is either harmful or deficient; for what they practise of innovated (bidʿa) or abrogated acts is harmful, and what they practise whose original basis has not been abrogated remains liable to excess or shortfall. Hence the Sharia prescribes opposing them in a manner that brings the act to full perfection, for it is unimaginable that any of their affairs should ever be perfect. Accordingly, differing from them brings benefit and rectitude for us in every matter—even in what they excel at of worldly skills, which may damage one’s afterlife or what is more important in this world itself—so opposing them in that, too, is good for us. In reality, every deed and affair of the unbeliever must contain some defect that prevents it from yielding complete benefit. If any of his affairs were hypothetically sound in every respect, he would deserve reward in the Hereafter; yet all their affairs are either corrupt or incomplete. Praise be to Allah for the blessing of Islam, the greatest of blessings and the source of every good, as our Lord loves and is pleased with. It is therefore evident that sheer opposition to them is, in general, an aim intended by the Lawgiver. For this reason Imām Ahmad and other leading scholars explained the command to dye the hair as being motivated by the rationale of differing from them.” He then quotes several statements from Ahmad to that effect. 7. Reported by Ahmad, Musnad, 2:161, 499, through the chain of Muhammad ibn ʿAmr from Abū Salama from him. This isnād is sound (ḥasan). Ibn Ḥibbān also recorded it in his Ṣaḥīḥ, no. 5449 (al-Iḥsān). A corroborating chain is narrated by ʿUmar ibn Abī Salama from his father in Ahmad, 2:356, and by al-Tirmidhī, 3:55, who said: “A ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ hadith.” It has many supporting narrations, including one from al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, reported by Ahmad, no. 1415, with the chain: Muḥammad ibn Kunāsa – Hishām ibn ʿUrwa – ʿUthmān ibn ʿUrwa – from his father – from al-Zubayr, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said… but without the phrase, “nor with the Christians.”