Friendship with Unbelievers
Muslims are required to disown unbelievers for God’s sake without harming them. They just have to maintain good peaceful relationships. But taking non-Muslim as intimate associates is not permissible.
Friendship with Unbelievers
Similar Questions
• To have a friend who is an unbeliever;
• A non-Muslim as a friend;
• To be close with a non-Muslim.
The Issue
A Muslim living in a non-Muslim country may have a close friend who is a non-Muslim. As such they may eat and go places together.
Ruling
While it is not permissible to have a close friend who is an unbeliever, if one needs to join such a person for a meal, such as eating with one’s guest or in a banquet, or casually or to call on him to believe in Islam, or to advise him, this is permissible. This ruling is expressed by Shaikh Abd al-Azeez ibn Baz and Shaikh Abdullah ibn Jibreen.1
Evidence
God has severed relations based on mutual love between Muslims and unbelievers. He says: ‘You have a good example in Abraham and those who followed him, when they said to their people:
“We disown you and what you worship instead of God. We reject you. The enmity and hate that have arisen between us and you will last until you believe in God alone.”’
(60: 4)
A Muslim is required to disown unbelievers and dislike them for God’s sake, without harming them or being unfair to them. However, he must not take them as friends or intimate associates.
God says:
‘You shall not find people who truly believe in God and the Last Day on friendly terms with those who contend against God and His Messenger, even though they may be their fathers, sons, brothers, or kindred. These are the people in whose hearts God has inscribed faith and whom He has strengthened with a spirit of His own. He will admit them into gardens through which running waters flow, where they will abide. Well pleased is God with them, and they with Him. They are the party of God. It is the partisans of God that will be truly successful.’
(58: 22)
Sources
• Abd al-Azeez ibn Baz, Fatawa Nur 'ala al-Darb.
• Abd al-Azeez ibn Baz, Majmu' Fatawa Ibn Baz, edited by Muhammad al-Shuway’ir.
• Fatawa al-Aqaliyyat al-Muslimah by a group of scholars.
• Mut’ib al-Qahtani (ed.), Is'af al-Mughtaribin bi Fatawa al-'Ulama’ al-Rabbaniyyin.
• Mihmas Abdullah al-Jalood, Al-Muwalat wal-Mu'adat fi al-Shari'ah al-Islamiyyah.
references
- A. Ibn Baz, Fatawa Nur'ala al-Darb, p. 370; and Majmu' Fatawa Ibn Baz, vol. 9, p. 329; Ibn Jibreen, Fatawa al-Aqaliyyat al-Muslimah, p. 40.