The Shaykh’s response to those who forbid people from emigrating from their homeland, even if it is occupied by their most bitter enemies, on the claim that this is the Holy Land.

The Shaykh : And that they should not say what this unjust, oppressive person said, who orders people not to leave their homeland even if it is occupied by their most bitter enemy, on the claim that this is the Holy Land, as if the Holy Land is better than the Noble Makkah, or as if the people of the Holy Land are more God-fearing (Mighty and Majestic is He) and more pleasing to Him than the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, or even more God-fearing than the Messenger of Allah himself, who first ordered the Companions to emigrate with their own persons to Abyssinia twice, then ordered them to emigrate to al-Madinah, and he emigrated himself and opened the way for them, and then they began to arrive at him in groups. So they did not say that Makkah is a noble land, but rather, as he said (peace and blessings be upon him) when he emigrated: . So why did he leave? Because he did not want the Muslims to be tormented in the cause of their clinging to their land, even if the land were a blessed land like Makkah, because the reality, as is said in some lands, is: "The house is not the walls, but the inhabitants." Likewise, the noble town does not remain noble for its inhabitants if they are unable to do what is better for them than staying in that place.
The student: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : Peace be upon you, and Allah’s mercy and blessings. Some scholars, who have been granted knowledge and understanding, and in Sufi terminology, spiritual openings in knowledge, say that lands are like people. Just as one person is sometimes righteous and sometimes wicked, and vice versa: sometimes wicked and becomes righteous, so too is the land. The land is not better than the person. If a righteous land is dominated by a disbeliever, and it becomes difficult for the inhabitants of the righteous land to perform what is obligatory upon them of obedience and the like, then the other land, which was originally inferior to it, becomes superior to it, because the matter is determined by what is present in this person, not by what it was. Thus, the criterion is what is present in this land, not what it was. This is a subtle matter that the general public of those engaged in seeking knowledge are ignorant of. A person may be a disbeliever, and there is no blame, the example is before us, and then he becomes a Muslim. It is he, he, he, he, but a development has occurred in this person and his ruling has changed. Likewise, the Holy Land, for example, Palestine, or al-Sham, which includes Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Oman. But these lands are highly praised in some hadiths regarding al-Sham.
The student: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : Peace be upon you, and Allah’s mercy and blessings. The place of migration of Ibrahim (peace be upon him), and the command of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in the hadith of Abdullah ibn Hawalah, where he said to him: . But where is al-Sham today in Syria? Under the rule of the Nusayriyyah. And where is Palestine, which is part of al-Sham? Under the rule of the Jews. So we do not continue to cling to the land when the circumstances of that land have changed. Otherwise, the position when a person becomes fanatical about his land, and that righteous person has developed into a wicked person, clinging to the land is a purely Jewish materialist creed. He (Glorified and Exalted is He) said regarding them: . Now, when we say: Emigrate with your own persons, escape from the rule of the Jews, the immorality of the Jews, the open sinfulness of the Jews, and their selling of their honor in order to obtain a material thing, this is well known about the Jews. So this transaction must be considered, and one should not cling to the land, but rather the person should emigrate from the land in which he was born, grew up, and was raised, and in which he has beautiful and pleasant memories. This is the jihad: that you leave the land you have loved so that you can obey Allah (Mighty and Majestic is He) if you emigrate from it.