Is it permissible to sit with disobedient people and those who commit evil, and does one apostatize who disapproves in their heart but does not avoid them?

Al-Qurtubi's statement regarding the verse, "then indeed you would be like them" (Quran 4:140), means that the resemblance is not in all attributes. In other words, a Muslim is not rendered an unbeliever merely by sitting with an infidel who mocks Allah's verses, unless he approves of disbelief. In that case, his disbelief is due to his approval, not his mere presence. Ibn Ashour clarifies that this resemblance is for emphasis and warning, and it is a resemblance in sinfulness, not in its degree. The questioner is advised to seek knowledge and establish its foundations, and not to preoccupy himself with raising doubts, especially concerning excommunication (takfir). The answer concludes with Ibn al-Qayyim's advice not to make the heart like a sponge that absorbs doubts, but rather like a solid glass through which doubts pass without settling within it.