لَّا يَنْهَىٰكُمُ ٱللَّهُ عَنِ ٱلَّذِينَ لَمْ يُقَـٰتِلُوكُمْ فِى ٱلدِّينِ وَلَمْ يُخْرِجُوكُم مِّن دِيَـٰرِكُمْ أَن تَبَرُّوهُمْ وَتُقْسِطُوٓا۟ إِلَيْهِمْ
Allah does not forbid you from those who do not fight you because of religion and do not expel you from your homes — from being righteous toward them and acting justly toward them.
Al-Mumtahanah 60:8 — Sahih International
Answered by Nouman Ali Khan
Because the surah is about loyalty and animosity — who you are supposed to be aligned with and who are your enemies. And this passage specifically distinguishes between which non-believers are your enemies and which are not.
So when Muslims are going to show kindness toward non-combative non-Muslims, other Muslims might turn around and say: those are kuffar, why are you being good to them? You are supposed to be enemies to all of them.
The negative phrasing is a direct answer to that objection. Allah is saying: I did not stop you from being good to those who are not fighting against you. The framing is not spreading general positivity — this is a surah about correctly placed and misplaced loyalties, and about behaviors that follow from those loyalties. The negative construction here carries more weight precisely because it is answering the anticipated challenge of being told your kindness to a certain group is disloyal.
Context determines everything. It is not passive permission — it is a deliberate ruling in the context of the surah's larger discussion of who Muslims can and cannot align with.
Where this was answered
- Ramadan Day 12 - BTV Live