Their opposition to the idolaters on this point took the form of remaining at ʿArafāt until sunset and standing in Jamʿ (Muzdalifah) until just before sunrise, in accordance with the ḥadiths, “Act contrary to the idolaters,” and, “Our guidance differs from the guidance of the idolaters.”

They also referred to the conditions placed upon the People of the Covenant, which forbid them to imitate the Muslims in their dress and other outward matters. These same conditions implicitly forbid Muslims from imitating them as well, so that the distinguishing marks of the Muslims stay clearly distinct from those of the unbelievers.

Some scholars went even further, proscribing resemblance to the people of innovation in any practice that has become their emblem, even when that practice is otherwise sanctioned by the Sunnah. They cite, for instance, the shaping of graves: al-Shāfiʿī held that it is preferable to leave them level, whereas Aḥmad and Abū Ḥanīfah considered it better to raise them in a mound.

Later, a group of Shāfiʿī jurists maintained that, in the present circumstances, graves should actually be mounded, because the Rāfiḍah level them; leaving them flat would therefore amount to imitating them in what has become their distinctive sign.