“I am sick and tired of this country! 

Civic strife, political unrest, rampant killings, filthy environs, lack of adequate infrastructures, lawlessness, corruption, inflation, unemployment….the list goes on.

I am definitely thinking of migrating abroad.”

I often hear this emotionally charged and admittedly somewhat justified rhetoric from many people, young and old alike, either in person, or by reading the comments under the blog posts and online articles that harbinger and discuss unrelentingly dismal news of ongoing political upheavals, ethnic persecution, or outright oppression by militant groups and autocratic governments in many Muslim-majority areas of the world.

Reasons for Migration in the Modern Day

Whether the person who wants to migrate is a ‘yuppie’ (young, urban professional) leading a comfortable, high-class lifestyle in a Muslim-majority country, who only seeks a life with greater personal security and political stability, or whether it is a persecuted, impoverished and indebted village dweller hailing from a minority that is a target of cold-blooded genocide, relocating permanently, or at least for some years, to another city or country in the pursuit of safety, provision and security, is a global phenomenon that has been increasing in the past few decades.

Ease of international travel, in addition to more relaxed immigration policies by foreign governments, has led to more and more people, primarily those hailing from poverty-stricken developing nations, to consider relocating to another country for improving their life and circumstances and those of their coming generations.

Despite not wanting to sound too simplistic, I see the world getting increasingly bifurcated into two distinct factions: the turmoil-ridden East where blood flows cheap, dishonesty and moral corruption is rampant, most rulers and/or governments are unwelcome and disliked by the masses, or the civilian masses are under attack by foreign drones because of the actions of a few among them.

Security in this part of the world is sparse and fleeting; political unrest is prevalent, and basic amenities such as healthcare, sanitation, justice, social safety, and free public education are unheard of.

And the other part of the world is the highly developed, politically stable and civically smooth-running West, where secular education is impeccable, value of money (and hence, the cost of living) is very high, laws are enforced, clockwork-like and smoothly running infrastructures are in place, and career opportunities are ample, with honest hard work bringing great rewards in the long run.

Yet, unlike the East, in these countries a trend called “Islamophobia” is on the rise, because of which immigrant Muslims who live there are subtly and silently discriminated against by the political and social ‘higher-ups’, and discreetly pressured to ‘assimilate’ totally into their country’s culture, even at the cost of relinquishing their adherence to Islamic morals, rulings and lifestyle.

Because Muslims are in a minority in these areas, Islam is not seen openly in practice, and Islamic scholarship, which is found in abundance in the East, is scarce.

What is happening as a result of the above-mentioned global trend is that it is mostly financially struggling or impoverished Muslims from developing nations who migrate to non-Muslim majority areas in the West, or the few oil-rich countries of the East, seeking a “better” life for their coming generations.

In the process, they struggle to deal with issues that make their life difficult post migration, such as racial discrimination, pressure of assimilation, language barriers, homesickness and social isolation, which results from living a largely ‘insulated’ lifestyle because of their inclination to cling to their habits, customs and traditions “back home”.

Escaping Persecution in the Quran

There are some distinct verses in the Quran that encourage migration from one location on earth to another in order to escape “dhulm”, which is an Arabic word that means oppression, injustice or persecution.

{When angels take the souls of those who die in sin against their souls, they say: “In what (plight) were you?”

They reply: “We were weak and oppressed in the earth.”

They say: “Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to move yourselves away (from evil)…} (4:97-98)

God has clearly warned us in the Quran against leading a life of sin in a place where the mighty and powerful members of society deliberately oppress the weaker ones, intentionally preventing them from following God’s commands, adhering to the obligations of His Deen, and abstaining from its prohibitions.

Clear examples of this: some Chinese Muslims being prohibited by their government from fasting in Ramadan, and Rohnigya Muslims in Burma being forced to bow/prostrate to Buddhist monks, in order to prevent themselves from getting killed in cold blood.

In such a case, if the oppression of the rulers or the people in power is causing Muslims under their authority to live a life of constant sin/disobedience to God, it is incumbent, according to the verses of the Quran above, for these oppressed people to relocate elsewhere on earth where they will be free to practice their religion openly, despite the hardship involved in the process of migrating.

Another verse in the Quran corroborates this command of God:

{O My servants who believe! Truly, My earth is spacious, therefore worship Me alone!} (29:56)

Exodus of Believers Led By Prophets

Numerous stories in the Quran describe historic events in the lives of God’s Prophets, which mention their facilitation of their scattering of believing followers to escape from the oncoming physical manifestation of God’s wrath on their nation of tyrannical and persecuting disbelievers.

Whether it is the most oft-repeated story of Prophet Moses helping the weak and persecuted Bani Israil (the sons of Israel) escape from Pharaoh, or Prophet Noah building the Ark and embarking upon it on the high seas with few of his followers, or Prophet Lot escaping in the dark of the night with his disciples to avoid the torment that was coming to his nation in the morning, many Prophets of God (peace be upon them all) were commanded by their Lord to relocate along with believers to another new place.

Sometimes, God commanded His Prophets to relocate for other reasons: e.g. Prophet Ibrahim was ordered by God to leave his wife and infant son in the middle of the Arabian Desert, in order for it to get inhabited around His “house’ (the Ka’bah) later on.

Or Prophet Yusuf stipulating to his brothers that they bring over his parents and younger brother to live near him in Egypt in return for grain, or Prophet Musa fleeing from the Egyptian Copts to Madyan after he accidentally killed one of their men, where he lived with Prophet Shu’aib as a son-in-law and employee under contract for some years.

The Quran is replete with stories of how God’s Prophets relocated to new places for different reasons, the prime one being to escape persecution by disbelievers, or to avoid the destructive punishment sent by God, in the form of an annihilative natural disaster, aimed at wiping out the disbelieving nation that rejected them.

Even Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was ordered to migrate from Makkah, his birth-town, to Madinah, in order to escape persecution of the Quraysh and to establish an Islamic state. He never went back to live there, even after it was conquered by the Muslim army he led.

Illegal Immigration: A Sad Reality

The Hazara are an ethnically persecuted, impoverished religious minority in Pakistan, who are at risk of being wiped out because of targeted killings.

Many men from this poor ethnic group try to escape the country to illegally enter foreign lands in pursuit of security and opportunity, risking their lives on dangerously turbulent high seas on rickety boats into which they are cramped like sardines throughout the journey. Many such boats capsize, drowning their occupants.

Sadly, illegal immigration stemming from the fear of being persecuted and killed is a growing reality that we can no longer ignore. Innumerable young men hailing from impoverished and depraved backgrounds are urged to go abroad by their parents on an illegal basis, risking their lives and careers, just in search of wider provision and a better life.

By breaking the laws and rules of immigration, either by entering another country on the sly without a valid visa, or by lying and submitting false information on immigration application documents just to get inside a developed country’s borders, or by deliberately overstaying on visit visas after the latter expire and working without a valid permit, Muslims not only incur the sin of violating laws upon themselves, for which they will be accountable before God in the Hereafter, but also demean the reputation of Islam and Muslims all over the world each time they are caught by the host country’s authorities and deported in a humiliated manner.

What’s more, rapidly worsening situations involving political unrest, people-led revolutions and civil wars in Muslim-majority countries create an extreme sense of panic in the people who live there, triggering a “flight or fight” reaction that forces them to try to reluctantly flee from their homes to neighboring countries as refugees.

The same happens when indiscriminate drone attacks cause rising civilian casualties and destroy homes. When the surviving families of innocent victims have nowhere safe left to live, they frantically run in any direction just to save their lives.

There are hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the world right now, living in makeshift refugee camps, and their political and social turmoil show no sign of ending soon.

What Should We Do?

To have the vast earth of God, which is full of space and provision, become ‘constricted’ or ‘tight’ upon a nation or group of people, is actually a trial of their faith, or a form of punishment from God for their cumulative sins:

{Then, verily, this [land] shall be forbidden to them for forty years, while they wander on earth, bewildered, to and fro; don’t sorrow over these rebellious people.} (5:26)

In order to help our brothers and sisters all over the world who are suffering from such humanitarian crises, we should first and foremost turn back to God in repentance for our sins and disobedience, because this persecution and humiliation on a global scale could have been caused by our own undermining of our Deen and its commandments.

Secondly, we should make earnest du’a to God to alleviate the misery of our afflicted brethren, utilizing special times of acceptance of dua’s such as Ramadan and the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah to ask God to grant us relief and aid.

Thirdly, we should join and support awareness and aid campaigns and efforts that facilitate the rehabilitation and relief of our suffering Muslim brothers and sisters around the world. Sending our donations of zakah to those afflicted nearest to us, and sadaqah to other parts of the globe, should be a part of our life, until God’s help arrives.

Fourthly, Muslims should stop fighting with and killing each other. Violence only breeds more violence and killing. Even if some of our brothers are sinning because of their incorrect ideology or belief (aqeedah), we should warn and advise them in private.

A Muslim must abstain from attacking the life or honor of his brother/sister, especially before a disdainful, international audience of non-Muslims that has already been watching the spectacle of Muslims killing other Muslims since decades.

We ask Allah to grant our ummah relief from afflictions and aid to those who are suffering.

http://www.onislam.net/english/reading-islam/living-islam/islam-day-to-day/society/465867-migrating-muslims-diaspora-in-dilemma.html

https://new.islamstory.com/index.php/en/artical/1850/migrating-muslims-diaspora-dilemma