Islam urges its followers to establish love between one another and states that the whole society should be based on love and mercy. In his hadith, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stated: “None of you will be a true believer till he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” At the same time, if a Muslim feels in his heart that he is not comfortable with a certain person, this is beyond his control, and thus he is not to be considered sinful. However, he should try to love that person and, at least, bear no hatred toward him.
Following is the fatwa of Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid, a prominent Saudi Muslim scholar and lecturer: “A Muslim should not bear any hatred or resentment in his heart toward his fellow Muslim. Allah describes the believers and says: “And those who came after them say: Our Lord! Forgive us and our brethren who have preceded us in Faith, and put not in our hearts any hatred against those who have believed. Our Lord! You are indeed full of kindness, Most Merciful” (Al-Hashr: 10).
Anas ibn Malik also narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Do not hate one another, do not envy one another, do not turn your backs to one another, and serve Allah as brothers. It is not permissible for a Muslim to forsake his brother for more than three days” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim). Commenting on this hadith, Ibn `Abdul-Barr said: “His saying: ‘Do not hate one another’ is a prohibition which is aimed at encouraging them to discipline themselves so as to love one another.”
A person may feel that he does not like someone enough to become a close friend, even though he fulfils his rights like returning his greeting, saying “bless you” if he sneezes, helping him if he needs help, and so on. In this case, the feeling of the person cannot be categorized as forsaking or shunning, and so it is forgiven in sha’ Allah.`A’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Souls are troops collected together and those who get along with one another (in the realm where souls existed before entering physical bodies in this world) will have an affinity with one another (in this world) while those who did not get along with one another (in the realm where souls existed before entering physical bodies in this world) will also not get along (in this world)” (Al-Bukhari).
Al-Khattabi said: “This may be understood as referring to the similarity between souls that are good or bad, righteous or immoral, and that good people are attracted to those who are like them and likewise evil people are attracted to those who are like them. So the souls of man recognize one another according to their nature, whether good or evil; if they are similar they will get along and if they are different they will not get along.”
Imam Al-Qurtubi commented: “All souls have one main thing in common and that is the very fact that they are souls. Those souls that are similar in nature will get along because of their nature. Therefore, we see a certain type of people getting along, while they do not get along with people of a different nature. We also see that with people whose natures are similar; some of them get along with one another and some do not. That depends on the issues that form the basis of their relationship.”