, by extension, requires censuring every practice traceable to that Age, which is precisely the point at issue.

Among the evidence for this is what both al-Bukhārī and Muslim transmit from al-Maʿrūr ibn Suwayd, who said: “I saw Abū Dharr wearing a cloak while his servant wore one identical to it. I asked him about that, and he told me that he had once traded insults with a man in the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and had taunted him about his mother. The man went to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—and informed him. The Prophet said to Abū Dharr, ‘You are a man in whom there remains something of the Age of Ignorance.’ In another version Abū Dharr asked, ‘Even now, at my advanced age?’ He replied, ‘Yes. They are your brothers and your servants; Allah has placed them under your authority. Whoever has his brother under his hand, let him feed him from what he himself eats and clothe him with what he himself wears. Do not burden them with work that overpowers them; and if you must burden them, then help them with it.’”