{"id":168,"date":"2011-12-31T10:07:58","date_gmt":"2011-12-31T10:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/?p=168"},"modified":"2011-12-31T10:07:58","modified_gmt":"2011-12-31T10:07:58","slug":"on-befriending-non-muslims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/on-befriending-non-muslims\/","title":{"rendered":"On Befriending Non-Muslims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The topic of this responsum is the delicate matter of <em>wala\u2019 <\/em>and <em>bara\u2019 <\/em>&#8211; usually glossed as \u201cloving and hating for<\/p>\n<p>Allah\u2019s sake\u201d. The questioner states that she has a female Christian friend, and would like to know whether<\/p>\n<p>such friendship contravenes the Islamic teachings or norms.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The Response<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>All praise be to Allah. To proceed:<\/p>\n<p>There is no problem in this, Allah willing. For Allah, Transcendent and Exalted is He, says: <em>Allah does<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>not forbid you to be benevolent and equitable to those who have neither made war on your religion<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>nor driven you from your homes. Allah loves the equitable.<\/em>2<\/p>\n<p>This verse, as the majority of scholars hold, is one whose legal provision still holds; it has not been<\/p>\n<p>abrogated.3 Consequently <em>birr, <\/em>or benevolence here, embodies the notion of kindness, justice and<\/p>\n<p>fairness. This goes to prove the permissibility of such friendship, providing this friendship is not based<\/p>\n<p>upon creed (<em>\u2018aqidah<\/em>) &#8211; meaning, that they not be loved for their [false] beliefs. As for relationships<\/p>\n<p>with them in the worldly sense, Allah, Exalted is He, says concerning non-Muslims parents: <em>Bear them<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>company in this worldly life in kindness.<\/em>4 An authentic hadith records that the Prophet, peace be<\/p>\n<p>upon him, instructed Asma\u2019 &#8211; when her disbelieving mother was about to visit her: \u201cTreat your mother<\/p>\n<p>kindly.\u201d Recorded by al-Bukhari, no.2620 and Muslim, no.1003.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, friendly relationships from a non-creedal angle is not that type of <em>mawalat, <\/em>or loyalty and<\/p>\n<p>friendship, that Allah prohibits. There is no issue at all with such an affair, or with intending to steer<\/p>\n<p>her towards guidance through good conduct and character. If Allah wills, this is part of inviting others<\/p>\n<p>to Islam. And Allah knows best<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The topic of this responsum is the delicate matter of wala\u2019 and bara\u2019 &#8211; usually glossed as \u201cloving and hating for Allah\u2019s sake\u201d. The questioner states that she has a female Christian friend, and would like to know whether such friendship contravenes the Islamic teachings or norms. The Response All praise be to Allah. To [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fatwa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}