Indeed, those people are allowed to remain upon their innovated, abrogated religion, keeping it concealed; but a Muslim is never permitted to persist in anything innovated or abrogated—whether in secret or in public. As for resembling the unbelievers, that resembles imitating the people of innovation, only more grave.

Third point:
If even a small portion of such practices is deemed acceptable, it will open the door to much more. Once the matter becomes widespread, ordinary folk join in, forget its origin, and it turns into a common custom—indeed, a festival—set up to rival the feast ordained by Allah, and perhaps even to surpass it, until Islam is on the verge of dying out and disbelief springs to life. Satan has already beguiled many who claim Islam into such behavior during the final days of the Christians’ fast: exchanging gifts, holding celebrations, spending money, clothing their children, and the like, making it comparable to the Muslims’ own festival. In regions adjacent to the Christians, where knowledge and faith are weak, this has become more prevalent and more delightful to them than the feast of Allah and His Messenger, as reliable witnesses have informed me.

As for what I myself have seen in Damascus and its environs in the land of al-Shām—despite their being closer to knowledge and faith—this Thursday that falls at the end of the Christians’ fast moves with the fast’s cycle of seven weeks. Although their fast occurs at the beginning of the season the Arabs call “summer” and the common people call “spring,” it shifts forward and backward and has no fixed point in the solar year, unlike the Thursday that comes at the start of April; rather, it rotates through the calendar