Hope or Hijrah
By Abu Eesa Niamatullah | 2026-01-10T12:41:53.282504+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Hope or Hijrah - Sh. Abu Eesa Niamatullah
Opening Invocation
"In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, and the [best] outcome is for the righteous. And may Allah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and companions, all of them."
(أَمَّا بَعْدُ - Amma bad), (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh). So, this is a reminder that I wish to give primarily to myself and then to my brothers and sisters and it really is a reminder because the majority of this lecture was presented about maybe six years ago or something like that to another audience in Manchester and it wasn't too long after the events of 9-11 when the Muslims were in quite a serious state of confusion about their status, about how to resolve the conflict between their identity as Muslims and their status as citizens, citizens of a country which had been directly attacked by Muslims in the name of Islam and so on.
The Muslim Identity Crisis Post-9/11
And the Muslims were obviously holding on to their identity of Muslims which is of course their obligation and yet having to try and deal with the conflict of interest, the confusion that was natural at that time and yet this is a Muslim group, a group, a community that had no other identity, no other social belonging, no other culture, no other citizenship other than the countries that they were in, that they were living in, the western countries, Britain for us at that time, so they didn't know what to do. And I remember actually a lot of the things that I was having to say in that reminder or that talk were actually quite embarrassing and difficult for me especially to say such as we have to be good citizens or Muslims need to show the community how much they care, what kind of silly statement is that, what do Muslims expect themselves to do anyway as part of their contract with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and of course the agreement with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم upon entering Islam. We are like that to ourselves, to everyone else, it's just part and parcel of being a Muslim, how without being patronizing do you tell a Muslim to be an integral member of the community when of course he is an integral member of any community that he lives in.
The Natural Excellence of Muslim Character
A Muslim, he or she, whoever they're with, with Muslims or non-Muslims, they're at the best of their behavior, it is natural, it's really actually quite difficult. It reminds me of a comedy sketch which a friend of mine showed me once where there's an American comedian and this father, he goes up to the comedian and he says to him, I look after my children, and the comedian turns to him and says, what the hell do you expect to do? You are a father at the end of the day, do you want me to give you a medal or something? This encapsulates the issue here, you're trying to tell people to be normal and be good when of course the people are normal and the people are good and so it is difficult to tell Muslims to be like that when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم as from the basic requirements of the religion, requests us to be at the very best of our character with Muslims, non-Muslims, our environment, our animals, everything. Our adab with our surroundings is at the very highest level and requirement anyway, so it was difficult.
Two Reasons for Revisiting This Topic
But the reasons that I want to give this reminder again now are for two specific reasons.
First Reason: The Disconnect in Understanding Muslim Civic Duty
Number one is I was in London recently for a visit and we went to a Jummah khutbah and the khutbah was pretty average to be honest and I remember listening to the khatib and he was saying things like be good people and help your neighbours and all this kind of thing and as you can imagine I'm saying to myself, do Muslims need to be reminded of such obvious things? So in one ear, out the other I suppose and when I came outside and the companion that I was with, deep in thought, reflecting and so on, I thought what's he thinking about? I said, you okay? He goes, yeah I'm just reflecting upon what this khatib said and I'm thinking what did I miss that he's reflecting so deeply about and he goes, I've never heard this khatib say this, in our community we've not been given this vision of being good to our neighbours and being good in our community and so on. It's always been about deen, deen, deen, deen, deen and not about the wider community.
I was shocked I was, I was really shocked. I thought to myself, subhanAllah, have I so misunderstood the Muslim community, the youth of our community, the feeling in our community that they cannot seem to marry together the fact of being Muslim and being a British citizen and it shook me up actually and I said to myself subhanAllah, I need to go back, I need to really readdress this issue with the public because maybe I'm assuming too much, maybe there are people who are in confusion or maybe there is a level of extremism out there amongst our, some of our members that doesn't allow them to resolve in their mind how you can be one and be the other as well, be the good citizen and yet be a fully practising Muslim.
Second Reason: The Rise of Secular Muslim Movements
And the second reason that I give this little reminder now is that whilst people like myself have been living in these ivory towers thinking that our communities are all okay and dealing with the problem, there are other people who are maybe not so well intentioned, brown sahibs as we used to call them or as Malcolm X used to call them, house negroes.
These people are very busy, these are people who are closer to kufr than iman, they take of course the identity of Muslims and they are very, very busy, very active trying to hijack the direction of orthodox Islam in this country, very, very busy and they want to try and dictate the identity that the Muslims should form for themselves whilst they are living in the western countries. And as you can imagine these secularists with their new found and well supported foundations and forums and councils and whatever, they are very, very specific, very heavy on diluting the Islamic identity. They want to dilute Islamic religious practice, they want to try and get away with individual cultural expression in a multicultural society.
The Danger of Progressive Islam Movements
A variety of aims and objectives which if you were to go down, you think it's a horror story, it's amazing that people who call themselves Muslims would be trying to promote such an identity for Muslims living in a country that gives us so much right and freedom of expression to do and practice our religion that we have so called Muslims who are forming these think tanks or icon think tanks and trying to take this identity away from orthodox Muslims and establish this falsehood that they are trying to do. And the problem of course, and of course they call themselves progressives. At the end of the day they are liberal, secularist minded Muslims and they call themselves progressives.
Of course they are regressives and if this is progression then we need the stone age, definitely. The stone age is definitely better for us, for our deen and our dunya. And the problem of course is that some of the things that they will say, some of the things that they will come across in their aims and objectives would of course agree with the orthodox Islamic position.
The Core Message: The Future is for British Islam
So alhamdulillah this talk or this presentation is not a movie and so there is no big surprise at the end so I'll tell you the ending right now. So if you need to leave or something then you can leave straight away. The future is for British Islam.
The future is for the Muslims in this country. We do have hope in what we have to survive and to have a vision for the future. So that's the aim of the talk.
The Confusion Between Orthodox and Progressive Positions
So alhamdulillah it's not a film so I haven't surprised anything. But the point I'm trying to make is that this objective is one of course that these foundations will naturally support. They want to try and create this new western Islam, this kind of fairy tale where they have this identity which in actual fact is the exact identity that those people who want Islam to be washed away want us to have.
And naturally they want us to remain in this country under the thumb, in the mould that they have created for us. So they would want us to believe that there is future for British Islam. And so here we marry together.
And the problem is that when the Muslims, the orthodox Muslims and the scholars of Ahlul Sunnah, they are promoting such an Islam, an Islam based upon fiqh, upon knowledge, upon aqeedah, upon usool and good solid principles and they come to the conclusion yes that we must be good in our community, yes we must go and help these people, yes we must be looking for our future in this country. Then for some Muslims, in fact for many laymen and ignorant Muslims, it looks as if we the orthodoxy are supporting these deviants. It's as if we are supporting the aims and objectives of these foundations.
Our Opposition to Secular Muslim Movements
And the reality is they couldn't be more wrong. We are more opposed to these people in our times than ever before. We want to warn our communities that these secularists, that these liberal people who call themselves Muslims are the biggest danger within our community at the moment.
And we have nothing to do with them, whether they want to agree with us or not, that's their prerogative. And this is very very important and this is not a rant, this is an advice and a reminder that what the government has done in its short sightedness and in its ignorance has gone to those people who were so unstable with respect to their religion, like leaves floating in the wind. So if the wind blows this way then they go to this way and if the wind blows this way then they go to this way.
The Instability of Extremist Movements
They have no stable stability, they have no usool, they have no foundation. Before there were people who claimed to be an XYZ group, an XYZ movement and they wanted to blow everyone up to Kingdom Come and now these people want to hug and kiss everyone to Kingdom Come. They are people who have no standards, no stability.
Why when we didn't go to them then should we go to them now? Who has made these people with their lack of religion, lack of knowledge, who has made them our advisors? It's like a comedy movie, it's like a Hollywood movie, you could not make it up. And if anyone has seen Mr. Bean on a holiday, I think Mr. Bean on a holiday, this is the one where he himself in the beginning, he's just the most miskeen of all misakeen, he's absolutely, you know Mr. Bean anyway, he's a big miskeen anyway. But in this film he's super miskeen and he's working I think in an art gallery, just maybe cleaning or something.
The Absurdity of Unqualified Leadership
And they make him by turns of events the world's greatest art expert. They make him go to exhibitions and advise us on the world's greatest this and that. It's exactly the same, it's like a movie.
They have taken the most ignorant, the most miskeen of our community, the people with the most lack of religion and understanding and try to give them that power to dictate the identity. That is why we will have to now step up our efforts as the orthodoxy and show what is the foundation for coming to a decision. What is the foundation, what is the basis for saying hijrah is this or it isn't and to live in this country should be based upon this and what it shouldn't be and so on and so on.
Based upon the Quran, based upon the sunnah, not based upon desires and upon payday and upon pleasing the paymaster and every other metaphor that you can think of. So these are the two reasons why this talk needs to be given. And ultimately it will be about, I would say ultimately it will be about clarifying the concept and the doubts brought up by hijrah.
The Legal Definition of Hijrah
And hijrah is a very important concept in Islam. In its legal sense the word hijrah means to or the emigration from the land of the non-Muslims to the land of Islam. That is its technical legal shar'i definition, what hijrah actually is.
It's understood that if someone is in a scenario where their religion is going to be compromised or that to practice the fundamentals is going to be difficult, then this person has to do something and has to do something quick, has to make some very desperate move really to try and safeguard their religion. So one of those things is seen as moving into an area where Islam is spread, where religion is more established, where there is a greater chance of them holding onto the basics of their religion. Now with the idea that hopefully if I move to a more Islamic environment it might do the trick, it might make me a better Muslim, it might protect my children from going into deviancy or into corruption and so on and so on.
The Nature of the Hijrah Debate
That's the concept and the idea behind hijrah. Now it's important that we understand this debate and don't get caught up into the two extremes or we don't become too biased. Because this is not a debate of people's desires, this is an ilmi debate.
This is a debate based upon knowledge and evidences and both schools that are calling to a particular opinion are doing so with very good intention. And this issue or the issue of hijrah or the debate of hijrah is a relatively new debate. It's something which has been more debated by our contemporary scholars because muslims have not for a long time been living in lands other than muslim lands.
Historical Context of Muslims in Non-Muslim Lands
That's why it has been a more contemporary problem. The idea that muslims living in non-islamic lands might be having difficulty with their religion. So now we need to give them the ruling to come back to an islamic land.
So the discussion and the legal kind of discourse is relatively recent. But of course we know that throughout the 1400 years of islamic history there have been incidents of minorities of muslims living in non-muslim lands. And the scholars in general didn't have a massive problem with this happening except that in asal, as a base principle, the status quo I can say, is that muslims live in muslim lands.
The Benefits of Living in Muslim Lands
Muslims live in a place where the adhan is called and everything comes to a stop and we can go and pray and then we can go back to work and where the celebrations are done together and where the acts of ibadah are done together. And this is the general kind of principle that acts of worship when done in congregation are easier. It helps the people.
The salah in congregation is easy to pray, isn't it? You just stand up and pray. And we know that for example, it's just human nature to pray sunnah in the masjid, two sunnah or four sunnah in the masjid. It's not too difficult.
But if you say to yourself, you know what, I'll pray it at home. When you get home, how many things then suddenly pop up? And then how often do those two or four sunnah get done? It's because in general the acts of ibadah are easy in community, easy in a better islamic environment. Look at Ramadan.
Why is the community so strong? Why is the deen so strong? Why are people's iman and why is the level so strong? Because when everyone's doing it together, everyone is focused, the community working together and the environment is like that, it becomes easier. So clearly the status quo is that the muslims in general live in muslim lands. Now as for a ruling in terms of what is halal and what is haram, then hijrah becomes an absolute obligation, an absolute obligation upon the muslims who cannot fundamentally perform their religion.
The Quranic Evidence for Hijrah
And this is because what Allah says in surah an-nisa, the translation of
"(Verily, as for those whom the angels take away while they are wronging themselves, they say to those people, fima kuntum, in what condition were you? What's going on with you? They reply, kunna mustada'afina fil ard. We were weak and we were oppressed in the earth. They say and the angels will then say to these people, was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to emigrate therein? Was it not big enough for you to go and to a different place, to a land of Islam or to a land of greater security? And then Allah then finishes off the ayah and says, fa-ulaika ma'uwaahun jahannam, wasa'at nasira)."
Those will find, these people, will find their abode in hell and what an evil destination. So this ayah establishes the obligation upon those Muslims who are not able to perform the very basics of their religion, that they must go to a different place, move, do something to go back to their base level of religion. This is the ayah which establishes the obligation.
Understanding the Context of the Ayah
This is where you will always hear the argument of hijra is an obligation brother and sister, hijra is an obligation. This is the basis to understand. Now what we need to do is to look at this and see, is this really the case for people like us? What are the details to this general ruling? The mufassireen, the people who explain the Qur'an, tell us that this verse in principle refers to those Muslims who are fighting against the Islamic State itself.
So the Islamic State is at war against the disbelievers, the polytheists at the time, of course the Quraysh, and the Muslims at that time who are with the Quraysh, who are claiming this weakness and this oppression and this inability to effectively come and help the Islamic State itself. So that's the first thing. So what we can then say, what we can say is that this verse is a severe warning, if we're going to take a balanced interpretation, that this verse is a severe warning for all Muslims who live in non-Muslim lands like ours to assess our own roles and our function in these societies, what we're actually doing or not.
The Flexibility in Understanding Hijrah
And the reality is that the inability, the inability to perform our religion in its basic sense leads to the absolute individual obligation that we have to leave that land, that place, and move to somewhere where we can. This is what we can take from this ayah and we should all be happy with that, that's absolutely fine. But if you look at this ayah more closely, you do not see that this ayah now obligates us going to Dar al-Islam or a specific country or a specific state or the Khilafah or something like that, no.
This ayah does not have any evidence in this to show that we must go to a specific place, no. Rather it obligates that we get out of here where we cannot practice Islam and to go to a place where we can, where our deen is safe, where we can preserve more, if not all, but more than what we've been able to do in the previous place. This is what we can, when we are being fair and being equitable when it comes to interpretation, this is what we can take from the meaning of this verse.
The Example of Abyssinia
Also, you will not see a single evidence to show that the sahaba radiallahu anhum, when they did this, and of course they did, right? You remember when the sahaba were in Mecca and the situation for deen was very very difficult and some were able to be patient and others were not able to. And so they were given, if you take this ayah for example and apply it, what was the conclusion? Did they go to Medina? Medina wasn't even established at that time. Did they go to another Islamic state? There was no other Islamic state.
So where did they go? They went to Abyssinia. Abyssinia was not an Islamic land. Abyssinia was a non- Muslim land, but rather their going to that non-Muslim land was actually going to an environment that was allowing them to practice their religion, not 100% completely, but far better, far safer, far more stable than what they were able to do when they were in Mecca.
No Evidence for Mandatory Return to Muslim Lands
So this is the understanding of the companions when it comes to this kind of ayah. Then we also see not a single evidence, as I said, from the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) throughout the rest of Islam and its development, even in the presence of the Khilafah in Medina, Tul Munawwara, a statement or an order from the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) telling these people who were in Abyssinia to come back to the Islamic state. We don't see it.
There's not a single piece, single evidence anywhere, which shows that as long as their level of Islam was at that level, minimum, that they were establishing their deen, that they were not doing the haram, then it was okay for them to remain in that place. Other than this, in the extreme situation where a person would be maybe required to come back to a Muslim land is when a Khilafah and the Khalif, the Khalif himself, the leader of the Muslims, the Khilafah has been established and the Khalif himself gives a direct order and says to the Muslim who is living in non-Muslim land, you must come back to this country or you must leave that land and come back and help our, I don't know, information sector or our industry or you must come and fight in the army. If there is a presence of an Islamic state then the Khalif can give that hukam.
The Consequences of Disobeying a Khalif's Order
And if the Muslim himself was to disobey this then the scholars have discussed what would happen to such a person. Other than it being haram to not listen to such, other than it being haram to ignore such a command, it would mean that if this country was attacked, if this country, this non-Muslim country that this Muslim was staying in and refusing to leave, to go to another Muslim country, if it was attacked there would be no blood money that would be due. And according to some scholars there would be only half the amount that would be due.
And we will come back to this point in a minute as well inshaAllah. I've given you the example of a Khilafah. I'm just trying to, if you like, I'm trying to give as much support because I like to do that.
The Current Reality of Muslim Countries
I like to be able to, in my mind certainly, and everyone who is a student of Sharia should be wanting to try and exhaust all of the evidences for each position before they come to a conclusion. I'm giving you the example of a Khalif, of the leader of the Muslims, (أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ - Amir al-Mu'minin) saying to you, you must come to this Muslim country and leave that non-Muslim country and help us. I'm giving you that example.
That example is now, not only is it not applicable now, can we find any Muslim country that is opening the doors for the Muslims to come back today? Can we find that in any, obviously we have to use the word Muslim in inverted commas if you like because we are dealing with Muslim countries who are run
by the most barbaric, secular, tyrants. Tyrants is the only word that we can use for them. And our presence and our entering upon that country is in an utter state of fear.
Forget about invitation, come (أَهْلًا وَسَهْلًا - Ahlan wa Sahlan), you've got to be joking. You're going to go in there, we have to go and prepare, some people have to shave off their entire beards, other people have to bring their wives and children with them on purpose to show that it's a family visit, other people have to do X and Y, people have to prepare themselves mentally for being held by six hours, being jailed by the people and so on. This is the welcome that is being offered to us by the Muslim countries.
The Practical Reality of Muslim Migration
There is no welcome. This is not a reality. But that's just a practical point.
It is not an issue to make a legal point on. But let's be fair. If we're going to discuss Hijrah, let's discuss the reality.
How many hundreds of millions of Muslims live in non-Muslim lands? Don't just think about the two-odd million that are in this UK. Think about the five to ten in Europe. Think of the five-odd ten-odd in America.
Think of the hundred-odd in India and keep going around the world and you'll find that we're talking a hundred million plus, maybe much more than that, Muslims living in non-Muslim lands. Where are they going to go? I don't know if anyone has even tried to get a Saudi visa. Who is going to let all these people in? Saudi is not going to give you one visa.
Forget about 100 Iqamahs for all the Muslims to go there and live in the mountains and the other lands. What other land is there that we will find that Islam will be so practiced in such a beneficial way that will give us this hope for a better life in Islam? Again, I emphasize, this is not a legal point. When you're talking about legal discussion, we can't use this as a legal point, but it's a practical point and it's a social point and it's a point of reality that we have to understand when we're trying to get our heads around whether we should go or not.
The Famous Hadith About Living Among Polytheists
But as we said before, the Muslim recognizes that in principle we do stay in the Muslim lands, that we do when we can. That's where we belong. But then again to the other side, the most famous hadith which is mentioned to support this argument that we have to leave the non-Muslim lands is the hadith of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in which he said that, (أَنَا بَرِيءٌ مِنْ كُلِّ مُسْلِمٍ يُقِيمُ بَيْنَ أَظْهُرِ الْمُشْرِكِينَ - I am free, I am free from every Muslim who establishes and lives amongst the polytheists).
This is what he said. And this is what you hear all the time of course. When you hear the hadith, brother you must make hijrah because the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, I am free from every single Muslim who lives amongst the polytheists.
The Weakness of This Hadith
Now the problem is that, actually there's two problems. The first problem is that this hadith is not authentic. And we have to do this in an academic fashion because our deen is based upon this, upon knowledge.
This hadith is not authentic. If you look at the kibar of muhaddithin, Imam Bukhari for example said it was weak. Imam al-Nisai and Abu Hatim al-Razi and al-Daraqutni and if you look in Kitab al-'llal you will see this hadith is a mursal narration where the companion is missing and therefore the ruling upon it is that it is weak.
So it cannot be used as evidence. But let's put this to the side. Let's assume for the sake of argument that the hadith is authentic.
The Complete Context of the Hadith
Let's look at the complete narration. Let's look at the narration from the beginning to the end and see the context of this hadith. And it's narrated by Jarir ibn Abdullah and he said that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) sent a battalion, a military unit to go and attack a tribe.
It was a non-Muslim tribe. And some of the people of that tribe, they tried to protect themselves, they went into sajdah. Now went into sajdah is a metaphor for saying we're Muslims, we're Muslims.
Don't kill us. I know this is a non-Muslim tribe and you're attacking it for good reasons but we're Muslims, don't attack us, don't kill us. And the military unit, they went ahead and they killed them regardless as part of the war.
And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) when he heard about that, when the news got back to him, and he wasn't happy about that, but what he did is that he paid the families of those that had been killed half of the normal blood money, the diyah. And then he said this statement, I am free from every Muslim who lives among non-Muslims. Amongst the polytheists.
The Prophet's Explanation
The companions at the time, when they looked at him and they heard him say that, they said, (لِمَ يَا رَسُول الله؟ - why is that O Messenger of Allah?) And he said (لَا تَرَاءَى نَارَاهُما - you will not be able to because you cannot distinguish between their two fires). You cannot distinguish between their two fires, i.e. they are so close, they are so integrated, they are so living together, that how are we able to differentiate between them? We've told them clearly that this is the Muslim land, this is the non-Muslim land, come here if you wish, but if you're going to stay there, then you have to establish your own identity. If you're living so close and taking the identity of the people around you, and we're attacking a unit, we cannot be held accountable for you completely.
So therefore the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, I am free from this situation. So this is the correct understanding of this narration, which is why in the books of fiqh, in the books of law, you will see when it comes in the chapter of jinayat and the chapter of diyah, of crimes and of blood money, you will see this ruling, that the Muslim is only given, the family of the Muslim who is killed in this scenario is only given half the diyah. Where on earth does this ruling come from? So even if we were to accept the authenticity of this hadith, this is the correct understanding, even though the hadith is weak.
The Modern Application of This Hadith
What it means to us is that this is not an evidence that means that all the Muslims like us who are living in a country like this must leave. Rather, what does it mean? I'll tell you what it means. It means that for example, for example, in Afghanistan, because America attacked a sovereign country, Afghanistan, what did Afghanistan have to do with 9-11 or to do with attacks on America or anything like that? At best, it was the action of some people who planned the attacks from there, at best.
So what right did America have attacking the country? Absolutely no right? And the country itself has a complete right, complete right to defend itself and it has the complete right to go and attack America back. Absolutely. And it has the complete right to attack all countries that attacked it or keep attacking it.
That's war. What else is war? So if a Khilafah was established in Afghanistan and the Amirul Mumineen said, right, I will get back Britain for bombing us and killing our hundreds and thousands, whatever, and it decides to bomb this country and we died as Muslims in this community, our families can only expect half the blood money. That is what the meaning of this hadith is.
It has not made it haram upon us to be living here. It has not put us in a state of kufr in being here. Rather, it has put us in a state of maybe a little bit of shame that we are in such a situation, but from a technical point of view, half of the blood money will be paid to the families. This is how to understand this hadith in its correct sense. Anyway, let's not be naive about this. This argument is not simple.
Invalid Emotional Arguments Against Hijrah
A lot of people, they try to kind of defend their presence in this country and they say that how can you go to a country where the Muslims over there are so backward, they are so corrupt and they charge extortionate taxes and they take bribes and they do this and they do that. This is not a legal argument. This is an emotional argument.
This is not an argument for those people who want to say that we should not make hijrah. Those people who say, no, we have to stay here, there is no such thing as hijrah. That is what they say.
I don't know if you have heard it, but they say, how can you go to Pakistan over there because of, or Nigeria or one of the two. They are always fighting out at the top of the corruption stakes. They will do this, they will do that.
How can you go to the next country like that? There is no standards and quality and education. This is rubbish. This is not a good argument.
The Reality of Corruption in Western Countries
I am presenting these to you so that you have the full picture in your minds. This is not an argument because anyone who knows the political system in this country will know that this is the most corrupt country. It has the most bribes going on, the most underhand dealings going on.
The political process in this country is full of favours and backhanders and so on and so on. If anyone reads Private Eye, have a read of Private Eye just one week and you will be amazed how people get themselves into one department and then get over from their little stint in Parliament and then move on to become Chief Executive of XYZ Defence Company and companies supporting disarms and supporting this, that and whatever. It is unbelievable.
Don't, you know, wake up and smell the coffee. Don't just blame the Muslims because their mischievous frontline soldier is the one who gets paid £10 a month and he is taking £100 from you as a bribe. And so because you see it, this is the bribery.
No, the bribery and the corruption that goes on in countries like the UK here itself and our MPs and so on is hidden, is behind and we don't see it. And it is a bigger magnitude, high amounts of money and a much more serious level of fraud. So we should not use this argument in any way.
The Valid Concerns of Those Advocating Hijrah
Again, at the same time to support those people and you can see I am playing a tennis match here. I want to play that tennis match. I am going to keep putting it from this side to this side.
Again, look at the issue of the basis of the argument of those people who want us to make hijrah. Are they some kind of psychopaths? Do they want us to go leave this country for what kind of reason? What kind of reason? Only for our benefit. They don't want us to, they are not going to get any extra money for making us leave.
They are not going to get some kind of bonus for going to a Muslim country but they want us to go because they have seen the destruction that it has caused our presence in non-Muslim lands, in non- Islamic communities and societies. They have seen the destruction it has caused to our youth and has it not? Has it not? Look at this masjid. Maybe 100, 200 people on a Saturday night out of how many million Muslims or rather if we just look at the 10, 20, 30,000 Muslims in just this locality, how many do you think are actually in the masjid praying or going to talk or studying or whatever? How many thousands of them are getting drunk? How many thousands are committing zina? How many thousands are in the prison system? The number of Muslims in the prison system is many, many times the proportion of Muslims in this community.
The Reality of Muslim Youth in the West
We are 1% or 2% of the total population in this country and we are in the 10s and 15s and God knows what of the prison population. We are a large number there. So don't think that this argument to go and make hijrah is something that has been just picked up out of the air.
It is for a real concern because it is clear that those people who have ignored the idea that Islam is very important, that practicing deen is very important, that Islamic environment comes first, those people who have totally ignored it and have decided to come and live here and not practice their Islam, and this is the key point here, not practice their Islam, have suffered greatly. They have lost their children, they have lost their future. Some of them have possibly lost their akhira.
We deal with people who come and who have run off with boys and girls and who are non-Muslims and so on and love is love. When you fall in love as a teenager or as youth, then you know they say love blinds, you can't think, you can't have rationale, your heart becomes closed. We have seen people take the religion of the people who they run off with.
Muslim women turning Christian, Muslim women turning atheists, renouncing their religion just because of the partner that they have met at school and college. This is not some kind of, I am not making this up and scaremongering, this is the reality and that is why I tell you this because what I really dislike as orthodox Muslims, and this is very important, and of course as an imam in this community, I specifically want to tell you, my community here, the standards that we should have as Muslims in debate and discourse. Never belittle those people who are trying to give you some kind of advice, however polarised their advice might be, however strange their arguments might be, never throw arguments away because Muslims have good intentions when they give you dalil and evidences and you should look at them and think about it.
The Balanced Perspective
And I told you that this is not a film, I have said to you what the future is, the future is for us to remain in this country. But the argument against us not living in this country is passionate, is strong and it is real. We have to wake up and see that indeed the reason why people want us to make hijrah, to go to another place as they say it, they are not clear about the place but they want us to go to another place, is because here we have not represented ourselves correctly, we have not preserved the principles of religion and our children and our futures are suffering, they really are.
Islam is Not Location-Based
But now back to the other side, is the answer to this problem just to move to another country? Is the answer to this problem just to move to a different place? Is there such a thing as a holy place? Who gives us this idea that our Islam is dependent upon where we are? Islam is not location based, Islam has nothing to do with location. When Salman Al-Farsi he went to Iraq and Ibn Taymiyyah narrates this in his Majmoo' Al-Fatawa, when he went to Iraq and Abu Darda, you know Abu Darda was of course from Mecca when he went to Medina, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم made them brothers, you know when they were talking brothers that he brought him into the house for support and so on and so on, they had nothing and they became very very close friends. But Salman Al-Farsi he was much more knowledgeable than Abu Darda and that's a big statement to make because Abu Darda is a giant himself and Abu Darda is in Sham.
The Story of Salman Al-Farsi and Abu Darda
Sham of course is the blessed land, we know it is in general, it is what Allah has said in Surah Al-Isra,
"(this land is the one that we have, we have blessed this entire land), Sham, Palestine, Syria, Jordan which we know of today."
And so he was there and he said Salman in Iraq, and Iraq with my dearest respects to Iraq was a land of fitnah at the time, you know all kinds of, I don't have any Iraqi friends here that I can smile at but never mind, but there were some issues there with Iraq. And he said to Salman, he said come to the holy land, come to the lands which are you know promised and given barakah by Allah and so on.
And the response of Salman was funny, he actually wrote back to him and he said to him that
"(the land does not make anyone holy, that actually what makes a man holy, what makes a person sanctified is his actions), it's not where he is, nothing intrinsic under the land that you are on or where you are standing or the environment, actually it's what people have inside, it's what people are believing, it's what the standards they are sticking to. And this is a fabulous response, not a response we want to beat everyone else with that comes to us with the hijrah argument, no, it's a response that requires reflection, it's a response that makes us understand that Umar bin Khattab when he said that
"(the little bit of worship in a time of fitnah is more beloved to me than the normal worship). The ulema used to understand that, that there is a difference in the quality of worship, more difficult, more dangerous, yes, but a difference in the quality in difficult times.
The Value of Worship in Difficult Times
Abu Huraira said that
"(it is more better and more beloved to me that I spend a night on guard in the path of Allah than that I pray Laylatul Qadr at Al-Hajar Al-Aswad), at the black stone. Think about that, one night in some next country, some next place, just out there listening to the Amir, difficult situation, doing maybe a little bit of dhikr, just keeping things down as they say, keeping things under control, not doing anything amazing, not salah, not Quran, not even fighting, just God, just following the orders of the one who has told him to stand there. Better for me than to pray Laylatul Qadr, the whole night of Laylatul Qadr, and it is
"(khairu min alfi shahr), a thousand months of worship", and not just in a place but where the salah is 100,000 times rewarded, at the single most holiest place that we know, Al-Hajar Al- Aswad, because it is part of Jannah, it has come down from Jannah itself, and there is some debate about what is the most holiest place in Islam, whether it is the Rawdah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم because it is the garden of paradise, but the point is not lost, right? The point is that our actions and our deen is not established upon location, it is established upon condition, upon environment, upon how things are going, how things are easy, how things are not, and this is the deep understanding that we have to be able to have confidence in.
Hope for British Muslims
This is why we say hope or hijrah, we do have hope as a community. For British Muslims and Muslims in all of the western lands, what we have to focus on is our Islam. Yes, we can also start to give our evidence now some support, we can now start to get the ball rolling.
Yes, in this country we get more freedom to practice Islam than many, many of the Muslim countries. You know, I don't need to tell you, some of you are from these countries, I have many Tunisian friends for example who can't go to Salatul Fajr in the jama'a, they can't go to the masjid to pray Salatul Fajr, they get locked up, arrested and tortured. They are Muslim countries that do not allow their women to wear hijab.
The mind boggles, the mind boggles. A woman, she wants to cover her head, because Allah told her to do so, and the Muslim is saying to her, you cannot. And they want us to live our Islam in such a country, or other countries that we can't get into.
The Quranic Support for Muslims Living Worldwide
What I'm trying to say is that this argument will keep revolving around and around if we keep leaving it to these things. Rather we have to focus upon our Islam and Islam which for the people who recognise, and this is now to look at the vision for hope for ourselves in the country that we're in. If you look at what Allah has decreed for the believers in the Quran, a deep appreciation of the Quran, you will see almost as if Allah is supporting the idea for the Muslims to be free and unrestricted.
For their Deen not to be restricted and to be just specified to one land, but for the world. And Allah promotes travel in the Quran. Allah gives concessions for the people to go, and do, and see, and spread, and call the people to Islam, and fight and defend, and everything.
The Concessions for Muslims in Non-Muslim Lands
The Reality of Potential Persecution
And it is not being silly to say you could get kicked out one day. In fact it would be anti-Islamic, against the Qadr of Allah, and against wisdom, to say that we are here forever and ever and ever. Because we've seen in our lifetimes, you don't need to be 50, 60 years old, you only need to be 20, 30 years old, to see in our lifetimes what happened in Bosnia, and what happened in Herzegovina and Serbia, where the people who thought that this is what it was, and their neighbours turned upon them, and they slaughtered them, in the greatest massacre, ethnic cleansing as it was called, that we've seen since the Holocaust.
Something unbelievable. And it is real, it is true. And you look at commentators in the political world, and they believe that it is something which could definitely one day happen in England.
There are non-Muslims who are already saying that, this is what could happen one day in England. So we shouldn't be so absolutely secure. It should be a thought in the back of our minds, that we don't put all our eggs in one basket.
Living as a Traveler in This World
(Bukhari 6416)
"be in the world like a traveller."
You're not someone who is making these huge plans. This community knows that one of our most closest brothers passed away just last week.
It has shooken up this community. We used to know him, and he's a practising brother, and with us all the time, doing the dawah, and family, he has children, and plans, and you know someone who knows him like I did, he said I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, and I'm going to be with the kids. Finished.
Khalas. All over. Allah took him.
That's it. So, the Muslim is not someone who makes 100% plans because death is a certainty, circumstances change, so we know that if we need to, hijrah will be an option, we will make it. But we do have hope, and we have the legal backing, and we have the Islamic permission to remain here as Muslims, in Britain, in the West, living as good citizens.
Rejecting the Secular Muslim Model
Not because of what these organisations, and forums, and councils made up of these secularists, and liberal deviants, and people who have no religion before, when they first had their first Islamic experience, and however they understood that, and the route that they took, and now the route that they've taken. We have no trust in them as they were then, and we don't have any trust in them now. No, we do not want to follow their model of Islam.
We are happy to develop our identity according to the orthodox scholars, and to deal with the issues that come, and there are many issues. Yes, we are happy to stay here, and we're going to progress, we're going to be beneficial to our community, we're going to be good Muslims, we're going to do that, because this community needs us. You know, we talk about British Islam, this community needs us.
The Role of Muslims in British Society
Our schools need us, our PTAs need us, our hospices need us, our charities need us, our communities and their functions, and our neighbours, and our workmates, they need us. The atheists need us. We give them certainty in life.
Judaism and Christianity, Muslims are their biggest hope. Judaism and Christianity is effectively destroyed in this country. Religiosity has collapsed.
Secularism has absolutely become the most dominant force in the world today, nowhere more so than this country, which is a Christian country. Can you believe? You would never have guessed it, it's meant to be a Christian country. It has absolutely no link to Christianity whatsoever anymore.
The Queen is just a token figure on this Christian country. Rather, it is the most secular and most irreligious country now, and it is going down the pan, and Muslims are the biggest and best hope for the individual religions of this country. We have a role to do, and our role is found in the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said that
"the best of you are those who are best to mankind, and the most beneficial to mankind", in the authentic Sahih Hadith narrated by Imam Tabarani.
The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said that
"the best of you are those who feed others". The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said
"(the best of you are those, the best actions are those which are done continuously, even if they are little). (Bukhari 6464) So don't be overwhelmed.
Our Mission and Purpose
Don't be upset that we don't convert the entire world, because we're not here to convert. We're here to preserve and protect our identity, and be beneficial to the people around us. And I feel embarrassed saying that to Muslims, because it is patronising.
It is patronising. You don't tell a Muslim, listen, someone opens the door, say thank you. That's how you speak to a child.
The Muslims are on a higher level, a higher moral plane, a higher level when it comes to akhlaaq. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said
"(the best of you are those with best akhlaaq). (Musnad Ahmad) That is what we give to our community.
Challenges Facing the Muslim Community
This is what we're bringing to the vision of our future. That's what I wanted to say. I mean there are many things actually, there's pages and pages actually I wanted to tell you about, and I'm sure that there's plenty of questions and answers, because there's challenges.
This is not going to be easy. We have, you know, our only way to survive is going to be as a unified Muslim community, and we're not unified at all. We're not unified.
What made me laugh the other day is I saw a new, everyone has a new initiative these days, and there was a new Muslim unity initiative, and the symbol for the unity initiative was a crescent. And I laughed, I said subhanAllah, of all the things they chose for unity was the hilal. The one thing that we are most, the one thing that we are most different over day and night.
So this is the sign of Muslim unity. You can see that's doomed before it starts. So I mean, you know, one thing is that question, how do we work together as a diverse community, different madhab, different theological schools of thought to come together? How do we start to understand that these differences are acceptable, these are unacceptable, these are painful, we'll swallow them.
The Need for Unity and Balance
How can we be strong? Because that's an absolute necessity, to be unified firstly as a Muslim community. Before then we start to then deal with what we can do, what we can get away with, what is haram when it comes to mixing and interaction, and what is permissible. How far can we go in fraternizing and socializing with these people and how not? These are real problems that we have.
These are real issues. We want to be a community, this country, that gives more back than what it takes. At this moment it's all take, take, take.
We are a people who have been given concessions after concessions after concessions. And I'm not talking about benefits, and I'm not talking about double stamp duty exemption either. We have a greater role and a greater vision to be real members of this community, and it's something that we have to step up to do.
Not at the diktat of those who are deviant and who are trying to undermine our Islamic identity, because our Islamic identity is what protects us and what gives us hope for al-akhirah. But for this dunya as we continue to struggle, it is our deen, it is our scholars, it is orthodox Islam, it's what we signed up for when we ticked the box Islam, and that's what I really have to say for now. Maybe if we have time I can take one or two questions, perhaps.
Question and Answer Session
Question About Modern Muslim Countries
The brother said, we're not talking about the legalities of it, but we're talking about the practical advice I suppose, about those people that can go to the more modern kind of Muslim countries, the kind of new buzz thing at the moment, the Malaysias, the Abu Dhabi's, the Dubai's and what not. Now, you know, you can take this lightheartedly or seriously. Lightheartedly, then they're about the most un-Islamic countries I've ever been to in my entire life.
I mean, you know, my experience in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and not just my experiences, but many people who went out in the hijrah dream if you like, and who are suffering, or their deen has gone down, or they've come back, it's countless. Probably more have come back than have stayed, but that's not a legal point, that's not a legal proof, but we're not talking about legal proof, so we're just talking about personal opinion. The issue is that it's possible of course, and a person, insha'Allah, who did such a thing would be rewarded for his intention.
The question that I want to ask is this, is that, is this a vision for the development of a community in a place where he himself does not have the community to develop? He can develop a new community with those people there, that's fine. The issue is, is that an option for such a large community like ours? Is it the way that we want to go forward to get everyone out, or is it that we want to try and bring that kind of Islamic benefit that we have here? That's the first question I would put out. Secondly, there are Islamic schools in this country.
The Reality of Islamic Schools
I don't send my children to some of the Islamic schools here. In fact, I don't send them to Islamic schools. I have more confidence in the non-Islamic school and the ability of my wife and myself to deal with their Islamic requirements.
Now, maybe not everyone is in the position to do that, but I certainly know the reality that some of the Muslim schools are very very good and some of the Muslim schools are very very bad. What I want to say is that when people, and this is a really important point I want to emphasize to everyone, when people try to take themselves out of the equation, then it spells disaster wherever you are. What I mean by that is that the two parents have got to themselves individually exhaust every single effort to deal with the problem themselves.
The Problem of Parental Responsibility
What I mean is that people when they generally argue for the Muslim country scenario, because of Muslim schools and because of X and Y and Z, again it's put them in, they'll deal with it. It's the same situation here in this country. We have a problem with the quality of our children because the mosques up and down the country between 5 and 6 are dumping grounds for 150 kids with one miskeen moulvi
who can't himself recite Quran properly, who the only way of controlling such a mass of people is to pull out the stick, right? And you have a small group of people who the only thing they take from that experience, daily experience, is a chill with his mates, discussion, chewing gum, swapping of football cards, a whack here and there and not much to learn afterwards at all.
The parents, what have they taken from it? I've done my Islamic duty, I have given my kid the Islamic education that they deserve. And someone made this point to me yesterday, I was in a masjid yesterday where the kids were praying Salatul Asr at this time and they were making a lot of noise because the imam wanted them to join the jama'a. And he turned around and he said, the brother said to me, he goes, this is unacceptable all these kids here, unacceptable.
Where are the Muslims parents who have left their children, why are they not telling these kids any different? I said to him, I guarantee you, I said to this brother, that there is not what we call a practicing parent amongst all of these children here. Because the practicing parents don't dump their children in dumping grounds like that. This is the unfortunate reality that the masses have to resort to because they don't have the ability or they don't have the will to.
They don't want to invest the time, they don't want to educate themselves, they don't want to put their hand in their pocket to bring proper people out to themselves. That is the reality. You do not find practicing parents leave their children in that five to six hour class.
They know they don't want to. They know what's going to be learned there and what happens. So what I'm trying to say is that I'm building up an image.
The Solution is Muslim Strength, Not Running Away
I'm building up an image where it says that I don't see the solution as running away to other so-called Muslim havens. I see the solution as the Muslims, wherever they are, becoming strong, becoming unified and taking full accountability themselves, educating themselves and practicing their deen as Allah and his messenger has asked for. And I think that when the Muslims prioritize this themselves, wherever they are there will be a force for any single community or nation or society or community on the face of this earth.
I really believe that. If you were to make a hijrah to another country, what country would you advise us to move to and why? Pakistan, of course. If one chooses not to make hijrah to an Islamic country and they choose to remain and live in the West, would it be wrong for one to live here? No.
The answer to that. Then they say they practice their deen but not actively go out there and do dawah to non-Muslims. You know, because of the length of time I left out that entire section about the dawah to non-Muslims.
Dawah and Living Islam in the West
I want to say this, that dawah in a general sense is an obligation. But no Muslim in this community should buckle under the pressure that I haven't gone and converted a Christian today. This is something which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, (لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا - la yukallifullahu nafsan illa wus'aha).
It does not burden a soul more than it can bear.
Not everyone is a scholar, not everyone is an activist and not everyone is an expert in the comparative religion sciences. But what you have to do as a bare minimum is to live your Islam to that level which itself is a dawah.
Now we don't expect people to go out there and engage in tawhid with every single person. Although if you can and if you do, then you will be seen as the highest and the most deserving of the people to remain in a place like this. And you should do that.
You should try and aim for that. But for the Muslim, I don't think that he needs to worry about that. It is not the aim of our existence in this country to go and convert every other person.
That might sound strange, but it's not. Just to think about it, when it comes to Judgment Day, when it comes to the aqidah which enters us into Islam and what takes us out of it, did we go and convert X, Y, Z people is not a question that will determine your Jannah and your Nar and it will not determine your Iman. It will determine your darajah of how good and strong a Muslim you are, how much confidence it gives you in this community, it gives you the vision to help your community in the long run, but it is not a defining factor between Iman and kufr.
Question About Raising Daughters in the UK
As a mother whose daughter has started school, I have many issues to face as she grows up in the UK. Sex education is one of my biggest fears. Many families with girls start migrating back to their ethnic countries to protect their daughters.
I'd appreciate your input. Hijrah or hope? This is of course a very important question. Clearly our daughters are a major issue.
Clearly they are. I have to say this much, that the reality of the matter is this, is that to try and, and this is a personal opinion, because here there is no necessarily the shariah says one thing or the other. We're in a situation, our daughters, our sisters, they need to be educated.
And sex education is part and parcel of what life is about. If you have the ability and you find out that the syllabus is going to be taught in a particularly crude way and so on, then you can ask and make a presentation for your child to be removed for that part. If you believe that it is in a good and objective and scientific and non-crude and standard kind of fashion, then you need to start to become realistic and recognize that what this is going to need from you is better quality parenting, higher quality parenting.
The Importance of Parental Engagement
Any Muslim parent I want to put forward, whether that child goes to a Muslim school or non-Muslim school, who does not speak to his child when he or she comes back from school that day, and go through everything that they learned that day and ask them, what was your lessons about? How were they? What did you learn? How did you feel about that? What do you think of what was said? I don't think he's being a responsible Muslim parent. I think he will be questioned. I think he'll be in big trouble.
And I will tell you something else, that if you want your child to become strong, and if you really want to develop this future for Islam in this country, then don't think that you're going to produce some kind of cocoon that's going to be someone who has not been exposed to society. The reason, and I want to put this forward, that we are currently blessed and benefiting from the greatest Sahwa, Islamic revival that we have seen in many, many years, amongst the generation that we're talking about, the youth that we see, the late teenagers, the 20s, the 30-year-old people, who are practicing Islam so strong, so much quality, so much scholarliness, so much confidence, is because they are people who have gone through the system, understood the system, seen the arguments, and had it presented to them, and defeated them intellectually. This is very important for us to help our children do that.
That's my own personal opinion. I think that the onus is upon the parents to step up. We are not going to be able to not see our children, not make our children see the billboards and so on.
A Personal Example About Children and Challenges
I'll give you an example. What happened to my child the other day. He's 7 years old.
He goes to an Islamic Arabic afterschool to learn Arabic, just a couple of hours a week. It is very, very well organized. The brother who runs it is sitting in front of me, so I have to be careful.
It is very, very organized. It has practicing teachers, practicing everything. He went into that school, they're in year 2, little kids, and they come across a copy of the sports, this tabloid which is like a pornographic newspaper.
So they picked it up, they opened it, and they see this woman who's naked. And one kid goes, oh my god, this is my son telling me, he's saying to me, he starts saying shame, shame, shame, shame. Because that's what he's been told at home, that he doesn't go around naked.
When he sees his younger brother, he says to him shame, shame, shame, shame. So he says shame, shame, shame, shame. And the other kids, they went straight to the, they collectively took it to the teacher, they said shame, shame, shame, shame.
The teacher took it up, ripped it up and said that's very bad. What's the point here? The most protected, the most Islamic environment is not going to be free of this challenge. Rather we need to educate our children in a practical way what to do when they are faced with these situations.
Teaching Children How to Handle Challenges
And they're only going to be able to know what to do if you show them, or explain to them what they've been exposed to, and explain to them the antidote, or the solution, or the, or how to get out of that problem. I strongly believe in that. I strongly believe in that because I am a very, I want to hold every parent accountable.
I believe that the parents do not do enough, do not get involved enough, and I believe that they are very happy to just to push over responsibility. We can't answer these two questions that are remaining. As I said, if you want to email them to study at cmatrust.org, inshaAllah I will try within a week, inshaAllah to respond back to them.