in their festivals, and I pointed out some of what pertains to that: early transmitted reports, scriptural proofs, and a glimpse of the Sacred Law’s wisdom (1) in keeping apart from the unbelievers—whether from the People of the Book or the pagan illiterates—and what the Law has enjoined (2) of differing from both the People of the Book and the non-Arabs (3).

Although this is a grand legal principle (4) within the Sharia—rich in branches and an inclusive maxim from which many subsidiary rulings emerge (5)—I merely drew attention to it according to what Allah, exalted is He, made easy for me (6). I wrote a response on the matter with whatever occurred to me at the moment (7), and by it Allah, glorified be He, brought about such good (8) as He had decreed. Later on (9) I learned that some people considered the matter strange and unlikely, because it ran counter to a custom in which they had been reared. They therefore clung to a number of general, unrestricted texts on which they relied, so one of my companions requested of me (10) that I append something in which