Can Muslims be friends with non-Muslims?

Muslims can be friends with non-Muslims, including close and lifelong friends. The Quran commands kindness and justice toward everyone who lives in peace with the believers, it allows Muslims to eat with the People of the Book and marry them, and the Prophet ﷺ lived among non-Muslim relatives, protectors, neighbors, and companions whom he trusted and loved. The verses often quoted against such friendship speak of political alliances with enemies in wartime, and the scholars read them that way.

What does the Quran say about friendship with non-Muslims?

The Quran gives the general rule in Sūrat al-Mumtaḥana:

لَّا يَنۡهَىٰكُمُ ٱللَّهُ عَنِ ٱلَّذِينَ لَمۡ يُقَٰتِلُوكُمۡ فِي ٱلدِّينِ وَلَمۡ يُخۡرِجُوكُم مِّن دِيَٰرِكُمۡ أَن تَبَرُّوهُمۡ وَتُقۡسِطُوٓاْ إِلَيۡهِمۡۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلۡمُقۡسِطِينَ

“Allah does not forbid you to be kind and just to those who have not fought you over religion or driven you from your homes. Allah loves those who are just.”

Quran 60:8

The word for kindness here, birr, is the same word the Quran uses for devotion to one’s parents. Allah asks believers to treat peaceful people of other faiths with the warmth they show their own families, and He calls those who do so beloved to Him.

The Quran also permits Muslims to share meals with the People of the Book and to marry them (Quran 5:5). It describes marriage as a bond of “love and mercy” (30:21), so it cannot forbid the friendship that marriage itself contains. It describes Christians as “nearest in affection” to the believers (5:82), and it gives the reason Allah made humanity diverse:

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقۡنَٰكُم مِّن ذَكَرٖ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلۡنَٰكُمۡ شُعُوبٗا وَقَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوٓاْ

“People, We created you from a male and a female, and made you nations and tribes so that you might come to know one another.”

Quran 49:13

What about the verses that say not to take Jews and Christians as awliya?

Sūrat al-Māʾida says: “Do not take the Jews and the Christians as awliyāʾ” (5:51). The word awliyāʾ (plural of walī) means protectors, guardians, and allies, the people to whom one entrusts one’s safety and affairs. The exegetes, including al-Ṭabarī, connect the verse with Medina after the battle of Badr, when some tribes in the city had turned openly hostile to the Muslims. The Companion ʿUbāda ibn al-Ṣāmit publicly gave up his old alliance with them, while ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy refused, keeping his alliance as a way out in case the Muslims lost.

The verse forbids that kind of loyalty: siding with those at war against your community. The Quran itself draws the line in the next verse of al-Mumtaḥana, which forbids alliance only with “those who fought you over religion, drove you from your homes, and helped to drive you out” (60:9). A Christian coworker, a Jewish neighbor, or a Hindu classmate is no party to any war, and toward them the command of 60:8 applies.

How did the Prophet ﷺ treat non-Muslims?

The life of the Prophet ﷺ shows friendship and trust across lines of faith at every stage:

• His uncle Abu Talib raised and protected him for decades without accepting Islam. The Prophet ﷺ loved him deeply, and the Quran consoled him at Abu Talib’s death with the words “you cannot guide everyone you love” (28:56; Sahih al-Bukhari 4772).
• Al-Muṭʿim ibn ʿAdī, a Meccan who never became Muslim, took the Prophet ﷺ under his protection after the people of Ṭāʾif drove him away. Years later the Prophet ﷺ said that had al-Muṭʿim been alive and asked him to free the captives of Badr, he would have freed them for his sake (Sahih al-Bukhari 3139).
• On the hijra, the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr hired a guide who followed the religion of Quraysh, trusted him with their camels, and followed him through the desert (Sahih al-Bukhari 2263).
• The Negus of Abyssinia, a Christian king, sheltered the Muslims who fled persecution in Mecca.
• In Medina, a Jewish boy served in his household, and when the boy fell ill the Prophet ﷺ went to visit him and sat by his head (Sahih al-Bukhari 1356). When the Prophet ﷺ died, his armor was pledged with a Jewish man for barley to feed his family (Sahih al-Bukhari 2916).

When a funeral passed by, the Prophet ﷺ stood up out of respect. Someone told him it was the funeral of a Jew, and he answered:

«أَلَيْسَتْ نَفْسًا»

“Was it not a soul?”

Sahih al-Bukhari 1312

Can a Muslim have a non-Muslim best friend?

Yes. The Prophet ﷺ taught that friends shape each other, and that each person should consider whom he takes as a close friend (Sunan Abi Dawud 4833, graded hasan by al-Albani). The measure is character. A friend who makes you more truthful, generous, patient, and mindful of Allah is a blessing whatever their faith, and a friend who leads you to harm others is a danger whatever their faith. Many converts, and many Muslims raised among people of other faiths, have friends of many years whose loyalty is part of Allah’s gift to them.

Friendship also includes the life of the friend. Muslims may share their friends’ holidays and celebrations (Is it haram to celebrate Christmas?, Can Muslims celebrate Thanksgiving?), attend their weddings and funerals (Can Muslims attend a Christian funeral or wedding?), and visit their places of worship (Can Muslims go to church?). For the Quran’s wider teaching on the People of the Book, see What does the Quran say about Christians and Jews?

A closing word

The Prophet ﷺ was sent as a mercy to all the worlds (21:107), and his followers carry that mercy to every friend and neighbor. Be the friend who keeps promises, visits the sick, shares food, and speaks well of others behind their backs. That friendship is itself a form of worship, and a way of making the beauty of Islam known without a word of argument. May Allah bless your friendships, fill them with sincerity, and let each of them bring you nearer to Him.