One reason is the prophetic report: “Do not disperse, lest Allah disperse your unity.”

It is likewise narrated that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, “forbade removing the wash-basin until it brims over,” that is, until it is completely full.

They have also said—and Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir is among them—that, according to one of the two transmitted opinions, shaving the head is disliked because it resembles the practice of non-Arabs. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever imitates a people is counted among them.”

Indeed, groups of jurists from the Shāfiʿī, Ḥanbalī, and other schools have declared certain matters disliked for the very reason that they imitate the people of innovation. Several scholars from both schools—ʿAbd al-Qādir among them—stated: “It is recommended to wear the ring on the left hand, based on the transmitted reports and because wearing it otherwise has become the custom and emblem of the innovators.”

Some Shāfiʿī scholars even deemed it desirable to shape graves in a raised mound, although the Sunnah in their school is to leave them flat, arguing that flattening them had become the distinctive mark of the innovators.

Our purpose here is not to establish the precise rulings of these individual questions or to affirm or deny what has been said about them. Rather, it is simply to show the scholars’ unanimous view that imitating those outside the community of Islam is disliked.