What is the criterion for disavowal of disbelievers?

The questioner:
Your Eminence, father, the questioner asks: What is the criterion for disavowal of disbelievers? And is there a difference between conciliation and compromising with the truth?

The Shaykh:
The criterion for loyalty toward disbelievers is clear. If they are disbelievers who are hostile to Allah, His Messenger, His Shari'ah, and the believers, then one disavows them. The measure is what they are upon, their words, their actions, their conduct, and their rulings. The rest of the question.

The questioner:
He says, may Allah reward you: Is there a difference between compromising with the truth and conciliation?

The Shaykh:
Yes, there is a difference. Compromising with the truth is yielding something of the religion in order to please the disbelievers; yielding something of the religion for the sake of pleasing the disbelievers is compromising with the truth. And [Allah says], "If you smear, you will be smeared." In this hadith, you are the Qur'an, meaning you are smeared. Compromising with the truth is not permissible. As for conciliation, it is permissible out of dire necessity to ward off their evil. If it cannot be averted except by showing something of giving them worldly things, making the world a means to the religion, that is compromising with the truth. But making the religion a means to the world, that is compromising with the truth.