The Wisdom Behind the Prohibition of Residing Among Disbelievers and Open Sinners

The Shaykh : One of our brothers told me, and he is likely present in this mosque now, that a Palestinian woman told him about a visit she made to her sister’s neighbor in the West Bank or in some of the Palestinian lands. When the visiting sister entered her sister’s home, she found a girl of the most beautiful freshness and beauty, and she was wearing a short skirt. The sister asked, “Who is this?” She said, “This is my daughter.” “How is this possible?” She said, “This is how we live now with the Jews.” So when it is said to some people, “Flee from mixing with the Jews,” they say, “He wants to hand the land over to the Jews as a free gift.” This is a ta'wil (figurative interpretation) that distorts the words from their places, as He the Exalted said. The point is, in the end, perhaps this will be the end of the matter, and I do not know what Allah will open up for me with you. There is a hadith narrated by Imam al-Bukhari and Muslim in their Sahihs from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . This is how it is in the hadith. The scholars said: The intended meaning is that he was directed to a ignorant person who was devoted to worship, but he was ignorant. . But the man, it appears, was sincere in his intention to repent to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). . The point is the statement of this scholar: . And this is evidence that he was sincere in his intention to return to his Lord. But Allah (Mighty and Majestic), for a profound wisdom... As for the angels of punishment, when they knew of his evil life—he had killed a hundred souls without right. As for the angels of mercy, they looked at it as he (peace be upon him) said in the well-known hadith: . His ending was that he repented to Allah and applied the repentance by walking from the sinful village to the righteous village. So the two groups disputed, and Allah sent to them an angel in the form of a human being. He said: “Measure the distance between the two villages; to whichever he is closer, assign him to its people.” They measured and found him closer to the village whose people are righteous. So the angels of mercy took charge of taking his soul.
The point is: This man, because of his residence in the village of evil which was rampant there, became one who kills souls without right. So the scholar advised him to leave. This advice is to leave the town whose people are wicked; it does not mean more than reforming the soul of this man who is afflicted with these evils.