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yā-ʾayyuhā lladhīna ʾāmanū lā tattakhidhū ʾābāʾakum wa-ʾikhwānakum ʾawliyāʾa ʾini staḥabbū l-kufra ʿalā l-ʾīmāni wa-man yatawallahum minkum fa-ʾulāʾika humu ẓ-ẓālimūna
O you who have faith! Do not befriend your fathers and brothers if they prefer faithlessness to faith. Those of you who befriend them—it is they who are the wrongdoers.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah At-Tawbah – Verse 23
23 . “O’ you who have Faith! Do not take your fathers and your brothers for guardians if they prefer unbelief to belief, and whoever of you takes them for a guardian, those – they are the unjust.”
The last temptation and pretext that might be appear among a group of Muslims in front of the command of war against idol-worshipers was that they thought if they fought against the idolaters, they should renounce their relatives and tribes. On the other side, their capitals and commerce was mostly in the hands of idolaters. By means of their intercourse into Mecca, the briskness of their market would increase. On the third side, this group of Muslims had some good and comfortable houses in Mecca which might be destroyed if they fought against idolaters.
This holy verse clearly and decisively answers such persons. At first, it says:
Then, as an emphasis, it adss:
What an injustice is greater than this that a person, by making friends with disbelivers and joining to the camp of foreigners and the enemies of the Truth, does unjustice both to himself, and to the society which he belongs to, and to the Messenger of Allah (S)?