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In 1937, Muḥammad al-Ḥajwī, a prominent Muslim scholar and an avid reformer of Moroccan state and society, received a request for a legal advice from Ḥāfiẓ Ibrāhīm Repīshtī, a distinguished Muslim cleric in Shkodra, Albania. Apparently, the Albanian king, Aḥmad Zog, had required all state employees and public-school students to wear a European hat (burnayṭa). Repīshtī urged al-Ḥajwī to provide him with an explicit answer to the question: Is it permissible for civil servants and students to wear the burnayṭa? Al-Ḥajwī answered in the affirmative. This article analyzes his response. I dmeemonstrate that his legal advice takes the form of a long and extensive fatwā, focusing on the legality of Muslim imitation of non-Muslims (tashabbuh bi'l-kuffār). In it, al-Ḥajwī advocated a reconciliation of the Muslim umma with Western modernity. His message established an explicit distinction between beneficial and detrimental Muslim appropriation of European objects. Thus, I argue that in his fatwā, al-Ḥajwī provided more than a straightforward authorisation for Muslim Albanians to wear the burnayṭa. Indeed, he outlined a blueprint for harnessing Western powerful modernity as a way to ultimately bolster the community of believers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]