Continuation of the previous discussion regarding the issue of remaining in lands of disbelief.

The Shaykh : ... Therefore, a Muslim can never live an Islamic life in lands of disbelief. It is very clear that a land that has lived for fourteen centuries in the application of Islam cannot be equated with a land where Islam has been present for a quarter of a century or half a century. The matter requires a long and very lengthy time. Therefore, in truth, we do not advise a Muslim to travel to those lands to reside there. However, if he travels for trade, for example, on the condition that he returns after a week, a month, or two months, etc., there is no objection, provided that he is protected. By "protected," I mean that he has been raised with a correct Islamic upbringing and that he is also married in the required lawful marriage, so that he is not tempted by the dispensations available there in the selling of honor by any means. So, the answer to the previous question is that we cannot say he should return or he should not return, because each has a problem. OrThe questioner : Or the one being asked, who assesses the situation.

The questioner : ... Even if the American society in which that person lives is similar, or even if the harm of his presence there is less harmful than his original country, meaning ...

The Shaykh : I understand your point, but we need to look, O Abu Yahya, at the outcome. I mean, even if I were to cut you off, in my opinion it is clear from the title. If we imagine that reform is going to happen, or to put it more clearly, the establishment of an Islamic society, or to put it more frankly, the establishment of a Muslim state, where do we imagine the establishment of the Islamic state will be? In the established Islamic lands by their affiliation to Islam, or in these lands to which Muslims migrate?

The questioner : In the Islamic lands.

The Shaykh : That is it. Therefore, if we look at your question immediately, I might add to what you say and say that some Muslims may live better there than in their own lands. But this is a very short-sighted view. We look to the future first. We also need to look at the offspring that will be produced by these Muslims. Do the fathers guarantee the future of these children? That no decision will be issued there, as they did? And the news of the Bulgars and their attempt to convert, or rather to expel, the Turkish Muslims is not far from you. Therefore, I have said more than once and asked, "What is the ruling on Bulgarian meat?" I am very annoyed by these questions lately, and I shout and say to you, "The problem is that the Bulgars slaughtered the Turkish Muslims like sheep. Do you want to ask if they slaughtered them in an Islamic way or not, and is it permissible to eat it or not?" If they had slaughtered them in the Islamic way truly, it would be obligatory for Muslims to boycott that state, which is doing to our Muslim brothers what it is doing. So, we have no guarantee, O Professor, when Muslims live and mix. In reality, I wonder about the outcome of the Muslims who remain in those lands regarding the distant future. Is it not possible that a decision will be issued to expel and displace them? There is no guarantee, of course. And the matter, by Allah, that America is a land of freedom and raises the banner of freedom—do you see this as ink on paper, not true words? Therefore, may Allah reward you, we must look to the distant future.

The questioner : O our Shaykh, even in the near future, these children do not have Islamic schools; they are learning in their schools.

The Shaykh : And this is what we referred to: are they guaranteeing that these will be raised as Muslims?

The questioner : As you kindly said, O our Shaykh, there is no single sufficient answer to this question because this question branches out. If a person is in your situation, going for four or five years for study, then working for four or five years, and consequently not having offspring or children to worry about in the near future, and he is not actually asking because they are living in America within an Islamic group and they are in the path of Allah, and Allah has blessed them ...; but in America, you know, he met a man and he directed him to the family of his wife, so the group went, they were Salafis, and he proposed to her within a week, and things became easy ... He is not living in an Islamic society, but he has confined himself within a group that proceeds in the matter of Allah. But this is temporary. Now, my lord,The Shaykh : you want to live there, so the child is living there, and the children need a television and they need to go to the bakery and buy from a woman who is dressed up, meaning you want to live in an atmosphere. You cannot live in a one-hundred-percent Islamic atmosphere in America.

The questioner : But what I noticed, without a doubt, is that the application of Islamic practice in America was much easier than the application of Islamic practice here, especially in the environment in which it is, for example, a small example: in America, the issue of free mixing is a thing

The Shaykh : that is natural.

The questioner : Yes, it is natural. Even there, there is not complete free mixing. For example, if a family is together here, there must be free mixing no matter what the circumstances are. For example, the issue of shaking hands: in America, it is possible that you do not shake hands with any woman without any problems. But when I went down to Lebanon, to Beirut, I faced these problems in many matters. So I noticed that the application of Islamic practice in America was much easier than the application of Islamic practice here.

The Shaykh : That is true, but there is a note, my brother. In a poem, I forget its first line, it says, "And every stranger is a relative to the stranger." So being a stranger brings people together there and makes them close and understanding. Our Islamic lands have sects, they have different and multiple groups. From here comes the problem. But if we imagine that a person, you or someone else, intends to get to know a group, one of the groups, the Salafi group that you know there in America, in this land or elsewhere, would not your Islamic life here be stronger than there?

The questioner : Yes, but there are the same problems ... You might see any person abroad offering you, or any woman if it happens ... They respect you and appreciate you, but here, thank Allah, one tries to confine himself within the Salafi group ... but the outside world here does not appreciate it.

The Shaykh : This is true, but you are looking at the issue from one point only. I mean, now, the freedom you refer to, that I do not shake hands, they appreciate you, why? Because there is freedom. But this freedom is not legislated in a way that suits morals and suits religions, etc. It is a freedom that contains good and evil. I mean, if you, instead of shaking her hand, kissed her, what would you say to you? "Thank you," of course. This does not stem from the fact that the atmosphere is upright.

The questioner : They are prohibited in schools; they prohibited market clothing ...

The Shaykh : Is this for males?

The questioner : Yes, my lord, for males. And the text came that the clothing should be formal, and formal means trousers and a shirt. I am speaking, and Hajj Tahir says, "Even in Western lands, respect for opinion, the absolute freedom we are talking about: if you wear whatever you want, there is no one who will say anything to you at all." The difference now is that you cannot keep moving from country to country until you are allowed to practice your rituals simply. Otherwise, you ... all things ... you have to suffer and struggle and be patient and be harmed in the path of Allah. But it is a process of balance, and Allah knows best. There is no answer to this question. I mean, you have to compare which is more beneficial for your religion and your worldly life ... But in the long term, it is not permissible to live in the lands of disbelievers because it will befall you and your family, and you have to get accustomed, and you will have confined yourself with this environment. We were also talking about this hadith today. By your instinct, by your inner mind, you will automatically accept, and you will become lenient in small matters as a result of practice, as a result of impossibility. And then, after a period, you find yourself ... the opinions of religion and holding onto them disappear one after another. Your son today uses the television ... instead of shaking hands, you kiss ...
Al-Halabi : As they say, frequent contact removes the feeling ...