Many countries do not apply the Shari'ah, and there is zina and killing in them, so what should one who wants to repent to Allah do?

The questioner : Regarding many countries that do not apply the Islamic Shari'ah, there are among the fornicators and the murderers those who kill and those who commit zina. Among the fornicators, there may be one who is a married man. What is his ruling if he wants to repent to Allah the Exalted and Majestic? Should he leave his country, which does not apply Islam, to a state that applies Islam, so that he confesses to the authorities there and they apply the hadd upon him?

The Shaykh : This question has two branches:
The first is: should he leave? And the second is: should he surrender himself to the Shari'ah court? As for what concerns the first branch, we say: he should leave, and he must leave if he finds a way out; because—unfortunately—the situation today in societies and in Islamic governments is such that a Muslim can hardly, due to the systems in place, escape with his religion and get himself out of the corrupt country. So if he finds a way out, he must do so; because this is the way for a Muslim to save himself from getting entangled in falling into some sins or major sins. There is a wonderful hadith on this matter, narrated byThe Shaykh : al-Bukhari and Muslim in their Sahihs, from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: That is, to an ignorant person who has no knowledge but is a worshipper. And this is the calamity of the general people; due to the heedlessness and ignorance that dominates the general people, they assume that righteousness is attached to knowledge, just as other people assume that knowledge is attached to righteous action. Both may coincide, and they may separate; meaning, a man may be a scholar and righteous, or the reverse in terms of wording, he may be righteous and a scholar as well. And this, as they used to say in the past, is rare and more precious than red antimony, that a person is a scholar and acts upon his knowledge; because knowledge today has become a profession, a trade, and a job by which its owner makes a living, whereas knowledge should be pure for the face of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. And on the contrary, we find the masses of the righteous approaching Allah and worshipping Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, with ignorance and not with knowledge. So this sinner against himself, who killed ninety-nine souls, when he wanted to repent to Allah and return to Him, asked a correct question about the most knowledgeable person on earth. The answer was wrong; he was directed to a worshipper, a monk, that is, an ignorant person, in order to complete the number to a full hundred. But the man, it appears from his biography that our Prophet (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) related to us, was sincere and serious in his knowledge of the way of his repentance and his return to his Lord. So he continued to ask and continued to ask, until he was directed to a scholar. And here is the point: , It was part of the scholar's true advice when he said to him, "But you are in a bad land, so leave it," that he said, "Go to such-and-such a village whose people are righteous." So he set out walking to the righteous village. The angels of mercy looked at the ending he was heading toward, and the angels of punishment looked at his whole life and its ill omen, which was that he had killed a hundred souls. So Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, sent a judgment to them and said to them: The point of this hadith is that it is good to interpret with it such as the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: This is a lesson from which we take a lesson and its admonition is that if a man is living in a country whose people are open sinners and oppressors, or at least that, he is living in a village or a small district where evil and corruption prevail among its people, then he must save himself and change the environment in which he lives; because the previous hadith and other hadiths like it all indicate collectively that the environment has an effect on souls; if it is righteous, then righteousness, and if it is corrupt, then corruption. Therefore, the Messenger (peace be upon him) related to us this advice that that true scholar directed to that criminal, saying: So leave it. So we take from this story a lesson that a Muslim must not live in a bad society, in a corrupt society, but he must choose the righteous society. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) confirmed this meaning taken from that hadith in many other hadiths, including his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): It is given to you for free,