And the category that is “narrower in every respect” consists of affiliation with a particular branch of religious practice, such as military service among those who wage jihad, jurisprudence among scholars, or asceticism and Sufism among devoted worshippers. It also includes affiliation with particular factions within these groups: attachment to a particular imam, shaykh, king, or leading speculative theologian; to a doctrine or practice that distinguishes a group; or to these factions’ distinctive clothing, whether turbans or other garments. Thus, some people display partisan attachment to a garment or style of dress—meaning clothing shared by jurists and ascetics, clothing peculiar to either group or to particular factions within it, military attire, or the like.

All of this belongs to the practices of pre-Islamic ignorance that divide the Muslim community. Those who engage in it depart from the Sunnah and the united community and enter into religious innovation and division. Rather, the religion of Allah Most High requires that His Messenger Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, be the one whose commands and prohibitions are obeyed, and who is followed in his love and disobedience, his approval and anger, his giving and withholding, his loyalty and enmity, and his support and abandonment.

One must accord every individual or category of people the rights that the Messenger accorded them. Those he brought near are to be brought near; those he kept at a distance are to be kept at a distance; and those he placed between the two are to retain that intermediate position. Among these matters, both in their particular instances and their characteristics, one loves whatever Allah and His Messenger love, dislikes whatever Allah and His Messenger dislike, and leaves neither loved nor disliked whatever Allah and His Messenger likewise left neither loved nor disliked. One enjoins whatever Allah and His Messenger have commanded concerning these matters and forbids whatever Allah and His Messenger have forbidden