Al-Mumtahanah · Madani · ayah 1 of 13

Al-Mumtahanah 60:1

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا تَتَّخِذُوا۟ عَدُوِّى وَعَدُوَّكُمْ أَوْلِيَآءَ تُلْقُونَ إِلَيْهِم بِٱلْمَوَدَّةِ وَقَدْ كَفَرُوا۟ بِمَا جَآءَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْحَقِّ يُخْرِجُونَ ٱلرَّسُولَ وَإِيَّاكُمْ ۙ أَن تُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ رَبِّكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ خَرَجْتُمْ جِهَـٰدًا فِى سَبِيلِى وَٱبْتِغَآءَ مَرْضَاتِى ۚ تُسِرُّونَ إِلَيْهِم بِٱلْمَوَدَّةِ وَأَنَا۠ أَعْلَمُ بِمَآ أَخْفَيْتُمْ وَمَآ أَعْلَنتُمْ ۚ وَمَن يَفْعَلْهُ مِنكُمْ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ سَوَآءَ ٱلسَّبِيلِ

“O you who have believed, do not take My enemies and your enemies as allies,[1672] extending to them affection while they have disbelieved in what came to you of the truth, having driven out the Prophet and yourselves [only] because you believe in Allāh, your Lord. If you have come out for jihād [i.e., fighting or striving] in My cause and seeking means to My approval, [take them not as friends]. You confide to them affection [i.e., instruction], but I am most knowing of what you have concealed and what you have declared. And whoever does it among you has certainly strayed from the soundness of the way.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A believer who had stood firm at Badr quietly warned his enemies of an army on its way, and was forgiven before he finished explaining why.

A reflection

Love, pointed the wrong way

The ayah does not accuse the believers of hating their faith or doubting their Prophet ﷺ. It names something gentler and more dangerous: tusirrūna ilayhim bi-l-mawadda, you confide in them out of affection. The word for what moved them is mawadda, the same root used for the warmest love the Quran knows, the love of a devoted heart that also wishes good for the one it loves.

That is worth sitting with. The man this ayah was revealed about was not cold toward his community. He was afraid for the people he loved, with no one left in Makkah to shield them if things went badly. Fear for the people we love is one of the most respectable feelings a person can have, and it is exactly the feeling the ayah catches in the act of going somewhere it should never go.

This is how most serious compromises actually happen. Nobody sits down and decides to betray a trust out of malice. A manager quietly tips off a friend at a rival company about a round of layoffs, not for money, but because her sister works there and she cannot bear the thought of her finding out from a stranger. The feeling behind the act is real affection. The ayah's insight is that real affection, unexamined, can walk a person somewhere they would never have gone if asked directly.

The ayah does not tell the reader to stop loving the people they are afraid for. It tells them to notice when that love has started writing letters on its own, behind the back of what they actually believe is right.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.