in hues such as honey-brown, dark shades, and the like; in fact, the arrangement was precisely the reverse. The same rule was applied to hairstyles and other outward matters. Accordingly, when it comes to the clothing of men and women, the objective is not mere differentiation; the demands of modesty and concealment must likewise be upheld.

Nor is the purpose simply to screen and cover women while neglecting the distinction between them and men; differentiation itself is required. Even if both sexes adopted garments that did cover and screen, yet rendered their dress indistinguishable, they would still have been forbidden to wear them. Allah, Exalted is He, clarified this aim when He said: “O Prophet, tell your wives, your daughters and the believing women to draw their cloaks closely around them; that will be likelier for them to be recognized and not be harassed” (33:59). Thus He made their being recognized by a distinctive dress an express objective. For that same reason, the wording of the prohibition came in terms of imitation, as in the Prophet’s ﷺ statement: “May Allah curse the women who imitate men and the men who imitate women.” The ruling, therefore, hinges on the notion of imitation—each sex adopting the attributes of the other.

We have treated this principle at length in our book Iqtidaʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm, Demonstrating the Obligation of Differing from the People of Hell-fire, where we showed that resemblance in outward matters breeds a likeness in character and conduct. For that reason we were forbidden to resemble the unbelievers, the non-Arabs, the Bedouins, and each sex was forbidden to resemble the other.

A man who imitates women inevitably acquires their traits in proportion to his imitation, until the matter ends in sheer effeminacy and his yielding himself as though he were a woman. Because singing is a preliminary step to that state—it was traditionally women’s occupation—men who took up singing were called