The Muslims have no need to imitate any of the other nations in matters of religious rituals and acts of worship, for Allah has perfected His Religion and completed His Favour, and chosen for us Islam as our religion, as He says (interpretation of the meaning):
“This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.”
[Al-Maidah 5:3]
Islam forbids the Muslims to imitate the disbelievers , especially the Jews and Christians, but this prohibition does not apply to all their affairs, rather it applies to matters of their religion and things that are unique to them, by which they are known.
It was narrated from Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “You will certainly follow the ways of those who came before you hand span by hand span, cubit by cubit, to the extent that if they entered the hole of a lizard, you will enter it too.” We said: “O Messenger of Allah, (do you mean) the Jews and the Christians?” He said: “Who else?” (Narrated by al-Bukhari, 1397; Muslim, 4822)
This hadith indicates that it is haram to imitate the Jews and the Christians, and that those who follow them and tread the same path as them are criticized. Islam has reinforced this prohibition, by describing those who imitate the disbelievers as being of them.
It was narrated that ‘Abd-Allah ibn ‘Umar said: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever imitates a people is one of them.” (Narrated by Abu Dawud, 3512; classed as sahih by al-Albani in Irwa al-Ghalil, 2691)
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
“This at the very least indicates that it is haram to imitate them, although the apparent meaning is that the one who imitates them is a disbeliever.” (Iqtida al-Sirat al-Mustaqim, 237)
The one who imitates the disbelievers feels inferior and defeated, so he hastens to make up for his feelings of inadequacy by imitating those whom he admires. If these people were to ponder the greatness of Islamic Shari`ah and understand how corrupt is that civilization they are running after, they would realize that they are doing wrong and that they have forsaken something that is perfect and true for something that is imperfect and corrupt.
The types of forbidden imitation of the disbelievers
The types of imitation which are forbidden to us are many.
Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan said:
“The things in which the disbelievers are imitated include acts of worship, such as imitating them in matters of shirk, such as building (structures) over graves, building shrines and exaggerating about them. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “May the curse of Allah be upon the Jews and the Christians, for they took the graves of their Prophets as places of worship.” (Al-Bukhari, 425; Muslim, 531) And he told us that when a righteous man among them died, they would build a place of worship over his grave, and install images therein, and that they were the most evil of mankind. (Al-Bukhari, 417; Muslim, 528) Nowadays there are instances of major shirk because of exaggeration concerning graves, as is well known to scholars and ordinary folk alike. The cause of that is imitation of the Jews and Christians.
Another example is their imitation of the festivals of shirk and bid’ah, such as birthday celebrations, whether it is the birthday of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) or the birthdays of presidents and kings. Or these festivals of bid’ah and shirk may be named after days or weeks, such as a country’s national day or independence day, or Mother’s Day, or hygiene week, and other days or weeks that are celebrated. All of these have come to the Muslims from the disbelievers, for Islam has only two festivals: ‘Eid al-Fitr and ‘Eid al-Adha. Anything else is bid’ah and an imitation of the disbelievers.” (From a khutbah entitled al-Hathth ‘ala Mukhalafat al-Kuffar (Exhortation to be distinct from the disbelievers)These interpretations mentioned above are applicable if we take the words of Ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) as applying to all the Muslims in general. But from the context it seems that he is referring to the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) only, and not others. What Ibn Mas’ud said was: “Allah looked into the hearts of His slaves and found that the heart of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was the best of all His slaves’ hearts. So He chose him for Himself and sent him with His Message. Then He looked into the hearts of all His slaves after the heart of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and He found that the hearts of his Companions were the best of all His slaves’ hearts, so He made them the helpers of His Prophet, fighting for the sake of His religion. So what the Muslims think is good is good before Allah and whatever the Muslims think is bad is bad before Allah.” (Narrated by Ahmad, 3418; classed as sahih by Shaykh al-Alaani in Takhrij al-Tahawiyyah, 530)
