WEBVTT 00:00:00.180 --> 00:00:08.800 A summary of the concepts held by the Ahl al-Sunnah. 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:14.570 The concept of loyalty and disavowal (al-wala’ wa-l-bara’) between excess and negligence. 00:00:14.570 --> 00:00:24.570 Islam is the religion of balance, justice, and moderation, steering between excess and negligence in all matters of creed, worship, and conduct. 00:00:24.570 --> 00:00:30.570 Regarding the understanding and application of loyalty and disavowal, people fall into two extremes and a middle path. 00:00:30.570 --> 00:00:36.659 The first extreme consists of those who have exaggerated and gone to excess in the matter of loyalty and enmity. 00:00:36.659 --> 00:00:42.659 They judge anyone who engages in any transaction with disbelievers as having committed apostasy and disbelief. 00:00:42.659 --> 00:00:49.659 They fail to distinguish between loyalty that constitutes disbelief and loyalty that is forbidden but does not reach the level of disbelief. 00:00:49.659 --> 00:00:56.659 Indeed, they may judge certain permissible actions—which involve diplomacy or warding off the evil of disbelievers— 00:00:56.659 --> 00:01:04.790 as acts of apostasy and disbelief, failing to differentiate between permissible diplomacy and forbidden compromise of one’s faith. 00:01:04.790 --> 00:01:12.790 The second extreme consists of those who are negligent and lax, having fallen into showing loyalty to and compromising with disbelievers. 00:01:12.790 --> 00:01:19.790 They do so under the guise of diplomacy or precautionary dissimulation (taqiyya), failing to distinguish between what is forbidden and what expels one from the fold of Islam. 00:01:19.790 --> 00:01:25.790 In their view, such actions are merely permissible, forbidden, or disliked. 00:01:25.790 --> 00:01:30.980 They do not recognize any form of loyalty that would expel one from the fold of Islam. 00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:38.980 The middle path is that of the Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jama'ah, the Companions and those who followed them in righteousness until the Day of Judgment. 00:01:38.980 --> 00:01:47.980 They believe in the obligation to love Allah, His Messenger, the believers, and everything that Allah loves of faith and righteous deeds. 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:54.980 They also love those whom Allah loves, including His prophets and their believing followers in every age. 00:01:54.980 --> 00:02:04.980 Likewise, they believe in the obligation of disavowal and hating everything and everyone that Allah, the Almighty, hates, such as polytheism and its people, and hypocrisy and its people. 00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:11.979 As for the sinful and disobedient, they show them loyalty in proportion to the faith they possess. 00:02:11.979 --> 00:02:15.979 And they disavow them in proportion to the disobedience they commit. 00:02:15.979 --> 00:02:21.979 They do not show them absolute loyalty, nor do they show them absolute disavowal. 00:02:21.979 --> 00:02:30.979 Rather, they show them the general loyalty due to all believers while disavowing the sins and disobedience they persist in. 00:02:30.979 --> 00:02:35.979 Furthermore, they do not apply a single ruling to all forms of loyalty to disbelievers. 00:02:35.979 --> 00:02:43.979 Instead, they hold that some forms expel one from the fold of Islam, such as loving their religion or aiding them against the believers. 00:02:43.979 --> 00:02:48.979 Other forms are merely forbidden without reaching the level of disbelief. 00:02:48.979 --> 00:02:53.979 They are also moderate in their love for Muslims and in their dislike of them. 00:02:53.979 --> 00:03:00.979 They do not exaggerate in their love for certain individuals to the point of sanctification or attributing infallibility to them. 00:03:00.979 --> 00:03:08.979 Nor do they exaggerate in their dislike for certain individuals to the point of oppressing them, denying their rights, or failing to treat them with justice. 00:03:08.979 --> 00:03:14.979 Or accusing them of things they did not say, believe, or do.