and summer, and they worked out a set of calculations by which they would determine its dates.

From this ḥadīth one may deduce a specific prohibition against participating in their religious festivals, for those festivals are fixed by scriptural tables and astronomical reckoning, whereas the wording of the ḥadīth itself is general.

Put differently, if we have been forbidden to do so with regard to the festival ordained by God and His Messenger, then refraining from it in all other feasts and seasons is even more fitting, for adopting their methods would cause the unlettered Ummah to imitate the rest of the nations.

In sum, the ḥadīth indicates that this Ummah has been singled out by a distinguishing characteristic that sets it apart from others, and the surest way to preserve that distinction is to avoid resembling those nations.

Moreover, both Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim relate—from Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf—that he heard Muʿāwiyah, during the year he performed the ḥajj, preach from the pulpit. He took hold of a lock of hair that was in the hand of a guardsman and said, “People of Madinah, where are your scholars? I heard…”