The Ruling on Traveling to Study in Lands of Disbelief
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
I work in the government, and there are study opportunities outside the Kingdom in a disbeliever’s country. Is it permissible for me to join these courses, given that they are optional?
Answer:
If these courses contain information that is not available in the lands of the Muslims, and the Muslims need it, then there is no harm in your traveling to learn it in order to meet the needs of the Muslims. However, if these sciences are available in the lands of the Muslims, it is not permissible for you to travel to study abroad, even though study is available in the lands of the Muslims. Or, if these things are not available in the lands of the Muslims, but the Muslims do not need them—matters of curiosity that we do not need—then you do not travel for their sake. This is because traveling to the lands of the polytheists is forbidden, except in matters that have been exempted, and among them is traveling to learn what the Muslims need and what is not available in their lands.
I work in the government, and there are study opportunities outside the Kingdom in a disbeliever’s country. Is it permissible for me to join these courses, given that they are optional?
Answer:
If these courses contain information that is not available in the lands of the Muslims, and the Muslims need it, then there is no harm in your traveling to learn it in order to meet the needs of the Muslims. However, if these sciences are available in the lands of the Muslims, it is not permissible for you to travel to study abroad, even though study is available in the lands of the Muslims. Or, if these things are not available in the lands of the Muslims, but the Muslims do not need them—matters of curiosity that we do not need—then you do not travel for their sake. This is because traveling to the lands of the polytheists is forbidden, except in matters that have been exempted, and among them is traveling to learn what the Muslims need and what is not available in their lands.
Source
الفوزان -أشرطة- أسئلة وأجوبة من دروس التوحيد - الفوزان - أسئلة التوحيد - ٣ — archive.org (1:25:32)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.