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Chinese Islamic scholar Zhao Rongliang said in a Mandarin-language lecture on PeaceTV that was posted to the Fahim Akhtar Ullal YouTube channel on January 28, 2024 that Muslims, and particularly Chinese Muslims, must carefully avoid imitating Chinese non-Muslims and adopting Chinese practices and traditions that have their roots in idol worship.
Zhao Rongliang: "I have a friend who is very devout in his faith. He never misses prayers, fasting, zakat, and all the other duties. However, one day I noticed he was wearing a necklace with a jade pendant. I asked him, 'Hey, so-and-so, why are you wearing this jade pendant?' He replied, ' Oh, according to the elders, wearing a jade pendant can prevent and cure various illnesses.'
[...]
"I thought to myself, 'How can someone who is so committed to our faith make such a basic mistake?' Later, I said to him, 'This is a form of shirk [attributing a partner to Allah], as it implies relying on something other than God for protection. You should take it off immediately!' He responded, 'Oh, I didn't know. Is this really a mistake?' I told him that by entrusting his health to the jade pendant, he was not relying on God.
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"A talisman like a jade pendant cannot bring true peace to our bodies unless it is Allah's will. I also recall an elderly countryman who was very devout. He was in his fifties or sixties and had been worshiping for forty to fifty years. He told us that he had been committed to his faith since childhood, from the time he was old enough to understand.
[...]
"However, one day he took his grandson to the barber shop for a haircut, and the barber styled the boy's hair into a peach shape, which we Chinese call a 'longevity peach' or a flat peach. I asked him, 'Why did the barber style his hair into a longevity peach shape?' He replied, 'Oh, this is the trend of the times. Every child in every family want this hairstyle, so I couldn't do anything about it. I just let him have it, as long as we don't believe it.' I told him that this is superstition.
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"Whoever imitates a certain group of people becomes part of that group."
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