Part of Concepts of Ahl as-Sunnah (series completed)
· Lesson 247 of 1251
Summary of Sunni concepts | Concept (245) | Loyalty and disavowal between excess and negligence
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Transcript
Machine translation — may contain errors
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A summary of the concepts held by the Ahl al-Sunnah.
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The concept of loyalty and disavowal (al-wala’ wa-l-bara’) between excess and negligence.
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Islam is the religion of balance, justice, and moderation, steering between excess and negligence in all matters of creed, worship, and conduct.
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Regarding the understanding and application of loyalty and disavowal, people fall into two extremes and a middle path.
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The first extreme consists of those who have exaggerated and gone to excess in the matter of loyalty and enmity.
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They judge anyone who engages in any transaction with disbelievers as having committed apostasy and disbelief.
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They fail to distinguish between loyalty that constitutes disbelief and loyalty that is forbidden but does not reach the level of disbelief.
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Indeed, they may judge certain permissible actions—which involve diplomacy or warding off the evil of disbelievers—
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as acts of apostasy and disbelief, failing to differentiate between permissible diplomacy and forbidden compromise of one’s faith.
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The second extreme consists of those who are negligent and lax, having fallen into showing loyalty to and compromising with disbelievers.
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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.
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In their view, such actions are merely permissible, forbidden, or disliked.
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They do not recognize any form of loyalty that would expel one from the fold of Islam.
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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.
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They believe in the obligation to love Allah, His Messenger, the believers, and everything that Allah loves of faith and righteous deeds.
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They also love those whom Allah loves, including His prophets and their believing followers in every age.
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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.
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As for the sinful and disobedient, they show them loyalty in proportion to the faith they possess.
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And they disavow them in proportion to the disobedience they commit.
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They do not show them absolute loyalty, nor do they show them absolute disavowal.
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Rather, they show them the general loyalty due to all believers while disavowing the sins and disobedience they persist in.
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Furthermore, they do not apply a single ruling to all forms of loyalty to disbelievers.
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Instead, they hold that some forms expel one from the fold of Islam, such as loving their religion or aiding them against the believers.
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Other forms are merely forbidden without reaching the level of disbelief.
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They are also moderate in their love for Muslims and in their dislike of them.
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They do not exaggerate in their love for certain individuals to the point of sanctification or attributing infallibility to them.
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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.
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Or accusing them of things they did not say, believe, or do.