As for sharing in their outward practices: were it not a pretext—or a direct or indirect cause—leading to some degree of loyalty and affection, there would be no purpose in severance and distinction. Yet such participation naturally inclines one toward a measure of closeness, as human nature demands and custom confirms. For that reason the earliest generations—may Allah be pleased with them—cited these very verses to justify declining their assistance in positions of authority.
Imam Aḥmad relates with a sound chain from Abū Mūsā—may Allah be pleased with him—that he said: “I once said to ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, ‘I have a Christian scribe.’ He replied, ‘What is the matter with you? May Allah fight you! Have you not heard Allah’s words:
‘O you who believe, do not take the Jews and Christians as allies; they are allies of one another.’ (al-Mā’idah 5:51)
Why did you not take a ḥanīf (i.e., a Muslim)?’ I said, ‘Commander of the Believers, he handles my correspondence while keeping to his own religion.’ He replied:”}
(1) Manuscript B reads: yakun ("be").
(2) Manuscript At has: al-muwadda wa al-muwalat (affection and loyalty).
(3) Here, tabiʿah means the innate disposition (fitrah), the natural constitution and temperament upon which a human is created; see Mukhtar al-Sihah, p. 387, root ṭ-b-ʿ. It is not the sense favored by philosophers and many modern writers, who speak of an ensemble of cosmic elements that act on one another independently of the Creator’s will, nor the atheistic view that “nature” alone constitutes all existence and causality. Exalted is Allah above what the wrongdoers claim.
(4) The eminent Companion is ʿAbd Allah ibn Qays ibn Sulaym ibn Hadhar ibn Harb ibn ʿAmir al-Ashʿari, known as Abu Musa. He came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in Mecca before the Hijrah, accepted Islam, and migrated twice, then a third time from Yemen early in his Islam to the Prophet in Mecca. Gifted with a beautiful Qur’an recitation, he was appointed by the Prophet over Zabid, Aden, and the Yemeni coast; ʿUmar later placed him in charge of Kufa and Basra. He led the conquest of Ahwaz and Isfahan and died in Kufa in 50 AH. See al-Nawawi, Tahdhib al-Asmaʾ wa al-Lughat, part 1, 2/268, biography no. 425. The printed edition merely gives: al-Ashʿari.
(5) Qur’an, Surah al-Maʾidah, from verse 51.