Not Disbelief to Love or Admire the Character of a Disbeliever
Fatwa No: 428341

Question

Assalamu alaikumIf there is a non muslim who is generally friendly and polite to muslims but on one occasion he made fun of Islam, if you have like a little liking for him still because he still respects you mostly, is this kufr or not?Jazak Allah khair

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is not an act of disbelief to love or admire the character of a disbeliever for his good manners or so, even if he mocks Islam. Rather, this admiration or natural love for a disbeliever, on its own, is not forbidden, and it does not contradict the (enjoined) hatred of the disbeliever’s disbelief in Allah.

Shaykh ‘Abdur-Rahmaan Al-Baraak said: “Innate love may coexist with the hatred of a disbeliever’s disbelief, like the innate love for one’s disbelieving parents; it is incumbent on their Muslim child to hate their disbelief for the sake of Allah, and this does not contradict the innate love he has for them as his parents, being part of his natural disposition, because loving one’s parents and relatives is innate, just as the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, loved his paternal uncle given the ties of kinship bonding them together despite his disbelief. Allah, The Exalted, Says (what means): {Indeed [O Muhammad] you do not guide whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills.} [Quran 28:56] This also applies to the love a Muslim man feels for his Christian or Jewish wife, as it is incumbent on him to hate her disbelief, but this does not prevent loving her the way a man loves his wife. He loves her in one respect and hates her in another.” [End of quote]

We would like to advise you to repel obsessive doubts (Waswaas) and to stop preoccupying yourself with them.

Allah Knows best.

Related Fatwa