Page 84 - Quick Grasp of Faith 2

75. Why can't anyone other than a believer be
taken as a friend?

People who do not have sincere faith in Allah, who do
not comply with His limits and do not fear Him can never
be friends to believers. Certainly good relations based on re-
spect may be established with these people but it is not pos-
sible to have close friendship with them. A believer who
seeks the friendship, love and pleasure of Allah, surely, con-
siders only those whom He takes as friends his friends. He
knows that the contrary could lead to the loss of the friend-
ship and pleasure of Allah. Allah has warned believers
against such behaviour as follows:
You who believe! Do not take the disbelievers as
friends rather than the believers. Do you want to
give Allah clear proof against you? (Surat an-Nisa':
144)
Apart from this, it is also technically impossible to take
those who do not believe as friends. Before all else, most of
them are not reliable. Faithfulness and loyalty in friendship
cannot be expected from a person who does not mind losing
the friendship of Allah. Undoubtedly, such a person would
abandon his friend, should this friendship collide with his
personal interests. What is more, he would not hesitate to
betray this "friend" when it suited his interests.
Unbelievers can never be truly self-sacrificing, because
their entire lives and mentalities are based on selfishness.
They are not concerned with the reckoning of their so-called
friend in the Hereafter, hence they do not urge him to what
is right or discourage him from wrong in order to protect
him from Hell. More concisely, they do not possess the at-

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