Is Loving One’s Country from Īmān?

Shaikh Muḥammad Naṣir Al-Dīn Al-Albānī, may Allāh have mercy on him, said regarding the ḥadīth, “Love of [one’s] country is from īmān:¹

Mawḍūʿ [fabricated], […] and its meaning isn’t correct, since loving [one’s] country is really just like loving oneself, [loving] wealth, and the like. All of that is natural in a person—he’s not commended for [this] love of his, and it’s not from the requirements of īmān. Don’t you see that people, all of them, have this love in common: there’s no difference in that between the believers among them and the disbelievers?!

¹Īmān is speech, action, and beliefs; it increases with acts of obedience [to Allāh and decreases with acts of disobedience to Him (tr.).

Silsilah Al-Ḍaʿīfah, vol. 1, p. 110.