women.”
He thus made imitation the basis of the ruling: each sex adopting the characteristics of the other.
We have discussed this principle at length in The Requirement of the Straight Path to Differ from the People of Hellfire, explaining that resemblance in outward matters gives rise to affinity and similarity in character and conduct. For this reason, we have been forbidden to imitate disbelievers, non-Arabs, and Bedouins, and men and women have each been forbidden to imitate the other sex, as in the hadith traced back to the Prophet:
“Whoever imitates a people is one of them.”
“Whoever imitates those other than us is not one of us.”
A man who imitates women acquires their characteristics in proportion to his imitation, until this leads him to complete effeminacy and to allowing himself to be used as though he were a woman. Since singing was a precursor to this and was something women did, they used to call male singers effeminate men.
A woman who imitates men acquires their characteristics, until she comes to display herself, appear publicly, and join men in their activities to such an extent that some women may expose their bodies as men do, seek to place themselves above men as men place themselves above women, and engage in conduct incompatible with the modesty and reserve prescribed for women. This much may result from mere resemblance.
Once it is clear that there must be a distinction between men’s and women’s clothing by which men are distinguished from women, and that women’s clothing must provide a degree of