and mercy descends. Many people of this community—kings and others—have nevertheless adopted this emblem of the Jews and Christians. We have even seen them parade a contemptible little khamis (a small military band), perfuming it with incense and striking tiny naqus-bells; some kings would sound buq-trumpets and beat dabdab-drums at the very times of the five daily prayers—precisely what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ disliked. Others limited the practice to the two ends of the day, claiming to imitate Dhu l-Qarnayn, while leaving whatever was less than that to the frontier rulers. This imitation of the Jews, the Christians, and of the foreign Romans and Persians eventually prevailed among the kings of the East. Because they opposed the guidance of the Muslims and fell into what Allah and His Messenger detest, Allah unleashed against them the unbelieving Turks—those we have been promised to fight—who then wrought in people and lands what no previous Islamic rule had seen. Thus was fulfilled the Prophet’s saying, “You will surely follow the ways of those before you,” as noted earlier. During the Prophet’s lifetime, and afterward, the Muslims’ only signal in warfare was calm composure and the remembrance of Allah. Qays ibn Abad, one of the leading Successors, said: “They preferred lowering the voice during remembrance, during battle, and at funerals.” All the other reports likewise indicate that tranquillity marked these situations while their hearts overflowed with remembrance, reverence, and exaltation of Allah—just as in the prayer itself. Raising one’s voice in these three settings was the custom of the People of the Book and of the non-Arabs, yet many in this ummah have now been afflicted by it. I add: the general censure of the bell’s sound is corroborated by the Prophet’s statement, “The bell is the flute of Satan.” Reported by Muslim 6/163; Abu Dawud 1/401; al-Hakim 1/445; al-Khatib 13/70; al-Bayhaqi 5/253; and likewise by Ahmad 2/366, 372. Another hadith states: “The angels do not accompany a company in which there is a bell.”