"so Ibn ʿUmar would trim his mustache as a sheep or camel is shorn." I said: And this is a good isnād, its narrators are trustworthy, and there is a minor criticism regarding Maʿqil ibn ʿUbayd Allāh that does not harm [its authenticity]. Muslim has also included it, and for this reason, al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī remained silent about it in "Takhrīj al-Iḥyāʾ" (1/141 - Beirut) and al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar in "Fatḥ al-Bārī" (10/347-348) attributed it to al-Ṭabarānī and al-Bayhaqī. The ḥadīth has supporting narrations, some of which I have included in "Jilbāb al-Marʾah al-Muslimah" (pp. 185-187 / Islamic Library Edition) and "Ādāb al-Zafāf" (pp. 209 and 210 / Islamic Library Edition). (al-Sibāl) is the plural of (al-Siblah) with movement: (the mustache) as mentioned in "al-Nihāyah." This, and indeed the motivation for extracting the ḥadīth was that I did not find it in "Mawārid al-Ẓamʾān ilá Zawāʾid Ibn Ḥibbān" by al-Haythamī, so I thought he deliberately omitted it because its origin is found in "the two Ṣaḥīḥs" as you see in "Jilbāb al-Marʾah," or he overlooked it, as he overlooked many others, and as al-Ḥāfiẓ overlooked it by limiting its attribution to al-Ṭabarī and al-Bayhaqī! And know that in this ḥadīth there is a noble prophetic directive that many of the elite Muslims have often neglected, let alone the general populace, which is to oppose the disbelievers, the Magians, and others, as in the agreed-upon ḥadīth: "The Jews and Christians do not dye [their hair], so oppose them." There are very many well-known ḥadīths with this meaning. What I wish to clarify is to alert that the opposition commanded is broader than the prohibited imitation, as imitation is when a Muslim performs an act of a disbeliever, even if not intending imitation, and he can avoid doing it. He is commanded to leave it. Its ruling varies with the apparent strength or weakness of the imitation. As for opposition, it is entirely the opposite, as it means that a Muslim performs an act not done by the disbeliever, if it is not in doing so..