Part three
Reasons that People Choose to Make Hijrah
1. For the protection of your Deen. Allah swt says, “O my servants who have believed, my land is vast so worship me.” Meaning that you will find a place worship Allah. If you can’t worship Allah were you are, move out and you will be able to worship Allah. Mujahid said that the meaning of this ayah is that the earth is vast so make hijrah and fight jihad in Allah’s cause - that there will always be a place to fight jihad for Allah’s cause but you will probably need to make hijrah to find that place. Saeed ibn Jibr interpreted the ayah to mean that if you are in a place that is full of sinners and there are a lot of sinful acts around, then move out and worship Allah (swt) somewhere else, like the man who killed ninety-nine then one hundred, he was told by the scholar to move out and make hijrah.
Mutaraf ibn Abdullah said that the meaning is that Allah’s earth is vast so you will find rizq somewhere else.
2. For your safety - and this was the hijrah of the Muslimeen from Mecca to al-Habasha (Abyssinia). They did not make hijrah from dar al-kufr to dar al-Islam, they made hijrah from dar al-kufr to dar al-kufr. But they made hijrah from a place where they could not worship Allah to a place they could worship Allah. So, France tells you that your daughters and sisters and wives cannot wear hijrab – move somewhere else. You will find a place where you can worship Allah the Most High. You don’t have to stay behind and disobey Allah when the earth is vast and wide – why stay behind when you are banned from fulfilling obligations? There are things that are mustahab when you leave them but this is something wajib so the issue of hijab is wajib and it is compulsory and it is one of the important compulsory things for the Muslim sister so why stay behind in a land where you cannot fulfill this obligation? Like Friday prayer – why live somewhere where Friday prayer is not allowed?
3. Hijrah for Jihad in Allah’s Cause. This link between hijrah and jihad is apparent in many ayat and hadith. Allah says in surat al-Anfal:72 “the ones who believed and made hijrah and made jihad with their self and their wealth and the ones who welcomed them and supported them these are the ones who are awliya of each other”
In surat al-Baqara in verse 218, “the ones who believed and made hijrah and the ones who made jihad for sabilillah, those are the ones who expect the mercy of Allah, and Allah is Merciful and forgiving. Surat al-Baqara 310, Al-Anfal 74, Al-Tawba 20, again and again these three acts are linked together. Rasool Allah said that hijrah does not stop as long as there is Jihad.
Is hijrah restricted to hijrah from the land of disbelief to the land of Islam?
This is a relevant question for our situation today. Ash-Shawkani says that hijrah is not only restricted to the issue of dar al-kufr but it is an established shariah and a strong Sunnah. You need to make hijrah if you cannot order goodness and prevent vice. The believer is supposed to find a place where he can worship Allah best. If we apply these words of ash-Shawkani to our situation today since we don’t have a clear cut Makka and Madina situation, doesn’t mean that we neglect hijrah. Hijrah can be from one country to another, a city to another in the same country or even one neighbourhood to another neighbourhood in the same city. You find in the Muslim lands within city neighbourhoods - those where the people follow corruption or those where the people are more conservative and religious, shouldn’t a Muslim try to live with his family in the best environment? The issue of hijrah applies whenever you find that you and your family are in fitnah and cannot worship Allah the way you should.
There is another important issue that there are some places where even though it is not dar al-Eman, because the classification is based upon the rule that is applied – the rule of Allah or something else, we know that there are places where it is easier to worship Allah than others even though it is still classified dar al-kufr.
And then another issue – why live with your family in a place where every indication shows that it is dar al-Kufr and will remain so and not only that but it will be the enemy of the Muslims from now until eternity as hadith of Rasool Allah state while there are other places even if the rule of Allah is not applied yet but there is every indication that the future for that place is Islam and the people are heading toward Islam and Allah is preparing the people to become Muslims and carry the message of Islam. So when we talk about ash-Sham for example, even though the rule of Allah is not applied on Ash-Sham today but every indication shows that Ash-Sham is heading towards Islam and Ash-Sham will be a land of Islam and it will be a land that we want to be close to because that is where the important events of Islam will be occurring. The same things can apply to Mecca and Medina, Yemen, Khurusan, Iraq…
So yes, there is no Dar al-Islam today but I am responsible for where I bring up my children and if I am the one who chose for them to live in dar al-Kufr then I am responsible for them and for their grandchildren and so on because I did not make the decision to take them out and put them in a better environment. Even better than that is to make hijrah to the land of rabat and to the land of Jihad fi Sabilillah.
Rasool Allah says, “the rabat of one day and night is better than the fasting of the entire month and standing in the battle field for an hour (part of the day) is better than lailatul qadr right next to the black stone. And Rasool says that rabat of one day is better than one thousand nights in other places.
A woman came to Rasool Allah and said that her husband went out for battle fi Sabilillah and she used to pray behind him and she used to follow his worship, so she asked Rasool Allah to tell her about something she can to do that will make her deeds equal to her husband’s. Rasool Allah asked her, “can you pray the entire night until he comes back and fast every day until he comes back and make dhikr of Allah continuously until he comes back.” She said no she could not. Rasool Allah said, even if you were able to it would not equal to even one tenth of what he is doing now. This woman was living in Madina the place where your salat is multiplied by one thousand.
So hijrah fi sabilillah is an important act of worship. A Muslim does not want to be in the situation where he is paying taxes to the enemies of Allah and they are using his money to fight the Muslims. He doesn’t want to be in a situation where he is increasing the numbers of the Kufar and he doesn’t want to be in a situation where the Kufar are using him to give rulings against his own people or to fight against the Ummah. A Muslim doesn’t want to be in the situation where he will be the cause of the fitnah of his children and grandchildren. A Muslim doesn’t want to be in the situation where he might be able to worship Allah but it will be difficult for his wife and children to continue upon the path of Allah.
It is necessary for the Muslim to find a place that is best for his worship. We shouldn’t be looking for the place that is best for our finances but we should look for the place that is best for our worship and then Allah will take care of the rizq. That should be our objective when it comes to hijrah in the Path of Allah.
There is another issue that needs to be brought in when we talk about hijrah. That is the ruling of jihad in Allah’s path today. We know that the ruling of jihad today is mandatory because it is defensive jihad which is mandatory. So in addition to the need of Muslims to move out of dar al-Kufr, there is another obligation and that is Jihad in Allah’s cause. This leaves the Muslims who are living in the west with the choice of staying behind and fulfilling their obligations of religion which also include jihad, or moving out because if you stay without fulfilling this act of worship which is already an obligation that means you are not able to worship Allah and if you are not able to worship Allah then you need to move out. This issue even though it is not part of the hijrah itself but it directly relates to the hijrah because it is an obligation today on every Muslim. So as a conclusion someone who is living in the west if they want to stay behind then they have to have a participation in jihad either nafs (intention to go) or maal (wealth).
Part 1 and 2 in previous posts