O You Who Believe

27)

"O you who have believed, do not take the disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do you wish to give Allah against yourselves a clear case?"

[An-Nisa 4:144]

Allah forbids His believing servants from taking the disbelievers as friends instead of the believers. This includes being friends and associates of the disbelievers, advising them, being intimate with them and exposing the secrets of the believers to them.

We have discussed in previous verses that the non-believers will never be satisfied until they take us away from the rightful path and lead us astray. Allah warns us about them.

And this is a prohibition from Allah on the believers that their character should not be like the hypocrites who take the disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. So they (the hypocrites) will become like them (the disbelievers) if they do what God forbade them, which is allying themselves with the disbelievers.

So God is warning the believers to not act like the hypocrites because the hypocrites would secretly aid the disbelievers against the Muslims. It is clear in the context of the passage that it is referring to the hypocrites when we read the next verse:

"The Hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of the Fire: no helper wilt thou find for them."

[An-Nisa 4:145]

The Arabic word awliyaa used in the verse could mean "patrons, friends, allies, etc." and it seems most appropriate to say that the word means ally in this verse

So the verse really means that we cannot aid the disbelievers against the Muslims.

It means we should not go around supporting the disbelievers in their religion and that we should support ours. Allah will make Himself innocent from those that apostatize from Islam.

The critical point here is that we should take as our advisors, consultants, protectors, helpers, friends, etc. those outside your religion (pagans, Jews, Christians, and hypocrites) since they will do their best to corrupt us.

We must take precaution against letting out secrets to non-Muslims, which could possibly be used against the Muslims and Islam if the non-Muslim was capable of deciding to use the information or power that he has obtained in order to hurt the Muslim nation.

It is not stated that we can't have friendly relations with non-Muslims. It only means that we should not be dependent upon them and be at their mercy and under their control.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with showing kindness and having peaceful relations with those who do not fight and attack us and our faith.

Things we learnt:

> Believers should only obey believers in their morals and values.

> Allah has warned us about forming alliance with the non-believers. Allah always talks about the bigger good. Hence trusting Allah as the Disposer of our affairs means obeying His commands.

> The non-believers may deviate us from the right path. Allah wants the best for us and hence it is asserted in Islam to only 'obry' believers while forming friendship with non-believers is not a harmful act. One can befriend a non-believer but he must stay concerned with his own religion. Studying other religions is as well, not wrong but our main focus should be our own religion because Allah The Great chose this religion for us Himself.

May Allah guide us to the right path.
Ameen.
Wama alayna illal balaghul mubeen.