Section on the Categories of the Disbelievers’ Practices
We have already cited proofs from the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the unanimous agreement of the scholars, transmitted reports, and sound reasoning, all of which demonstrate that, as a rule, it is forbidden to imitate them, and that distinguishing ourselves from their ways is legislated—sometimes obligatory, sometimes recommended, according to the situation.
It has likewise been clarified that whatever acts we have been commanded to perform in order to differ from them are divinely sanctioned, whether or not the doer intended to imitate them. By the same token, every act we are forbidden because it resembles theirs is prohibited, regardless of whether that resemblance was intended. In most of these matters, Muslims never initially set out to imitate them; indeed, some cases cannot even involve a conscious intention to imitate—such as the whitening of hair, the length of the moustache, and the like.
Know, then, that their deeds fall into three categories:
- A practice that is prescribed in our religion and was also prescribed for them, or whose original prescription for them is unknown, yet they are now observed performing it.
- A practice that was once prescribed but has since been abrogated by the Qur’anic law.
- A practice that was never prescribed in any dispensation and is merely an innovation of their own making.