Tashabbuh (imitating others)

Tashabbuh is the effort to become like another. The jurists use the word in its lexical sense. ¹ For dress that marks unbelievers, the majority of Shafiis, the Hanafis (on the sound view) and the Malikis rule that one who wears it out of inclination to them in Muslim lands, without necessity, becomes an unbeliever; the Hanbalis call it forbidden without unbelief. ²

In the lexicon, tashabbuh is taking on another's manner, and mushabaha is sharing a quality. ¹ Muwafaqa (agreement) is wider than tashabbuh, since it is one person sharing another's saying, act, abstention or belief, whether or not intended. ¹

The Hanafis (on the sound view), the Malikis (on the school's view) and most Shafiis hold that imitating unbelievers in a dress that is their sign, such as the cap of the Magians or the girdle of the Christians, makes the wearer an unbeliever in worldly rulings, on the hadith «whoever imitates a people is one of them». ¹ Necessity is an exception: compulsion, protection against heat or cold, or a ruse of war as a vanguard for the Muslims. ¹ One Hanafi view, and the Maliki view as drawn from Ibn al-Shatt, holds that the wearer does not become an unbeliever unless he holds their belief. ² The Hanbalis forbid it without unbelief, and the Shafii al-Nawawi does not count it unbelief without intent. ²

Jurists limit the ruling by conditions: that it happen in Muslim lands rather than in the abode of war, that it is not done out of necessity, that the dress belongs to unbelievers, that it is a sign at the time, and that it intends inclination to unbelief. A man who does it in play or mockery is a sinner, not an apostate, in Maliki law. ^{2 3} Ibn Taymiyya held that a Muslim in the abode of war need not oppose the unbelievers in their outward practice if there is a religious benefit, whereas in the abode of Islam opposing them is prescribed. ²

Imitating unbelievers at their festivals is not permitted. A narration from Umar forbids learning their speech and entering their churches on their feast days, and one from Ibn Umar says a man who imitates the foreigners at their Nawruz and festivals is gathered with them. ⁴ Buying on Nawruz is not unbelief unless it is meant to honour the day as they do; giving help to the imitation, such as candles at Christmas, is disliked and not accepted. ^{4 5} Ahmad allowed attending the markets where they sell on their festivals. ⁵

Imitation of unbelievers in worship is disliked in general. ⁵ Examples: praying at the makruh times, on the hadith of Amr ibn Abasa; shortening prayer by resting the hand on the hip, which the Jews do much; and continuous fasting, disliked by the Hanafis, most Malikis, Hanbalis and one Shafii view, because of the imitation of Christians. ^{5 6} Singling out Ashura for fasting is disliked by the Hanafis as imitating Jews; Shafiis and Hanbalis recommend Ashura and the day before it, and Malikis recommend the eight days before it. ⁷

Al-Qurtubi said that if people of sin and debauchery are given a garment that others may not wear, someone who does not know them may suspect the wearer, and both sin. ⁷ Most jurists forbid women imitating men and men imitating women, on the hadith cursing those who do so. ^{7 8} The standard for dress is local custom; a husband must restrain his wife from imitating men, and wrong is to be changed by hand, then tongue, then heart. ^{8 9}

Protected people are required to bear signs by which they are known, and not to imitate Muslims in dress, mounts or appearance; a story of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz is cited. ⁹ The marking must be humiliation, not honour, and they are not barred from living in Muslim cities outside the Arabian peninsula. ^{9 10}