51۞ يا أَيُّهَا الَّذينَ آمَنوا لا تَتَّخِذُوا اليَهودَ وَالنَّصارىٰ أَولِياءَ ۘ بَعضُهُم أَولِياءُ بَعضٍ ۚ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِنكُم فَإِنَّهُ مِنهُم ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لا يَهدِي القَومَ الظّالِمينَMuhammad AsadO YOU who have attained to faith! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for your allies: they are but allies of one another1- and whoever of you allies himself with them becomes, verily, one of them; behold, God does not guide such evildoers.2According to most of the commentators (e.g., Tabari), this means that each of these two communities extends genuine friendship only to its own adherents - i.e., the Jews to the Jews, and the Christians to the Christians - and cannot, therefore, be expected to be really friendly towards the followers of the Qur'an. See also 8:73, and the corresponding note.Lit., "the evildoing folk": i.e., those who deliberately sin in this respect. As regards the meaning of the "alliance" referred to here, see 3:28, and more particularly 4:139 and the corresponding note, which explains the reference to a believer's loss of his moral identity if he imitates the way of life of, or - in Qur'anic terminology - "allies himself" with, non-Muslims. However, as has been made abundantly clear in 60:7-9 (and implied in verse 57 of this surah), this prohibition of a "moral alliance" with non-Muslims does not constitute an injunction against normal, friendly relations with such of them as are well-disposed towards Muslims. It should be borne in mind that the term wall has several shades of meaning: "ally", "friend", "helper", "protector", etc. The choice of the particular term - and sometimes a combination of two terms - is always dependent on the context.