Hope or Hijrah

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.

The Quranic Evidence for Hijrah

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.

And this is because what Allah says in surah an-Nisa:

Verily, as for those whom the angels take away while they are wronging themselves, they say to those people, "In what condition were you?" They reply, "We were weak and 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?" Those will find their abode in hell and what an evil destination. (Quran 4:97)

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.

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.

Understanding the Context of the Ayah

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.

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.

The Ayah Doesn't Specify a Particular Destination

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 the Sahaba's Migration to Abyssinia

Also, you will not see a single evidence to show that the sahaba (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُم - radi allahu 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.

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 - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) throughout the rest of Islam and its development, even in the presence of the Khilafah in Medina, al-Munawwara, a statement or an order

from the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) 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.

The Only Exception: A Direct Order from the Khalif

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 hukum.

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 (إن شاء الله - insha'Allah). 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 Practical Reality Today

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, 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 (أهلاً وسهلاً - 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.

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.

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.

The Famous Hadith About Living Among Polytheists

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 - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) in which he said:

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 - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said, I am free from every single Muslim who lives amongst the polytheists.

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 Nadar al-Qutni and if you look in Kitab al-lla 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 - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) 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 - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) 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 companions at the time, when they looked at him and they heard him say that, they said, why is that O Messenger of Allah? And he said:

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 - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) 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 Real Meaning of the 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.

Addressing Weak Arguments Against Hijrah

Anyway, let's not be naive about this. This argument is not simple.

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.

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 Real Concern Behind the Hijrah Argument

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.

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.

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 (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - raḍiya allāhu ʿanhu) went to Iraq and Ibn Taymiyyah narrates this in his Majmoo' Al- Fatawa, when he went to Iraq and Abu Darda (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - raḍiya allāhu ʿanhu) you know Abu Darda was of course from Mecca when he went to Medina, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - ṣallā allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) 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 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.

Sham of course is the blessed land, we know it is in general, it is what Allah has said in Surah Al-Isra:

Glory to Him who took His servant for a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest mosque, whose precincts We did bless (Quran 17:1)

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 (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - raḍiya allāhu ʿanhu) 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.

Abu Huraira (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - raḍiya allāhu ʿanhu) 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 (خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ - khayrun min alfi shahr) 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 - ṣallā allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam),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.

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.

Allah's Design for Global Islam

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.

It's all about being easy and wide. The magnanimity in Islam is there in every aspect. Just for example, look at Surah Al Maidah.

When you see all the concessions that Allah as our teachers told us, look at the concessions which have been given to the Muslims with respect to the food of Ahlul Kitab. The food of Ahlul Kitab and the women of Ahlul Kitab. The Jews and the Christians.

This day [all] good foods have been made lawful, and the food of those who were given the Scripture is lawful for you and your food is lawful for them. And [lawful in marriage are] chaste women from among the believers and chaste women from among those who were given the Scripture before you (Quran 5:5)

Now, yeah of course, the Muslim lands did have non-Muslims living there. Jews and Christians who had food and had women and so on, so on. But the reality is that they were small, right? Such a concession is almost as if indirectly saying that, go in the land.

And you will come across situations where you can't find halal meat shop. You will come across situations where you will not find enough Muslim women to start communities and establish families and so on. So it's permissible for you to marry from the people of the book. And it's permissible for you to eat from theirs. And for them, it is permissible for them to eat from your food as well. To show this kind of general community building and this general kind of Islam spreading.

The Prophetic Vision for Global Islam

And the Ahadith on this particular subject, there are many, many, many Ahadith which talk about Islam spreading throughout the world. And the need for, and the call for da'wah and so on. And we know that in a narration, a very nice narration that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was reported to have said, narrated by Imam Ahmed:

The lands are the lands of Allah. And the servants are the servants of Allah. So wherever you come across good, then stay there. (Musnad Ahmad)

This is a general principle. And I suppose if you want to see the single most specific narration which is used in this discussion, and I'm happy to use it as well, it is the narration of Fudaik, a companion who was in a, is among his people who were non-Muslims. And it's interesting for us, it's interesting for us as Muslims, citizens in a non-Muslim land.

We have many non-Muslim friends. We have many non-Muslim friends. And you know, just to give you an example, I work with non-Muslims, as virtually all of us do. And when you're speaking to them about

general things in the community and so on, they will say to you that we used to have really nice Muslim neighbours and they moved away. Oh I know so and so Muslim. So even when you're talking to them, they have the same kind of love and appreciation for us as we do for fellow citizens.

It's just part and normal. And in this narration, Fudaik, his tribe, and it was a non-Muslim tribe, they liked him. And he was stressed. Fudaik was stressed because some Muslims came to him and said to him it's haram for him to stay with the non-Muslims. So he didn't know what to do. He said, how am I going to now get out of this? These non-Muslims want me to stay, and I am now being told I have to go.

So what did he do? He then, and these people, what did they say to him? In the narration which has been narrated by Ibn Hibban, and it's authentic إن شاء الله although there's a discussion over the authenticity of the hadith, they actually said to him, listen, we don't want you to go, and if you want to practice your religion, then we have no problem. We'll let you practice your religion. سُبْحَانَ الله it's almost exactly like we're being told in our scenario.

But he's been told, he's got doubts, and so he goes to the Prophet and he said, Ya Rasulullah, they claim that the one who doesn't emigrate is destroyed. He is going to, if he doesn't go to the non-Muslim lands, he'll be destroyed. So what do you say? The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said to him:

Ya Fudaiq, establish the prayer, stay away from sin, and then live in the land of your people, wherever you wish. (Ibn Hibban)

He told him directly, stay away, make hijrah from su, don't make hijrah from the land, but make hijrah from sin. Stay away from sin, and then live in the land of your people, wherever you wish. And this is what he went back and he did. He went back to live with his people, they allowed him to practice his Islam, and it carried on, there was no problem there.

This is as if to say, this is the model for our community.

Hijrah as a Trump Card

Yes, hijrah is an obligation, and we come to now really the title of the talk, back to the title in conclusion now, we come back to the title of what we presented, Muslims in Britain, Hope or Hijrah. Let's take the second word, hijrah, yes, it's our trump card.

It's a trump card for the Muslims, that they recognise that if they need to go, then they have to go. And it would be naive of Muslims, even if they are converts or so on, to just think that their future lies here and nowhere else. For like the British, South Asian kind of community, Muslim community, they have no problem because they all know someone back home somewhere, right? And in fact all the foreigners

know somewhere back home, and in an absolute emergency, theoretically you could go back to a different place, and if you got kicked out one day.

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.

And the Muslim we know, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

(Bukhari 6416)

Be in the world like a stranger or a traveller. (Bukhari 6416)

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 shaken 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.

خلاص. 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.

Our Hope and Vision

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.

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.

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.

Muslims as Hope for Religious 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 صلى الله عليه وسلم Messenger of Allah

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

(Tabarani 6/192)

The best of people are those who are most beneficial to mankind. (Tabarani 6/192)

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

(Bukhari 6236)

The best of you are those who feed others. (Bukhari 6236)

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

(Bukhari 6464)

The best actions are those which are done continuously, even if they are little. (Bukhari 6464)

So don't be overwhelmed. 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 akhlaq. The :said صلى الله عليه وسلم Prophet

(Tirmidhi 2018)

The best of you are those with best akhlaq. (Tirmidhi 2018)

That is what we give to our community. This is what we're bringing to the vision of our future.

Challenges and Unity

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 (سُبْحَانَ اللهِ) 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.

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.

Question and Answer Session

Question 1: 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 (إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ - in sha'a 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.

Question 2: Islamic Education

Secondly, there are Islamic schools in this country. 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.

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. 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.

Question 3: Recommended Country for Hijrah

If you were to make a hijrah to another country, what country would you advise us to move to and why? Pakistan, of course.

Question 4: Obligation of Dawah

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.

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:

Allah does not burden a soul beyond that 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