Section Six
The Prohibition Encompasses Everything Characteristic of the Disbelievers, Past and Present

It is helpful to recall the author’s remark in his discussion of imitating non-Arabs and the like: whenever the Sharīʿah forbids resembling the foreigners, the ban includes whatever non-Muslim foreigners practiced in the past or practice today—even if some Muslim foreigners have adopted it—so long as it conflicts with the Sunnah or the etiquettes prescribed by the Sharīʿah. Likewise, everything that belonged to the people of the Age of Ignorance before Islam, and everything to which many Arabs have returned today of those pre-Islamic traits, actions, and customs, falls under the heading of Jāhiliyyah.

From this we understand that contemporary Muslims are prohibited from adopting what the surrounding nations engage in of worship, practices, harmful customs, and corrupt morals, even if such things had no precedent in earlier times—especially since many forms and appearances of life in our own age differ radically from those of past eras.

As for the slogans trumpeted by some admirers of the disbelievers—and by certain uninformed people—that the disbelievers possess praiseworthy qualities such as honesty, loyalty, and trustworthiness, then—even if some of them do indeed have these traits, and even if some lax Muslims are lacking in them—this in no way means that the disbelievers are categorically purer than the Muslims, or that they are generally better than them. Nor does it imply that the beliefs, ideas, morals, and customs of the disbelievers are sound and correct. Furthermore, should those noble human qualities be found in some of them, it still does not—