The third method for substantiating the consensus is what the vast majority of Muslim scholars—both the early authorities and the imams whose schools are followed, together with their disciples—have stated when they explain that certain prohibitions rest on the need to differ from the unbelievers, the Christians, or the non-Arabs. These references are too numerous to catalogue exhaustively, and no one with even minimal exposure to jurisprudence is unaware of a portion of them. Careful reflection on these texts yields certain knowledge that the imams unanimously forbid adopting the ways of the unbelievers and the non-Arabs and command us to oppose them.

I shall therefore mention a few illustrative points taken from the schools of the imams whose madhhabs are followed today, in addition to what has already been cited from other scholars.

One such example is the established principle in the Ḥanafī school that delaying the prayer is generally better than performing it at the earliest time, except for specific cases they exclude—such as a cloudy day or advancing Ẓuhr in winter—whereas many other jurists maintain that performing the prayer early is ordinarily preferable. Accordingly, the Ḥanafīs deem it commendable to postpone Fajr (dawn), ʿAṣr (afternoon), ʿIshāʾ (night), and Ẓuhr (noon), except in winter when the sky is clear.

They then state that it is recommended to hasten the Maghrib (sunset) prayer, for delaying it is disliked because it resembles the practice of the Jews. This, too, is the position of the other imams, and the underlying reason has been explicitly recorded, as noted earlier.