A precise examination shows that every desert-dweller is to be regarded as one of the aʿrāb, whether or not the word itself is applied to him. On that basis, the category of settled people is, as a whole, superior to the category of desert folk, even though certain outstanding desert individuals may surpass the majority of town dwellers.

It further follows that any custom peculiar to the desert—one not shared by the townspeople during the era of the early generations, namely the Companions and the Successors—is either deficient when measured against the virtues of the settled community or is outright disapproved.

Accordingly, whenever people imitate such desert practices that were never part of the conduct of the settled Muhājirūn, that imitation is itself disliked or leads to what is disliked; the same principle applies in comparing Arabs and non-Arabs.

The Superiority of the Arabs over the Non-Arabs

The doctrine upheld by Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamāʿah is that the Arab stock is superior to the non-Arab stock—be they Hebrew, Syriac, Roman, Persian, or any other.