Does imitating the disbelievers in outward appearance indicate love for them in the heart?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Can one say that imitating the disbelievers in some of their actions indicates love for those whom one imitates, even if one claims otherwise?
The Shaykh:
There is no doubt. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah says that imitating them in the heart indicates love for them, and imitating them in outward appearance indicates love for them in the heart. This is because if one did not love them in the heart, one would not imitate them. For if you dislike a person, you dislike his attributes and actions, and you do not imitate him. Yes.
The questioner:
So the least that can be said is that they did not dislike the disbelievers.
The Shaykh:
Yes. In fact, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said regarding the hadith, "Whoever imitates a people is one of them," that the least of the implications of this hadith is that it indicates prohibition. Otherwise, its apparent meaning is that it indicates disbelief. Yes.
Can one say that imitating the disbelievers in some of their actions indicates love for those whom one imitates, even if one claims otherwise?
The Shaykh:
There is no doubt. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah says that imitating them in the heart indicates love for them, and imitating them in outward appearance indicates love for them in the heart. This is because if one did not love them in the heart, one would not imitate them. For if you dislike a person, you dislike his attributes and actions, and you do not imitate him. Yes.
The questioner:
So the least that can be said is that they did not dislike the disbelievers.
The Shaykh:
Yes. In fact, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said regarding the hadith, "Whoever imitates a people is one of them," that the least of the implications of this hadith is that it indicates prohibition. Otherwise, its apparent meaning is that it indicates disbelief. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 5504- هل التشبه بالكفار ظاهرا يدل على حبهم باطنا؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.