Surah Al-Mumtahanah, Ayah 5

The Good Example of Ibrahim and His Followers, when They disowned Their Disbelieving People

Allah the Exalted says to His faithful servants, whom He commanded to disown the disbelievers, to be enemies with them, and to distant themselves and separate from them:

قَدْ كَانَتْ لَكُمْ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ فِى إِبْرَهِيمَ وَالَّذِينَ مَعَهُ

(Indeed there has been an excellent example for you in Ibrahim and those with him,) meaning, his followers who believed in him,

إِذْ قَالُواْ لِقَوْمِهِمْ إِنَّا بُرَءآؤاْ مِّنْكُمْ

(when they said to their people: "Verily we are free from you...") meaning, `we disown you,'

وَمِمَّا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ كَفَرْنَا بِكُمْ

(and whatever you worship besides Allah: we rejected you,) meaning, `we disbelieve in your religion and way,'

قَدْ كَانَتْ لَكُمْ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ فِي إِبْرَ‌اهِيمَ ۔ ۔ ۔ حَتَّىٰ تُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّـهِ وَحْدَهُ (Indeed, there is an excellent example for you in Ibrahim and those with him, when they said to their people, "We disown you and what you worship instead of Allah. We disbelieve in you. Enmity and hatred has arisen between us and you forever, unless you believe in Allah alone",....60:4). This verse supports and emphasizes the abstaining from maintaining close friendly relations with non-believers. This rule of law is illustrated by the excellent example of Holy Prophet Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) whose entire family worshipped idols, but he not only washed his hands of them and disowned them, but also announced, and erected a wall of, enmity and hatred with them forever, unless and until they give up idol-worship and have belief in Allah alone.

In the beginning, Abraham conveyed the message of the oneness of God to his family in the manner of a well-wisher. After he had carried out his mission and had come to the end of his arguments, when his hearers persisted in their rejection of the Truth, he completely separated himself from them. But this was a very difficult stage, because his stated intention to distance himself from them amounted to an invitation to the rejecters of Truth to harass the Faithful in every possible way, ultimately degrading them by the use of force to make up for their own defeat in the field of arguments. That is why Abraham subsequently offered up this special prayer, ‘O, Lord! Do not make us the target of the atrocities of the oppressors.’ To absolve oneself of the responsibility for the guidance of relatives does not entail enmity in the usual sense. It is simply the final expression of firm conviction. From this point of view this action becomes imbued with a missionary value. So, sometimes it happens that a person who is not affected by the language of a ‘message’, is successfully won over by the language of ‘faith’.