ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—prohibited learning their language and even merely entering their churches on the day of their festival. How then could one be allowed to perform some of their practices, or to carry out anything that belongs to the very rites of their religion? Is not resembling them in deeds weightier than resembling them in speech? And is not committing certain acts of their feast more serious than simply visiting them on that day?

If divine wrath descends upon them on their festival because of what they do, then whoever joins them in those deeds—or in part of them—does he not expose himself to the same punishment?

Furthermore, the instruction, “Keep away from the enemies of Allah during their festival,” is surely a prohibition against meeting with them or gathering with them on that occasion; how much graver, then, is the case of someone who actually observes their festival?

As for ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr, he stated plainly: “Whoever settles in their lands, celebrates their Nawrūz and Mihrajān, and imitates them until he dies, will be raised with them.”

This indicates that he regarded such a person as either falling into disbelief by participating in all of those matters, or guilty of a major sin that incurs the Fire—the former being the more apparent sense of his words. Hence, joining them in any part of it is still a sin; for were it not a factor in incurring punishment, it would not have been counted among the causes, since no penalty is incurred for what is merely permissible. Nor is censure for one aspect conditional upon the rest, because the individual parts of