The transcription was done by me with only changes to improve flow of reading.
This is the first third of the lecture. The next two thirds will be in subsequent posts in order to keep the posts from being very long to read.
This first installment makes us consider the ayaat of Qur'an from Surat an-Nisa 97-100.
This is the first third of the lecture. The next two thirds will be in subsequent posts in order to keep the posts from being very long to read.
This first installment makes us consider the ayaat of Qur'an from Surat an-Nisa 97-100.
The topic of hijrah is a very important topic and it is an issue that is mentioned in Quran and Hadith and an issue that was for a while one of the central issues of being a Muslim. When Mecca was dar al-kufr and Madina was dar al-iman, hijrah was a distinguishing factor between iman and kufr. That is how central hijrah was in those days. Those who went to Madina were part of the aulia of Allah and those who stayed in Mecca then it was not the responsibility of Rasool Allah to protect or defend them and their hisab (account) was upon Allah the Most High on the Day of Judgement.
So hijrah for some time was a very important issue and then after that it was not really stressed a lot by the scholars because everybody was living in dar al Islam and no one in dar al kufr so they didn’t talk much about it because it wasn’t a problem -this was in the time of the khilafa. This issue that we have today of someone going to the land of the disbelievers for trading or even for dawa or some other reason, it wasn’t like someone would go out for sabilillah and live among the disbelievers to do dawa, you would go out under the banners of the muhajideen fi sabilillah, that is how it was before, so we don’t find that the fuqaha talked a lot about hijrah because they were tackling with the problems of the day and this was not a problem.
Yes, there were periods where the issue came up like when Andalus fell and some Muslims stayed behind, there came a fatwa from the scholars of Maghrib that you Muslims who are still living in Spain need to get out, but this was an occasional problem that would come now and then but it wasn’t something that came up for abu Hanifa or imam Malik or Ahmad or ash-Shafa’e, the problem was not there.
There are two types of hijrah and one hijrah is mandatory all the time and this is the hijrah which Rasool Allah talked about in sahih hadith in al-Bukhari, “The Muslim is the one from whom the Muslims are safe from his tongue and his hand, and the muhajir is the one who leaves the things that Allah (swt) has prohibited.” So this is a hijrah that we need to do in every age and time - Hijrah from sin to obedience to Allah. This is the hijrah we have to do all the time.
Rasool Allah said, “The believer is the one whom the people are safe from him in regards to their wealth and their self and the muhajir is the one who leaves sins.”
And he said, “The best Hijrah is the one when you leave the things Allah dislikes.” Because the word hijrah means leaving something behind.
Ibn hajar says, “there are two types of hijrah, the inside hijrah when you leave what the evil soul and shaytan tell you and the outside hijrah which is fleeing for the sake of your religion.” We want to talk about the outside hijrah.
With this hijrah that is moving from one place to another, I am going to base it on ayaat of Quran. If Quran is the book of guidance and you want to talk about something that Quran has told us why go looking anywhere else when the answer is in the book of Allah? When you listen to these ayaat you want these ayaat to speak to your heart. We are not going to talk in terms of fiqh hukm of it, haram, halal, mubah, mustahab, we are going to talk about hijrah based on ayaat of Quran and hadith of Rasool Allah sas. Subhanallah, when it comes to the issue of hijrah if you don’t allow the ayah to talk to your heart you are not going to understand the meaning or what was intended. And this is how we should deal with all ayaat of Quran because Allah (swt) said, “there is a reminder in this book for the one who has a heart.” If you want to take Quran dry without it speaking to your heart you will not benefit from it, because Allah says that the reminder is not for everyone, but for those who have a heart or listens attentively and gives heed, but Allah says about the oppressors that the Quran only adds to their loss. That is why Quran is al-Furqan, it comes and splits the people in half, some go to ar-Rahman and some go to Ash-Shaytan - that is what Quran does, it is Furqan.
Allah says about Salih when he came to their people they were united and when he came to them there were two parties fighting each other.
The issue of hijrah is a difficult one always not only today that is how it was in the time of Rasool Allah. Many Muslims today want to make hijrah but they want to go to a place where they will make more money, they say,‘yeah I want hijrah but I want an increase in my salary and a better house and better living.’ All of the sahaba who made hijrah made hijrah by sacrificing - some of them some of their wealth and some of them all their wealth. Hijrah was not easy for Rasool Allah and the Sahaba and it was a risk for them then and it is a risk for us now.
We are going to look at four ayaat from Surat al-Nisa which talk about hijrah but first some background to the condition in which these ayaat were sent down.
There were some Muslims who stayed behind in Mecca and then hijrah became compulsory and they did not make hijrah and stayed in Mecca and when the people of Quraish marched out in the battle of Badr they marched out with their people - just like the Muslims living in America joined the US army when it was fighting against Muslims, these felt compelled to join Quraish when it marched out against Rasool Allah sas. They went out probably with the intention of not firing against the Muslims, just as those who joined the US army had the intention of not firing against the Muslims. So the narration (the hadith talking about the nuzul of these ayat is in al-Bukhari) says they went out silently and the arrows of the Muslims would strike this person and that, and they were not participating in the fighting but some of them were killed by Muslims in the fighting and these ayaat were sent down about these people.
Allah says, “When angels take the souls of those who die in sin against their souls.” So Allah calls them the ones who have wronged themselves and committed oppression against their own selves. The angels don’t take their souls quietly but they take them and ask them, fima kuntum“What was your plight?” What were you doing, you were among the people of Quraish, you were living in Mecca and you didn’t make hijrah to Medina, why? So the angels won’t wait until the Day of Judgment to ask this question and they won’t wait even before that to ask them in the grave, they ask right then and there when they are taking their souls. This is a question that cannot be delayed. Fima kuntum– where were you?
And the people will reply, “We were weak in the land.” We were weak. There is no problem with being weak if there is no alternative. The Sahaba and RA lived thirteen years in this situation and they were mustadhafeen, they were the weaker party in Mecca but the moment they found the alternative it became compulsory to move out and stop living as the weak, if you have the choice to live in honour why would you choose to live in a state humiliation and weakness? When there is no other alternative it is good to be patience but if you have the alternative and you don’t make hijrah for two reasons – fear for your wealth and fear for your safety then you are committing oppression against yourself.
Qalu kuna mustadhafeen fi al-ardh (they said we were weak in the land) you sense humiliation in their answer and subhan Allah this is the situation of the one who accepts to live among the kufar when an alternative exists. This weakness is even reflected in the fiqh (jurisprudence) that come out when you live among the kufar so you start hearing fatawa (Islamic rulings) that sisters don’t need to wear hijab and Muslims can join the army of kufar and it is ok to buy a house with riba mortgage. SO the whole fiqh becomes a weak fiqh, it reflects the situation, so you have the fiqh of people who are weak, and they have conferences that justify being weak. When the kufar have their foot over your neck you need to be talking about how to remove the foot of the kafir from over your neck. Yes Islam is a religion of tolerance but it is also a religion of justice. There is a time of tolerance and a time for justice so the whole culture becomes a culture of weakness.
What did the angels say? They responded by saying. “Wasn’t the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to emigrate within?”
This excuse (of weakness) is not accepted. We are not talking about rulings here, because it is unfair to make a certain ruling about hijrah when the circumstances are different. The circumstance that we had before was that Mecca was clearly the land of disbelief and Medina was clearly the land of belief. So that hijrah was compulsory.
Now we have the lands of disbelief but there is a problem with the flip side of the coin with the land of belief. So we have half of the equation but not the whole equation so making rulings on this situation is not as straight forward as the case before, we are talking about the concept of hijrah in general and the ruling of hijrah now may be different from one person to another and from one time to another for example I think there is a difference between pre-September 11 and post-September 11 in America. There is a difference. Before, the field was open for dawa now things are becoming different. The issue is not straight forward when talking about the rulings but we want to emphasise on the concept of hijrah itself and turn attention to the Muslims that the issue of hijrah is an important issue and we need to absorb these ayaat and see if these conditions apply to you and if they do you need to find a way out.
“Wasn’t the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to make hijrah?” Allah has created this whole earth of five continents, wasn’t there space for you to make hijrah? Why did you have to stay in Mecca and end up coming out with the army of Quraish to fight against the Muslims in Badr when Madina is only a few hundred kilometers away? The one who has taqwa (piety) will find a way out. Allah will find a way out for you if you have taqwa and rizq (provision) will come to you from places you didn’t expect. It is a test to see if you put your trust in Allah the Most Merciful or not.
So what is their fate? Allah says their abode is Hellfire. These people who refused to make hijrah, their abode is Hellfire. They accepted humiliation in duniya so Allah will humiliate them in Akhira. But there is an exception and those who are really weak and oppressed. “Except those who are really oppressed from men women and children who have neither means nor a guide to direct their way.”
We need to put this in the right perspective because someone might say I can’t make hijrah when they can, because the reason they cannot make hijrah is because they have a slight fear for their safety or for their rizq. No, the exception doesn’t apply to these because we know that every muhajir made hijrah in the time of Rasool Allah (sas) was taking a risk and we know they left their wealth behind, so the risk was great. This exception is for those whom it is impossible to move out, they have no way to do it. These are the exception, and Allah says, “For these there is home that Allah will forgive as Allah blots out sins and forgives again and again.”
So what are the two things that keep people behind from making hijrah? Number one: safety and number two: rizq (provision). When you get accustomed to a certain place, you know the people, your network of friends is there, you have a job, you have established yourself, you have a house, your kids are doing well in school, your wife has friends, everything is established and now you want to move out, you want to uproot yourself from that place and go somewhere else?
There are some difficulties in that, you are going to a place you may feel foreign. Your wife, will she have any friends or will she spend the whole time alone and no one speaking to her? Your kids; will they feel accepted at school or will they be treated as foreigners and not be treated very well and get into trouble and not like it. How are you going to make a living, you have a good job that pays me well, I am going to go somewhere else, how are you going to live? These are the concerns that the muhajir has.
The following ayah talks to you and says,
“Whoever forsakes his home as a muhajir for Allah’s cause, he will find in the earth ‘muraghaman’” (4:100)
He, who forsakes his home in the cause of Allah, so it is hijrah, not for the sake of wealth or for someone you want to marry or for duniya, no this is for the sake of Allah (swt), finds in the earth ‘muraghaman’. What does muraghaman mean? It means protection. It also means a place to maneuver. If the enemy is behind you go and maneuver somewhere else, the earth is wide enough for you to take another shot at the enemies of Allah and find a place to maneuver from the enemies of Allah. That is what Rasool Allah (sas) did when he moved out from Mecca. They cornered him in Mecca so he went to Madina. Muraghaman means don’t corner yourself in one place you will find some protections somewhere else; you can find it somewhere else if you just search. For Rasool Allah (sas) it was not easy. He spent a few years looking for a place to move out to, and then Allah gave it to him, but there was some effort that was put into that. Sometimes we want the solution without doing anything. No, you have to make the first step. It says in Hadith al-Qudsi if you walk towards Allah (Az wa Jal) he will run towards you, if you take a step towards Allah He will take many steps towards you but you are the one who starts, you need to take the first step and then Allah will do the rest.
“Muraghaman kathiran wa sa’ah” Sa’ah means rizq. So the two concerns you have; safety and rizq, Allah has promised you that you will find a way out. So you can imagine hijrah as asking someone to jump from a cliff but put your trust in Allah (swt) and you are not allowed to look what is at the bottom, you don’t know if it is water or rocks, but you have to take that jump, you have to put your trust in Allah and jump the cliff. That is hijrah. You don’t know what is on the other side; you have to put your trust in Allah. Allah says you will find muragham and you will find sa’ah. That is a promise even though it doesn’t look easy but Allah has promised you that. Then Allah says, “Should he (the muhajir) die as a refugee from his home for Allah and his Messenger, his reward becomes due.”
Allah doesn’t promise protection from death because death could come to you whether you make hijrah or not. But Allah promises if you make hijrah you will get the ajr – reward, even if you didn’t complete the journey. So you are promised two things but not protection from death – you are promised rizq and promised muragham– a place to maneuver.
The prophets made hijrah. Musa made hijrah and when he reached Palestine, what did the man in Madian tell him? Here you are safe from the oppressing people. And when Rasool Allah made hijrah to Madina, the people in Madina told him, here you are safe from the enemy of Allah, and we will fight for you like we fight for our families.
You can see the stories for the muhajireen today and the muhajireen of yesterday. The ones who make hijrah, Allah (swt) blesses their effort and offers them protection from the enemies of Allah (swt).