- Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever imitates a people is counted among them.” Abū Dāwūd narrated it, and Ibn Ḥibbān declared it sound (1).
Degree of the hadith
The chain is ḥasan. The author notes that Abū Dāwūd transmitted it and Ibn Ḥibbān authenticated it. Although there is some weakness in the report, it is supported by other narrations from several leading hadith scholars and a number of Companions, which lift it out of the sphere of weakness. Among these supports is the report recorded by Abū Yaʿlā, traced back to the Prophet, from Ibn Masʿūd: “Whoever is pleased with the deeds of a people is one of them.” Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said its chain is good; al-Ḥāfiẓ (Ibn Ḥajar) said in Fatḥ al-Bārī that its chain is ḥasan; and al-Suyūṭī also graded it ḥasan in al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr.
Points derived from the hadith
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The hadith teaches that whoever imitates a people becomes one of them. Thus, when a Muslim imitates the disbelievers in matters unique to them, outward imitation draws him to inward imitation: he comes to approve of their dress and demeanor, and so joins them in spirit.
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It shows that the means take the rulings of their ends and that avenues leading to the unlawful and to evil must be blocked, lest they result in the very ends they lead to.
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The hadith indicates that whoever imitates the flagrant sinners, the disbelievers, or the innovators—in anything distinctive to them, whether clothing or appearance—has adopted their path and—