The Light of the Holy Qur'an — Page 137
T H e J O u r NA l—F AT e H M A S IH T H e J O u r NA l—F AT e H M A S IH 137 treating them with kindness and goodness and sympathy. No. Rather, be kind and good and just towards those who have not waged war against you to kill you and have not driven you out from your land, be they Christians or Jews. Be kind and good and just towards them by all means, and God loves those who do so. ’ Then He says: اَمَّنِا ُمُكىٰهْنَي ُهّٰللا ِنَع َنْيِذَّلا ْمُكْوُلَتٰق يِف ِنْيِّدلا َو ْمُكْوُجَرْخَا ْنِّم ْمُكِراَيِد َو اْوُرَهٰظ ىٰۤلَع ْمُكِجاَرْخِا 1 ْنَا ْمُهْوَّلَوَت١ۚ َو ْنَم ْمُهَّلَوَتَّي َكِٕىٰٓلوُاَف ُمُه َنْوُمِلّٰظلا ۰۰ That is, where God has forbidden you from being kind and friendly, it is respecting only those who have fought against you on account of your religion, and have driven you out from your homelands, and did not cease until, working together, they drove you out. Therefore, friendship with them is forbidden as they wish to wipe out the Faith. A point worthy of note here is that tawalla 2 ٭ is used in Arabic to denote friendship , another word for which is mawaddat, and the true essence of friendship and mawaddat is goodwill and sympathy. Therefore, a believer can have friendship, sym- pathy, and goodwill for Christians, Jews, and Hindus, and treat them with benevolence, but he cannot love them. This is a subtle difference that should be remembered well. Then, you have objected that Muslim people do not even love 1. S u rah al-Mumta h inah, 60:10 [Publisher] 2. ٭ Note: The letter ta [ ت ] in tawalla [ تولی ] denotes formality which indicates certain degree of otherness, whereas in ma h abbat there is no ‘otherness’ left whatsoever. —Author