Is it true that upbringing cannot take place unless we take the person we want to raise out of the environment in which he is?

The questioner : My Shaykh, regarding upbringing, does it mean that some of the groups on the scene today believe that upbringing and purification cannot happen as long as the person we intend to raise is in this corrupt environment? They call it the environment of heedlessness and the environment of evil deeds. So they take him out, move him from his place, and bring him to a suitable environment in the same country that they have prepared for this purpose, or outside the country. They give as an example the one who may Allah have mercy on him who fell into a pit of impurity, saying: If we poured the water of the world on him, he would not become pure until we take him out, and then a little water would purify him. Is this idea correct? And in our view as Salafis, is it possible to raise people in their fields despite the evil deeds present in their fields? And to what extent can we engage with them in this...?

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace. I say in answer to this question: There is no doubt that the picture you presented of some of them is beautiful. It is like physical quarantine, or let us say, moral quarantine. But is this possible, or is it a theoretical, imaginary matter that cannot be realized? We will say: Let us walk with them and agree with them that the way of upbringing is to take him out of the polluted atmosphere to the clean atmosphere. This is theoretical and very acceptable. But we will say: Where is this clean, pure atmosphere? Where is it? They will not be able to say it is on Mars, for example.

The questioner : They say it is in Pakistan, in the mosques.

The Shaykh : In Pakistan, in the mosques. Well, I told you this is a theoretical matter. In Pakistan, in the mosques, there are mosques that contain graves. Are they clean? Their problem, as we indicated in previous speech, is that they are people of Islamic emotions but without knowledge. We say theoretically, upbringing is necessary, and complete upbringing is creating a non-polluted atmosphere. But today, this does not exist in the Islamic world as a whole. Now we return to the question: What is the answer, then, if the clean, non-polluted atmosphere is missing? Unfortunately, this is the reality. We say: The atmosphere in which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent was polluted with a plague greater than which there is none, because it was shirk (associating partners with Allah), and killing the soul without right, and so on, of what is known. So when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) began the call, did he leave the polluted atmosphere? The answer is no. But after about ten or thirteen years, he left that atmosphere for a purer one. We do not say it was pure and purified; no, there were people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, there were Jews, there were Christians, and so on. But he was able to carry out the call in the other atmosphere, which is the Medinan atmosphere, more than he was able to do so in the Meccan atmosphere. So the absence of the clean place by one hundred percent does not mean that one should not perform the duty of purification and upbringing. And the one who says that there is a purified atmosphere today in the Islamic world by one hundred percent is a ignorant man without doubt, or one who is ignoring the truth. And the worse of the two is bitter. What else do you have? The time has passed.