Dear noble brothers, we are discussing a new lesson of this series about the Ayaat that start with, "O you who believe…", and the Ayah today is the following:  

 (O you who believe! Take not for Auliya’ (protectors or helpers or friends) disbelievers instead of believers. Do you wish to offer Allah a manifest proof against yourselves?)

[An-Nisa', 144]

Wala' and Bara' (Alliance and disavowal) regarding religion is the sixth pillar in Islam. To clarify, before uttering any word, before getting your heart broken, before getting angry with anyone, before supporting anyone, before gloating over anyone, before treating anyone with hostility and enmity, before making excuses to anyone, before defending anyone, before attacking anyone, and before taking a stance toward anyone, you should make all these reactions based on your religion. In other words, the true Muslim feels the pains of other Muslims who are in a bad situation, he is glad when they are victorious over their enemies, he justifies their negative actions in his inner self, and he exaggerates their positive actions without legalizing them. This is how loyalty to other Muslims should be.

To make this point clearer, let me give you an example from our daily life. A son, who is dearly fond of his father, will never believe anything bad said about him. He will get angry with those who said the bad things about his father, he will deny these bad things, and he will reject them completely. After asking his father whether what he has heard is true or false, and he knows that it is false, he will be on cloud nine. This is how loyalty is manifested.