or set foot in any place that infuriates the unbelievers, nor do they inflict any loss upon an enemy, without a righteous deed being recorded for them.

Initiating them with the greeting of peace honours and exalts them, whereas the believer ought to stand in dignity over the unbelievers. Allah the Exalted says, “O you who believe, whoever of you turns back from his religion, Allah will bring forth a people whom He loves and who love Him: humble toward the believers, dignified toward the disbelievers.” They therefore possess dignity over the disbelievers; the Muslim should view himself as nobler than the unbeliever and possessed of superiority over him.

For this reason, now that Christian labourers have become numerous among us, a sense of protective zeal has departed from many hearts, and the Christian, Jew, Buddhist, or idol-worshipper is treated—by some people—as though he differed from us no more than a Mālikī differs from a Ḥanbalī or a Shāfiʿī. They imagine that our disagreement with the people of disbelief is like the divergence among the four schools of Islamic law—we ask Allah for well-being. There is no doubt that such an attitude stems from lifeless hearts.

It is never lawful for anyone to honour a disbeliever. What the Law requires is that we do whatever grieves them, while at the same time fulfilling any covenant that exists between us and them. Thus, with regard to hiring labourers—even if they are Christians—we first say: do not bring Christian labourers into the Arabian Peninsula, because the Messenger ﷺ said, “I shall expel the Jews and the Christians from the Arabian Peninsula,” and he commanded: “Expel the Jews.”