23يا أَيُّهَا الَّذينَ آمَنوا لا تَتَّخِذوا آباءَكُم وَإِخوانَكُم أَولِياءَ إِنِ استَحَبُّوا الكُفرَ عَلَى الإيمانِ ۚ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِنكُم فَأُولٰئِكَ هُمُ الظّالِمونَMuhammad AsadO YOU who have attained to faith! Do not take your fathers and your brothers for allies if a denial of the truth is dearer to them than faith: for those of you who ally themselves with them - it is they, they who are evildoers!1The term walayah ("alliance" or "friendship") is used in this context in the sense of an alliance against other believers, as in 3:28. (Regarding the wider, spiritual implications of this expression, see surah 4, note 154.) That it does not refer to "friendship" in the sense of normal human affection is obvious from the many exhortations in the Qur'an to be good to one's parents and kinsfolk; and, more explicitly, from 60:8-9, where the believers are reminded that friendly relations with unbelievers who are not hostile to the Muslim community are permissible, and even desirable. (See also Manar X, 269 ff., where a similar interpretation is advanced.)