The ruling on migrating to Western countries to establish the rites of the religion
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
This means this question leads us to another question, which is that some Muslims say they are being harmed in their countries, so they head to Europe or America, saying that they find there a freedom that allows them to establish the rites of their religion without facing harm.
Answer:
Yes, this is something that happened during the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). When the polytheists oppressed the people of Islam in Makkah and prevented them from practicing the rites of their religion, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered them to migrate to the land of Abyssinia. It was a Christian land, but it had a just king. He was a Christian, but he was just; he did not oppress anyone under his rule. So they migrated to save their religion. This was the first migration. They migrated to save their religion, committing the lesser of two harms to avert the greater. So if you need to go to a disbeliever’s land, but there is justice there, in order to establish your religion, and there is no Islamic land available, then you must first migrate to an Islamic land if possible. It is not permissible for you to go to the major [non-Muslim] countries. If it is possible to migrate to an Islamic land, then doing so is obligatory. If it is not possible and there is no Islamic land, then at least you go to a disbeliever’s land where they allow you to practice the rites of your religion and do not harass you, in order to avert the greater of two harms by committing the lesser. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you with good,
This means this question leads us to another question, which is that some Muslims say they are being harmed in their countries, so they head to Europe or America, saying that they find there a freedom that allows them to establish the rites of their religion without facing harm.
Answer:
Yes, this is something that happened during the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). When the polytheists oppressed the people of Islam in Makkah and prevented them from practicing the rites of their religion, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered them to migrate to the land of Abyssinia. It was a Christian land, but it had a just king. He was a Christian, but he was just; he did not oppress anyone under his rule. So they migrated to save their religion. This was the first migration. They migrated to save their religion, committing the lesser of two harms to avert the greater. So if you need to go to a disbeliever’s land, but there is justice there, in order to establish your religion, and there is no Islamic land available, then you must first migrate to an Islamic land if possible. It is not permissible for you to go to the major [non-Muslim] countries. If it is possible to migrate to an Islamic land, then doing so is obligatory. If it is not possible and there is no Islamic land, then at least you go to a disbeliever’s land where they allow you to practice the rites of your religion and do not harass you, in order to avert the greater of two harms by committing the lesser. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you with good,
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، محاضرات في العقيدة والدعوة-003-اجتماع الكلمة وأثره في دفع الفتن|صالح الفوزان|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (53:16)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.