Do Not Take the Jews and the Christians as Allies

Occasion: Transcription of an Isha khatira delivered on 11 October 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — [Watch the original video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn1OzezA5JA)

O Allah, forgive us our sins and our excesses in our affairs, make our feet firm upon the truth, guide us in our paths, make easy for us the means of obeying You, and guide us to the best of speech and the best of character, for none guides to the best of them but You, O Most Merciful of the merciful. O Allah, amīn.

In our call tonight there is a special message from the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted, as He speaks to us in His words, Mighty and Majestic: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَىٰ أَوْلِيَاءَ ۘ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ ۚ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِّنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ﴾ (O you who believe, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies; they are allies of one another. And whoever among you takes them as allies is one of them. Indeed, Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people).^[1]

The parts of the verse

Let us count the parts once more; we have four parts. In the first part, Allah, blessed and exalted, commands His servants, His allies who believe in Him, who have devoted their lives and their religion to Him, Mighty and Majestic, with a specific command: that they not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. So how is this verse clear in what it indicates?

Between the prohibition of allegiance and the command to kindness

For our Lord, glorified and exalted, tells us in another place that ﴿لَا يَنْهَاكُمُ اللَّهُ عَنِ الَّذِينَ لَمْ يُقَاتِلُوكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ وَلَمْ يُخْرِجُوكُم مِّن دِيَارِكُمْ أَن تَبَرُّوهُمْ وَتُقْسِطُوا إِلَيْهِمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُقْسِطِينَ﴾ (Allah does not forbid you from those who did not fight you because of religion and did not expel you from your homes, from being kind to them and acting justly toward them; indeed, Allah loves those who act justly).^[2] So how do we reconcile the two verses? In one He forbids us this allegiance, and in the other He commands us to be kind to them and just in dealing with them. Here is where the question lies.

The answer is that this is a command to kindness (*birr*), which is that the believer takes the initiative toward one who does not need it. The kindness you extend is the completion of good character before the Lord of the worlds, and you extend it to everyone: you are kind to your parents, doing good to them without expecting anything in return, and you are kind to people on the road, doing them favors without expecting anything in return. So when He, glorified be He, says that Allah does not forbid you from those who did not fight you because of religion and did not expel you from your homes, from being kind to them, it means that you do good, that you do favors, that you give, that you bestow, and that you give charity; and that is accepted from a believer whose heart is attached to Allah, blessed and exalted, alone, and whose body works only for the sake of the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted, on this earth and in this worldly life, seeking the Hereafter, and seeing no partner alongside Allah, Mighty and Majestic.

The occasion of the verse and the meaning of allegiance

As for the occasion of the verse before us: after the battle of Uḥud, in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, people differed over allegiance with the remaining Jews. We have one of the Companions who said to the Prophet ﷺ, in a narration: O Messenger of Allah, I have an alliance with such-and-such Jews, and I have such-and-such among them, and he counted names and mentioned that there was an alliance between him and them.^[3]

Allegiance at that time meant those covenants that required support in peace and in war, and required mutual support among them and complementing one another in everything, whatever the consequences; he is his ally at the first level: he fights whoever fights, supports whoever supports, distances himself from whoever distances himself, and so on. This had in fact been the case between the Prophet ﷺ and the Jews of Medina from the start; when he entered Medina and drew up the Constitution of Medina in his dealings with its Jews, part of that constitution was that he would fight whoever fought them and support whoever supported them.

But there is a very great difference between that stage and the stage in which they betrayed their covenant with the Prophet ﷺ; now he would be supporting them against the people of Islam. The second matter: if there are covenants between a Muslim and a non-Muslim, do these covenants carry on to uphold truth and falsehood alike, or do we give support in what we believe to be right and true? If there were an agreement with some state, for example a military agreement and the like, and then we saw that this state wanted to raid people who had no guilt and no war with them, and it was nothing but a kind of injustice and fabrication, would it be the logic of Islam for that Muslim party to the agreement to continue supporting them in their injustice and aggression against others? That is not the logic of the Sharia in the foundation of its law.

Two persons representing two directions

So we are before two persons representing two directions. One direction says: I am with Allah and His Messenger in every state and at every time; I do not turn away from that, not for reason, nor for self, nor for an obligation, nor for wealth. And another person was embodied in ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl, whom we know as the head of hypocrisy, and who said: I only fear the turns of fortune. I only fear the turns of fortune; meaning: what happened at Badr? The disbelievers were defeated. And what happened at Uḥud? What happened at Uḥud, and so on. That is why they say that the verses, when they were revealed, were revealed for this reason. So you see the verses saying: ﴿فَتَرَى الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ يُسَارِعُونَ فِيهِمْ يَقُولُونَ نَخْشَىٰ أَن تُصِيبَنَا دَائِرَةٌ ۚ فَعَسَى اللَّهُ أَن يَأْتِيَ بِالْفَتْحِ أَوْ أَمْرٍ مِّنْ عِندِهِ فَيُصْبِحُوا عَلَىٰ مَا أَسَرُّوا فِي أَنفُسِهِمْ نَادِمِينَ﴾ (So you see those in whose hearts is a disease hastening to them, saying: We fear that a turn of fortune may strike us. But perhaps Allah will bring the victory or a matter from Himself, and they will become, over what they concealed within themselves, regretful).^[4]

So what did the one with this argument say? He said: I ally myself with these people because I fear the turns of fortune. And what do you fear from the turns of fortune? That the days turn against me and I find no helper. But at the root of belief in Allah is that there is no helper but Allah, and that Allah, blessed and exalted, is the Causer of causes and the One who removes causes, glorified and exalted. A person may have authority, power, strength and immunity, and everything you could put under this heading, such that people think him the greatest king, and you lean on him and rely on him; then in a moment it is taken from him. How, when he is the one who commands and forbids, with no one above him? The simple example: paralysis strikes him, or he falls flat, or any one of the causes that, if they do not come from the earth, come from the sky. So who owns power in the dominion and the unseen realm? Allah, blessed and exalted. Hence the believer has no trust in anyone above his trust in the Lord of Might, glorified and exalted.

Allegiance beyond cooperation, dealings and complementarity

That is why there is the question of allegiance, which goes beyond the stage of cooperation, the stage of dealings, the stage of mutual understanding, and even the stage of complementarity. Between us and the people around us, whether they are neighbors, partners at work, companions or others, there are dealings, give and take, partnerships, financial transactions, buying and selling. None of this means that you take him as an ally in the matter of his religion above your own, nor that you support him against a Muslim brother on account of religion; for there are other kinds of support in which we support the one who is in the right, even if his opponent is not merely a non-Muslim but my father, my son, my brother or my sister. These are situations witnessed in the world of life.

We have a narration that the son of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ said: "I am the son of the most noble," and that Christian complained to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb; he came to where he was and said: He said such-and-such and struck me. And ʿUmar said to him: Go and strike the son of the most noble.^[5] Here is a man who represents the caliphate of Islam and the Muslims, and represents its highest head in terms of executive and legislative authority as well; and then comes one of his governors, the one closest to him and his supporter in the post he had assigned him, which was preserving and protecting Islam in that whole region: ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, who was in Egypt at that time, if I remember correctly. Imagine that the head of the matter and its pillar, in human terms, is embodied in the person of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, for example, and he is the one guarding this whole frontier. But there is something called justice, and ʿUmar does not go beyond the bounds of justice.

Is it hostility on the part of Islam?

And we come to our question, for our Lord says: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَىٰ أَوْلِيَاءَ﴾ (O you who believe, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies). And someone says: Is that not hostility on the part of Islam toward others? Why do you deal with us with such harshness?

We do not deal with such harshness. You deal with the people of your religion as your first kin; why? Because you share a common frame of reference. I do not discriminate between human beings; rather, I have made a rule for myself: that what binds me to you is a shared frame of reference. What binds two brothers? The blood of a father and a mother; what binds brothers through the womb of a father and a mother? Is that not so? And if that bond is absent, the circle of connection widens: I am bound to my brother, the son of my mother and father, because he is of my blood, so we share a frame of reference. So what is the shared frame of reference between me and those sitting here now? Between us there is a common denominator, which is a sacred law, and this law is from Allah, blessed and exalted. So whoever is committed to my law, I am committed to him with complete allegiance, and whoever is not committed to my law, we do not share the same frame of reference.

So I disagree with a man and say to him: Fear Allah; O Allah, we ask You for consciousness of You; and both of us fear the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted. Hence the matter for me is not racial discrimination against anyone or in favor of anyone; rather, it is a shared frame of reference between parties who have met on one aim, by one means agreed upon by all. I have what is called the Qur'an, which preserves the safety valve of this society; if we differ on a matter, we return to what the Lord of the worlds says and turn the pages, and there is the verse, and there is his Lord, glorified and exalted, saying: ﴿بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ﴾ (they are allies of one another).

This, in truth, is the answer to the question raised in the objection. The objection was: Why do you discriminate between yourselves and others? So we say to them: It was not we who did that; rather, it was you who made these pacts: they are allies of one another. So if your interests coincide against the Muslims, you will never side with the Muslims against one another.

"Is one of them"

Our Lord, glorified and exalted, says: ﴿وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِّنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ﴾ (And whoever among you takes them as allies is one of them); so understand that you move, in soul, heart and form, to another group. And our Lord, glorified and exalted, shows us a very powerful example: He says to a father about his son that he is not of your family. Why? ﴿إِنَّهُ عَمَلٌ غَيْرُ صَالِحٍ﴾ (Indeed, he is [one whose] work was other than righteous).^[6] What is this sternly worded warning? Because the identity had become different: the identity of Nūḥ became an identity of faith, and the identity of Nūḥ's son became an identity of disbelief.

The disease of the heart and the logic of the mind

Then our Lord says: ﴿فَتَرَى الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ يُسَارِعُونَ فِيهِمْ يَقُولُونَ نَخْشَىٰ أَن تُصِيبَنَا دَائِرَةٌ﴾ (So you see those in whose hearts is a disease hastening to them, saying: We fear that a turn of fortune may strike us). Here a very important subtlety comes to us: who is the person liable to change sides? ﴿الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ﴾ (those in whose hearts is a disease): a matter connected with hearts. So when they say ﴿نَخْشَىٰ أَن تُصِيبَنَا دَائِرَةٌ﴾ (We fear that a turn of fortune may strike us), is this a matter of the heart or of the mind? Of the mind. So there is a defect in the heart. A defect of the heart cannot be described in words expressing its identity and nature, but a defect of the mind may have a cause found for it, because it is logic, because it speaks with logic. So what is the mind's logic in this shift? We fear that a turn of fortune may strike us. The one who fears that a turn of fortune may strike him has put his confidence in the likelihood of misfortune coming from one source rather than another. What does this mean? It is like someone who says: I am afraid that so-and-so will harm me, and he gives so-and-so more weight than he gives anyone else; but if he were confident that someone else was there and would not let him touch me, he would not care about the first one's power. The point is that whoever said ﴿نَخْشَىٰ أَن تُصِيبَنَا دَائِرَةٌ﴾ (We fear that a turn of fortune may strike us) gave weight to those with whom he thinks lies the misfortune that may turn against him, the dominance that comes through them, the power they possess and the wars they may wage, and lost trust in the Causer of causes above him and above those people.

Our Lord says: ﴿فَعَسَى اللَّهُ أَن يَأْتِيَ بِالْفَتْحِ﴾ (But perhaps Allah will bring the victory). What is meant by *al-fatḥ* here? ﴿فَعَسَى اللَّهُ أَن يَأْتِيَ بِالْفَتْحِ أَوْ أَمْرٍ مِّنْ عِندِهِ﴾ (But perhaps Allah will bring the victory or a matter from Himself); it seems to me that this *fatḥ* is the opening of hearts, that they return once again to their certainty in Allah. ﴿أَوْ أَمْرٍ مِّنْ عِندِهِ﴾ (or a matter from Himself) shows them how to become convinced that power is from the Lord of Might, glorified and exalted.^[7]

That is why you see that those people, whether they apostatized, became hypocrites, inclined toward them or compromised, whatever description they were given at the time, all came out in the end in failure; because Allah, blessed and exalted, did not give anyone power over His religion, and did not give anyone power over His Messenger ﷺ, at any moment in which they felt complete power and dominance and thought they had overcome the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and could do whatever they wanted. You know that moment: when the Prophet ﷺ was sitting beside the wall and they were talking with him to distract him, having sent one of them up on the roof to drop a rock on his head, by worldly means. Here is someone sitting with his back against the wall, and a rock is about to come down on him now; it is as if they were congratulating one another. But the revelation comes, which none of those people can withstand.^[8] It is an image, a model, of Allah's relief when it comes from where we do not know and do not expect.

Allah is sufficient for me

Among this is "Allah is sufficient for me, and He is the best Disposer of affairs"; it is the first and only motto of the believer in all his disagreements and discussions with all of humanity: ﴿حَسْبِيَ اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ۖ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ ۖ وَهُوَ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ﴾ (Allah is sufficient for me; there is no god but He; upon Him I have relied, and He is the Lord of the Great Throne).^[9] It is a divine upbringing of the Prophet ﷺ that flows into the souls and hearts of the people of faith in their dealings with every situation. So beware of fearing anyone: your boss at work will persecute you? Your manager, about whom you do not know what he will do to you? All of this is in the hand of the All-Powerful King, who brings about causes and removes causes.

Among the most important things we should pay attention to in our fear of people, or with them, is that hearts are between two of the fingers of the Most Merciful.^[10] The one who fears his neighbor, the one who fears his boss at work, the one who fears his manager, the one who fears this or that: hearts are between two of the fingers of the Most Merciful; He turns them as He wills, and places in them mercy or harshness. And no servant makes good what is between him and Allah but that Allah, exalted be He, softens the hearts of the people around him, for him and toward him. Anything other than that is a departure from the foundation of belief.

Conclusion

So the call comes to us in the words of the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَىٰ أَوْلِيَاءَ ۘ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ ۚ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِّنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ﴾ (O you who believe, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies; they are allies of one another. And whoever among you takes them as allies is one of them. Indeed, Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people). Wrongdoers toward whom? Toward themselves; they wronged themselves when they left the great shelter and took refuge in shelters empty of any benefit. And Allah, exalted be He, knows best.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: al-Māʾidah: 51. The automatic transcript has «ليهدي», a mishearing; the correct wording is ﴿لَا يَهْدِي﴾ (does not guide). ^[2]: Editor's documentation: al-Mumtaḥanah: 8. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The speaker named the Companion as Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah, may Allah be pleased with him; what al-Ṭabarī narrates with its chain in his commentary on the verse, from ʿAṭiyyah ibn Saʿd, is that the one who came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said: «يا رسول الله، إن لي موالي من يهود كثيرٌ عددُهم، وإني أبرأ إلى الله ورسوله من ولاية يهود» ("O Messenger of Allah, I have many allies among the Jews, and I disavow, before Allah and His Messenger, the alliance of the Jews") was ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit, may Allah be pleased with him. He also narrates from Ibn Isḥāq that this was when Banū Qaynuqāʿ made war on the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and from al-Suddī that the verse was revealed about people who thought of seeking refuge with the Jews and the Christians at the time of the battle of Uḥud. The name has therefore been left unstated in the body until the author reviews it. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: al-Māʾidah: 52. In the narration of ʿAṭiyyah ibn Saʿd in al-Ṭabarī, ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy said: «إني رجل أخاف الدوائر، لا أبرأ من ولاية مواليّ» ("I am a man who fears the turns of fortune; I will not disavow the alliance of my allies"), and Allah revealed ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَىٰ أَوْلِيَاءَ﴾ (O you who believe, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies) up to His words ﴿فَتَرَى الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ﴾ (So you see those in whose hearts is a disease). ^[5]: Editor's documentation: al-Suyūṭī cites a version of this story in the Musnad of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (section on reports of deeds), from the ḥadīth of Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, in which a man from the people of Egypt complained to ʿUmar, and he attributes it to Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam; the editor has not verified its chain or grading, and it is reported in the body as the speaker narrated it. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: Hūd: 46. The speaker ended the quotation with «فلا تكونن» (so do not be) and did not complete the recitation. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: This is Dr. Ahmed's understanding of *al-fatḥ* in the verse. In his commentary on it, al-Ṭabarī narrates from Qatādah that *al-fatḥ* here means judgment (*al-qaḍāʾ*), and from al-Suddī that it is the conquest of Mecca, and from al-Suddī that "a matter from Himself" is the *jizyah*. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: The speaker did not name the incident; Ibn Kathīr mentions in his commentary on Sūrat al-Māʾidah (verse 11), from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, Mujāhid and ʿIkrimah, that it was revealed concerning Banū al-Naḍīr when they intended to drop a millstone on the head of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while he was sitting beneath the wall, and Allah informed His Messenger of what they had conspired to do. ^[9]: Editor's documentation: al-Tawbah: 129. ^[10]: Editor's documentation: In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (Book of Divine Decree), from the ḥadīth of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr, may Allah be pleased with them both, the Prophet ﷺ said: «إِنَّ قُلُوبَ بَنِي آدَمَ كُلَّهَا بَيْنَ إِصْبَعَيْنِ مِنْ أَصَابِعِ الرَّحْمَنِ، كَقَلْبٍ وَاحِدٍ، يُصَرِّفُهُ حَيْثُ يَشَاءُ» ("The hearts of the children of Adam are all between two of the fingers of the Most Merciful, like a single heart; He turns it wherever He wills"); it is reported in the body by its meaning, as the speaker alluded to it.