their way, and numerous other proofs besides.

(1) Whoever turns back to the general evidences already presented—textual, consensual, and analogical—will recognize that this question falls under many of them. He will also see that such participation is of the same kind as their practices which constitute their religion, or the emblems of their false creed, and that all of it is forbidden. This contrasts with matters that are neither distinctive to their religion nor a hallmark of it, (2) such as taking off one’s sandals during prayer, which is permissible just as wearing them is permissible.

He will likewise discern the difference between our merely persisting in our own customs—without introducing anything that makes us resemble them—and our introducing practices whose origin is taken from them, whether we meant to imitate them or not.

[Second Path: the Qur’an, the Sunnah, consensus, and legal reasoning]
[Scriptural evidence for the prohibition of conforming to their festivals]

(3) The second, more specific, path concerning the very festivals of the unbelievers rests on the Qur’an, the Sunnah, consensus, and sound reasoning. (4)

As for the Qur’an: among the passages interpreted in this connection by a number of the Successors and others is the Almighty’s statement,

“And those who do not bear witness to falsehood; and when they pass by idle talk, they pass by with dignity.” (al-Furqān 25:72). (5)

Abū Bakr al-Khallāl narrated in his al-Jāmiʿ (6) with his chain from Muhammad ibn Sīrīn regarding the verse, “and those who do not bear witness to falsehood” (al-Furqān 25:72), that he said, “It refers to al-Shaʿnīn,” (7) i.e., Palm Sunday.