The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—said:

Eighth: giving support to the polytheists and helping them against the Muslims. The evidence is the Almighty’s statement: “Whoever of you allies himself with them is surely one of them; indeed Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.” (al-Maʾidah 5:51)

Thus, the eighth of the nullifiers is: “supporting the polytheists and assisting them against the Muslims.” That assistance may take any form, the worst of which is helping them fight the Muslims. The Shaykh counts this as one of the nullifiers of Islam and cites as proof the verse: “Whoever of you allies himself with them is surely one of them; indeed Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.” (al-Maʾidah 5:51). Taken at face value, the verse is unrestricted: any form of assistance to the unbelievers against the Muslims is disbelief, apostasy, and a nullifier of Islam.

If such support for the unbelievers against the Muslims springs from hatred of Islam and the Muslims and from a desire to humiliate them, it is the behavior of the hypocrites. Allah the Exalted says:

“Have you not seen those who show hypocrisy? They say to their fellow unbelievers from among the People of the Scripture, ‘If you are expelled, we will surely leave with you, and we will never obey anyone against you, ever; and if you are fought, we will certainly help you.’ Yet Allah bears witness that they are liars. If they are expelled, they will not leave with them; and if they are fought, they will not help them; and even if they were to help them, they would surely turn their backs, then they themselves would not be helped.” (al-Hashr 59:11–12)

If, however, the cooperation is not in matters of combat but in some affair that secures a benefit for the unbelievers, and that assistance is offered for a particular