As for Muslims deliberately choosing that day, groups of earlier and later scholars have disapproved of this. As for singling it out for the practices mentioned above, the scholars agree that this is forbidden. Indeed, some scholars have held that whoever does these things commits disbelief, because they involve venerating the rites of disbelief.

Some of them said:

“Whoever slaughters a gored sheep on their festival day is as though he had slaughtered a pig.”

ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs said:

“Whoever [imitates] (*) the people of non-Arab lands, celebrates their Nayrūz and Mahrajān, and continues imitating them until he dies in that state will be gathered with them on the Day of Resurrection.”

In Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Thābit ibn al-Dahhāk reported:

“A man vowed during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to slaughter camels at Buwānah. He came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said, ‘I have vowed to slaughter camels at Buwānah.’ The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, asked, ‘Was there an idol there, among the idols of the pre-Islamic age, that was worshipped besides Allah?’

“He replied, ‘No.’ He asked, ‘Was any of their festivals held there?’

“He replied, ‘No.’ The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘Fulfil your vow, for no vow is to be fulfilled in disobedience to Allah, nor concerning something a person does not own.’”

Thus, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not permit this man to fulfil his vow—even though fulfilling a vow is obligatory in principle—until the man informed him that no festival of the disbelievers had been held there. He said, “No vow is to be fulfilled in