What is the meaning of loyalty in the saying of Allah the Exalted: “Indeed, he is one of them”?

The questioner : This means it leads us to something, which is loyalty. If we read the saying of Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He: “Whoever takes them as allies, then he is one of them.” Does this loyalty, if we take this text, mean what? Or does this loyalty have a detail or limits? And what would it be?

The Shaykh : Yes, my brother, this issue is in reality the cause of the misguidance of our brothers, these stragglers. We must know that just as disbelief is divided into two types—practical disbelief and creedal disbelief—and that by another consideration it is divided into two types—heartfelt disbelief and verbal disbelief—so too is everything reprehensible in Islam divided into these two types. I will not lengthen the discussion with examples; the example of the loyalty you are asking about is sufficient. So, loyalty may be heartfelt, or it may be practical only. If practical loyalty is accompanied by heartfelt loyalty, then it is the disbelief after which there is no sin. And if heartfelt loyalty is separated from practical loyalty, then this loyalty is a sin and not disbelief, not apostasy. Here, regarding “Whoever takes them as allies, then he is one of them,” we must look: is the loyalty of those about whom Allah said “he is one of them” practical only, or both practical and heartfelt? If it is the former, the interpretation is different from if it is the latter. If the loyalty is practical, the interpretation is that “he is one of them” in practice. And if it is the latter, “he is one of them” in his practice and his belief. Is that clear? Good? It means the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say, “He is not one of us, whoever does such and such.” There is a lot in the chapter in the book *Mushkil al-Atsar* by Abu Ja’far al-Tahawi, one of the few Hanafi preservers of hadith, in his answers to the hadiths that contain “He is not one of us.” “He is not one of us, whoever cheats,” “He is not one of us, whoever throws stones at us at night,” “He is not one of us, whoever does not recite the Qur’an melodiously,” “He is not one of us, such and such.” He answers all of this and interprets each hadith according to what suits the context. But in the result, this does not mean that he has exited Islam, unless a bad creed is accompanied by the bad action, such as, for example, declaring it permissible. Here, the negation must be absolute. It was as if we were walking from anything. And we saw a person committing an action.

The questioner : That in itself is shirk (associating partners with Allah). Is this man called a mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah) before it is clarified to him?

The Shaykh : His action is called shirk or kufr (disbelief), but he is not ruled to be a disbeliever until it is conveyed to him and he is warned. After that, the actions of disbelievers are applied to him. The Messenger of our Prophet. The saying of Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He: , and here this man was called a mushrik even though the transaction had not yet been completed, because the event of the transaction is that he hears the word of Allah. So Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, named him a mushrik. How do we reconcile this? If his wealth is something in a difficult situation, he is not a mushrik. It means he says: . We want to clarify it to him if he does not know this apparent fact, so he was named a mushrik. There is no disagreement; he is a mushrik, his reality is that of a mushrik, the name fits the reality. But you are asking about a Muslim who says “La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,” who fasts and prays, but says, “O Abu, you have negated me.” This is not like that. The name mushrik was applied to him previously, and if any of the mushrikin sought his protection, that name was applied to him previously as a Muslim, so he is a Muslim. They differed and separated from the other. Just as this mushrik is misled by his old name until he hears the word of Allah and believes in it, he enters the religion of Islam and is named with a name other than the previous one, a Muslim. So, conversely, the Muslim whom we know as a Muslim, who fasts and prays, and so on, if kufr comes from him, it is conveyed to him and clarified that this kufr in Islam, your persistence in it, takes you out of the circle of Islam. If he refuses, rebels, and is arrogant, he turns from a Muslim to a mushrik, the exact opposite of that. That one exited from being a mushrik to being a Muslim, but this Muslim, if it is clarified to him that this is shirk and he repents and turns back, he remains as he was. And there are many examples of this. Among them, when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) heard 'Umar ibn al-Khattab swearing by his father, he said to him (peace and blessings be upon him): “No.” The matter ended; he did not say to him, “You have disbelieved, renew your contract with your wife and your faith, and the like.” The examples in this are many and very many, perhaps you will not miss them.