Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
The Simplistic Fatwa on Imitation — 53:17
The third issue: imitating non-Muslims. And again, each one of these topics I've spoken about a lot and at length. The simplistic fatwas — "oh, imitating the kuffar is haram" — and again, those who spout these views, just tease out from them what exactly they mean.
What language are you speaking? Did your great-grandfather speak English? Is that imitating the kuffar? What clothes are you wearing? What fabric are you wearing? That fabric that you wear — did any of your ancestors wear it? Sorry to be a bit crude here, but we're all wearing undergarments. I hope we are. Wearing undergarments was not done by our ancestors. Is that imitating the kuffar? I mean, it's facetious, I know. Sarcastic, I know. But it's meant to draw the point home.
What do you mean "imitating the kuffar"? What exactly makes something haram if it is done by a non-Muslim? They breathe also — is that haram as well? Obviously, they're going to say no. They're going to say, "Of course not. It has to be something cultural." Okay. I like a halal juicy burger and French fries. Is that imitating the kuffar? My grandfather never ate a burger and fries. I love burger and fries. Is that imitating the kuffar?
They're going to say, "Oh, food is exempt. Language is exempt. Clothing is exempt."
The Historical Context of Such Fatwas — 54:52
Pause here. Push back. In the 1800s, in India and in Egypt, when the colonizers came and colonized our ancestors — I say "our" meaning I'm Indian-Pakistani, and you Egyptians as well — the scholars almost unanimously said: it is haram to abandon your language and learn English. You should not learn English. It is haram to wear coat and pant. It is haram. Back in that day, all the men wore a cap, and it was considered haram to wear a Western cap. This was the universal fatwa pretty much around the world.
And had I been alive in 1840 British India, I would have been at the forefront of making it haram as well. Why should we dress like our colonizers? Why should we abandon our culture and take the culture of the people that have pillaged and raped and plundered all of us? Why should we?
But the same people — and that's why, by the way, we should know this: when Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan opened Aligarh University to teach in English and to teach the works of Charles Dickens and the works of the West to a Muslim audience, and he wore a suit — the ulama made fatwa that he's a kafir, because he "became British." Even though Aligarh was meant to teach Muslims — they would break for salah, they taught Urdu and Farsi poetry, they taught the Quran — but he wanted Muslims to be educated so that they can better the system and rise up and intellectually at least outpace the British. But the ulama didn't want that, because in their minds, identity was linked to clothing, culture, etc.
So those that say, "Oh, culture is exempt" — I'm sorry. Your own predecessors in this realm did not agree with you. But because you're speaking English, you want to exempt it. Because you're dressing this way, you want to exempt it.
The Correct Understanding of Tashabbuh — 57:18
The reality is this is a multifaceted, difficult topic. Tashabbuh means you're going out of your way to do something that characterizes a civilization of kufr that is not your civilization. If you know your Arabic: tashabbuh — you make an effort to imitate. And another word is tawafuq, which is correlation. There's a difference between correlation and wanting to imitate.
The Prophet's Own Practice — 58:00
The simplest example for this is that the Prophet (peace be upon him) dressed and spoke and talked and walked and lived like the pagans of his time. And yet he also said, "Whoever imitates a people is one of them."
Did he dress differently? I've given this example so many times. If you were to magically hover over the Battle of Badr and you had Abu Jahl on one side and you had the Muslims and the Prophet on the other side, you would not be able to tell them apart by their language, by how they dressed, by what they walked and talked.
So the same person who said "whoever imitates is one of them" is the one who dressed like his own people. And he's right — he is an Arab. Why should he dress differently than an Arab? So for us here in America, we are not imitating a foreign civilization. This is our culture. We are here and we are not going out of our way to imitate another. Just like the Prophet was not going out of his way — he is an Arab, he dresses like an Arab, and he speaks like an Arab.
The Prophet Adopted Non-Muslim Practices — 1:00:10
And his cuisine — when the exotic dish came of the desert lizard, he did not like it because in his subculture this was an exotic item. He didn't like it because "it's not from the taste of my people." And Khalid ibn al-Walid said, "Is it haram?" He said, "No." The Prophet differentiated between culture and Sharia.
So when you say "imitating the kuffar," what exactly qualifies as imitation? Anything and everything, or something that is characteristic of kufr and is not a part of your civilization?
When the Prophet was going to send a letter to Heraclius, he was told it is the custom of those peoples that they will not receive a letter unless it has a wax seal on it. Did he say, "I'm sorry, this is the imitation of the kuffar, I cannot do it"? No. He ordered a ring to be made — and that was the ring that he had — because of this, and he put the wax seal on it.
When Salman al-Farisi said, "Oh, in my culture, in my custom, we dug a trench" — what did the Prophet say? "Those are the kuffar"? No. He said, "Okay, that makes sense. Technology. Let's take it in. Bring it in. What's the problem?"
The daughter of the Prophet, Fatimah bint Muhammad — one day she complained in her circle of gathering of women about how when a woman passes away, her corpse is wrapped up and put in the grave by men. She didn't like this. And Asma said, "You know what? I saw when I was in Abyssinia, they have a culture where when a woman dies, they take date palm leaves, wet them, and cover her corpse with that when they lower her." She said, "What a great idea! When I die, I want you to do this to my body." And the culture began from there in Sharia.
Is this imitating the kuffar? We have to be a little bit more careful and push back — not everything constitutes imitation.