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Is the animosity towards the disbeliever in Ibn Taymiyyah's statement: "The disbeliever must be shown animosity, even if he gives to you and treats you kindly," intended as animosity towards the belief or animosity towards the person himself?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Loyalty (al-wala’) and disavowal (al-bara’) are among the greatest religious obligations. A believer’s loyalty is manifested in their love and support for other believers, and their disavowal and heart’s enmity towards disbelievers, even if they are the closest of people, as indicated by texts from the Qur’an and Sunnah. The intended meaning of enmity is the disavowal and heartfelt hatred for the disbelief that a disbeliever holds. This does not preclude natural affection such as kinship or kindness and benevolence towards a non-belligerent disbeliever. As for a belligerent disbeliever, outward enmity is added to the heartfelt enmity. Thus, disavowal and heartfelt hatred are for every disbeliever, while loyalty to a believer and love for their faith are obligatory, even if they are dissolute or oppressive.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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