Wak?’and Hann?d narrated in the Book of “Zuhd” through a chain of narrators traced back to Ibn Mas‘?d, to have said: ‘People do not wear in the same manner unless when their hearts [ideas and conceptions] are the same’. (1)

The purport of Ibn Mas‘?d’s words are born out from the prophet’s ( - ) had?th: ‘whosoever imitates a group of people[in their way of eating, drinking, clothing ... etc] is indeed one of them’. (2) This is precisely what induced ‘Umar ( - رضي الله عنه -) to order muslims to abandon wearing boots and Sar?w?l and ordered them to wear the ordinary Arab clothes to preserve their original [Islamic] personalities and characteristics and never follow the foot steps of the disbelievers.

Verily, imitating the disbelievers in the manner they dress or in other matter is a sign of muslims’ weakness and their inability to commit themselves to their religion. It is also a sign of their being affected with the plague of absorbing whatever they receive, i.e. their souls and minds are shaky, the like of them is the like of a liquid the main property of which is to adopt the shape of whatever utensil in which it is poured. In addition to this, such imitation is a disdained act the hediousness of which is the like of the act of he who relates himself to a father other than his real one. And those who do this hedious act are neither attached ot the muslim ’Ummah, in which they were born, nor considered of the disbelieving nation which they like most to be attributed. All?h ( - ) says:

[ مذبذبين بين ذلك لا إلى هؤلاء ولا إلى هؤلاء]