40 Hadiths on Social Justice
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Hadith #31 – Islamic Ethics Regarding Asylum, Refugees, and Migration
In Islam, human rights start with the right to a dignified life and existence. We should view the refugee/migrant crisis within the context of the right to life. In Hadith 31 of 40, Sh. Omar Suleiman reviews Islamic ethics surrounding asylum, refugees, and migration.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. We're going to start now a discussion about what it means to be an immigrant or how we really understand what's happening to us right now in our political context from an Islamic conception. A few weeks ago, I think that when we had the program that we had here about the dreamers, it dramatically changed the way that a lot of people view the subject just because they were able to put a human face to it. I think that's one of the biggest points in all of these discussions that at some point you move from theory to not just practice but to interaction. Interaction changes the way that you view theory and the way that you practice. I'd like us to just take a moment to appreciate. Today we're going to talk about conceptions of asylum, refugee, migrant, these types of discussions. I'm going to try very hard to stick to the Qur'an and the sunnah, particularly the hadith of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, in regards to the subject because that's what we're trying to do is frame it from an Islamic perspective and not get too lost into modern debate. I do want us to just take a moment to appreciate what point of history we are in right now. There has probably been no time in history where you had, or actually we can say that pretty confidently, where you've had a greater refugee crisis than the one that you have right now, where you literally have a significant swath of humanity just circling around this earth trying to find a way to survive. When you think about it either in terms of quantity or if you took it in regards to how proportional the refugee population is to the human population, we're about as backwards as it comes right now. There's a very powerful documentary that I would recommend everyone watches, maybe with your older children as well, called Human Flow, which just looks at the global refugee crisis. Again, I think it's important to understand just the implications of the era that we live in right now. I think that if we're going
to speak about refugee law, we have to critique it against broader political and social contexts. I want us for a moment just to appreciate where we live right now and what we're seeing right now happening with the Rohingya, happening with the Syrian refugees, what's been happening for decades now with Palestinian refugees, just the displacement that's been taking place throughout the continent of Africa with absolutely no outcry from the world. Just take a moment and understand it from this perspective. If we look at the time of the Prophet ﷺ, in fact if we look at Jahadiyya, we look at the days of ignorance, we look at the tribal system that existed before Islam and automatically we view it as incredibly backwards and we're repulsed by it and rightfully so. How is it that a person belonging to a certain tribe is entitled to this, this, this and that, whereas a person who belongs to a lesser tribe or doesn't have a native tribe at all is entitled to almost zero economic protection or political protection. But I would venture to say that even in Jahadiyya, the person who would be in the state of Ibn Mas'ud that lived in Mecca at that time or a person in whose favor we talked about Hilf al-Fudur, the League of the Pact of Justice was established with the Prophet ﷺ participating in it, that person that started that whole thing had a much better situation and was dealing with a less backward system than the one that we're dealing with right now in the global scale of things. What does that mean? If you think about how cruel our current broader political social context is in regards to how it forces people into these difficult situations, what makes a person intrinsically more valuable because they're born in a certain country or they have a certain passport and they have the freedom to travel
and migrate throughout the world with very little hiccups and with not even having to apply for a visa if you're from a certain country and another person just because they were born in a certain place or because their parents were born in a certain place not having access to any of those countries and at best being relegated to some tents at the border of some country not having any access to public services, not having any access to hospitals, schools or whatever it may be. What makes that person who's born in that situation less valuable than I for example, I'm going to use myself, who was born as an American and has an American passport and can travel throughout the world, Alhamdulillah not banned from most countries, with relative ease whereas a person who has none of that, did absolutely nothing to deserve that status is relegated to the situation where they have to constantly fill out paperwork if they can even access paperwork to be treated like a human being and apply for asylum. And what does that say about our current state of human rights? And again I don't want to delve too deep into modern refugee law and how backwards it actually is because this class is meant to give us lenses and I haven't even started with the hadith yet. Here is the lens and here is what I want you to think about. As human rights are constantly invoked in our modern day discourse through liberal paradigms, they're often always invoked in the context of freedom of expression and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness and it's usually at happiness where most people haven't even gotten to life yet. Okay, so the human rights of people to do this, the human right of people to do that, the human rights of people to do this in this context and it's usually in regards to people's individualistic rights to be able to express in a certain way, to be able to live in a certain way and
usually those terms are hijacked for privileged populations. But when you look at the Islamic conception of human rights, it starts at life and not just at life but the idea that everyone is entitled to a dignified existence. Every human being is entitled to a dignified existence. So you have human rights in America, in the West and this is the problem with all the Islamisms is that they all suffer from classism. They're all plagued by the same disease of working for those that are in a certain status, in a certain economic status or whatever it may be. Islam starts off with the right to a dignified existence. Before you go to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, you start at life and the disparity that we see right now in the world that puts refugees in the situation that it puts them in is tied into all of these different contexts and constructs and it's important for us to view the refugee crisis and the migrant crisis first and foremost within the context of life, the right to life. And it's really interesting here because in Surah Nisa verse 66, again I haven't even started with the hadith that we're going to frame the entire discussion from, but start from this. In Surah Nisa verse 66, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala likens being forced out of your home to death, to being murdered. Being forced out of your home. Aniqtulu anfusakum awukhruju min diyarikum. Okay? That you kill yourselves or that you are forced out of your homes. That being forced out of your home is like being killed. And to ask someone to leave their home forcefully is like asking them to kill themselves. It's at the same degree. And if you've ever dealt with refugees at an extended level, then you know that many refugees would rather live under the threat of bombing in their homeland
than live outside and feel like complete strangers and complete aliens, which speaks to our terminology and the way that we refer to human beings today. They would rather be at home, they'd rather deal with the threat if they could still be in their home and if they could still feel like they're going to be in their land. How many times would you hear a person say, I'd rather die in my homeland than live completely humiliated in somebody else's home like a stranger for the rest of my life. Right? So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala addresses it from the emotional perspective, from what this means for that person, and this starts at the right of life, the right to life. And so I'm just going to go through some of the hadith inshallah ta'ala and then we'll have a discussion as to how this plays out in Islamic ethics. And this is really what this discussion is about. The first hadith that we'll start with, it's a hadith that's narrated in Sunnat Tirmidhi, that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, man anzara mu'siran awwada'a lahu, adhallahu allahu yawm al qiyamati tahta dhalla arshihi yawma la dhalla illa dhallo. An authentic hadith, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam says, whoever grants respite to someone in difficulty, whoever grants respite to someone in difficulty or alleviates him, Allah will shade him on the day of judgment when there is no shade but his. It's a profound hadith because it speaks to the notion that's embedded in almost all of these hadith and all of these subjects that you treat people the way you want Allah to treat you. And whoever grants shade, respite, safety to someone, Allah will grant them safety, respite, and shade on the day of judgment. And it's very powerful if you think about how Allah ties shade and safety together in the akhira and
even in this world. In the hereafter, the shade of Allah means that you're safe. You're shaded, you're amongst those people that are shaded and granted the protection from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that means you're safe from any punishment, you don't have to worry. The same type of discourse is used in the way that we treat people that are seeking shade, seeking safety. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam says, man anzara mu'siran, and again these terms are broader than the ones that we use today because the ones that we use today have very specific implications. Whoever grants respite to someone in difficulty or alleviates him, Allah will shade him on the day of judgment when there is no shade but his. We also already covered a hadith in some detail but it does speak to the subject. The hadith where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam mentioned, there is no right for the son of Adam except in these things, a house in which he lives, a garment to cover himself, and a piece of bread and water. So the right to shelter is also a human right that's described by the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Now when you look at the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and you look at he himself fleeing persecution and he himself living like a refugee and the companions early on living like refugees and living then after being granted safety in Abyssinia, living in a certain situation, you find this very particular hadith that describes the state of Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu. And Abu Bakr fled persecution from Mecca or was going to flee to Abyssinia, to Habesha, but then ended up staying behind because of a very particular thing that happened. Abu Bakr held out longer than most of the people that were sent out. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam sent out people to Abyssinia twice. There were two groups that were sent to Abyssinia to live in safety. Two hijras, two migrations that were made to Abyssinia to live in safety. And it was interesting that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam expressed without knowing
Najashi, without knowing the ruler of Abyssinia, that he'd be too decent of a human being, he'd be too just of a man, not because of his faith, not because of iman, he'd be too just of a person, too decent of a person to see these people fleeing persecution and then to send them back. Not knowing anything about their plight, not knowing anything about why they're being persecuted, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is saying, this is a man that's not going to disappoint you. He's never met him, he just knows of him, and this is a man that's not going to disappoint you. Could it be that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is praising a quality that's not Islamic? The idea that a man would see a people that are fleeing from hardship and just because of that, just because of observing their condition, understand that it's their right that he takes care of them, could anyone show more ihsan, more excellence than the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam? Or is it possible that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam praises something about another person because it's convenient to the Muslims that's not actually part and parcel of our ethics and how we view the way that we treat people that are seeking protection and that are fleeing from some sort of persecution. So when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam sent out these people to Mecca, he sent out, if you think about the first group of refugees in the Muslim ummah included the daughter of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Because he sent out Ruqayya, his daughter, and Uthman, may Allah be pleased with them both, they were amongst that first group of refugees that fled to Abyssinia. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam trusted that this is a man that's not going to turn people away because of his sense of dignity. There's something good about him. That when he sees these people fleeing, even though he might have some accords or some treaty with Quraysh, with the Arabs, and that was tested. When Amr bin al-As went to Abyssinia and tried to get the Muslims handed over to him, that was tested. That look, we've got gifts, we've got treaties, we have an agreement
in place, so why would you take in these people that are heretics and that are this and they're guilty of this and this and that. And Najashi guarantees them a source of protection. When Abu Bakr radiallahu ta'ala was fleeing persecution, and he was towards the end, when Mecca became unbearable for him, he was on his way to Abyssinia. And this is a long hadith in al-Bukhari, I'm sure I've referenced it in this series. If I haven't, then I've referenced it in other places where Abu Bakr was on his way, this is the most prominent of the companions of the Prophet, so he was on his way out to Abyssinia. And he was stopped by a chief by the name of Ibn al-Daghina. And Ibn al-Daghina was a chief of his tribe on the outskirts of Mecca. And he said, where are you going? Now we usually talk about Ibn al-Daghina offering him protection, bringing him back to Mecca, and that stopped Abu Bakr's migration to Abyssinia. But where are you going and why are you leaving? The words of Abu Bakr here are powerful in how we understand this subject. He says, akhrajani qawmi, my people ran me out. He says, fa ureedu an asiha fil ard wa a'abudu rabbi. And so I desire to go out and to explore the land around. Asiha fil ard, to explore the earth of Allah, the God-given earth of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, wa a'abudu rabbi, and worship my Lord freely. If you think about the implications, what's embedded in that sentence alone, that I have a right, an asiha fil ard, to go as I please wherever I want and to worship as I please. If you think about that implication, you know it struck me when we were at the Dreamers rally and Imam Zaid, when he was speaking he said that migration is a human right in Islam. The right to migration is
a human right in Islam. It's embedded, the right to migrate, asiha fil ard, that a person can go through the land as they please and be granted dignity and protection. That's a human right in Islam. We did not conceive of these borders and these nationalities and passports that assign value to people and who gets to go where and who gets to export what and who gets to import what and who gets to end up here and who gets to be treated with this and disparity in wealth, disparity in rights and obligations. We didn't conceive of any of that. It starts off with the statement of Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. I'm going out because I should have the right to travel through the earth of Allah and to worship my Lord. Then Ibn Daghina granted him asylum. I guess the word is really asylum. Ibn Daghina said that no, a person like you, la yakhruj wa la yukhruj, you should not leave nor should you be forced out. You're too valuable to us to leave because you're too good to your people to leave. At the same time, it's not right that you be forced out. It's interesting because Ibn Daghina said that one part of this is justice. La yakhruj wa la yukhruj. One part of it is justice. That's not just that you be forced out of your land. This is your land. Mecca is yours. This is where you're from. The second part is that you're value to us as a people. Had he said only, la yakhruj, we can't afford to lose you, then it wouldn't be for justice. It would be because Abu Bakr is particularly a valuable person. But when he says la yakhruj wa la yukhruj, that you should not leave nor could you be forced out, then he's saying that even if you offered no value whatsoever to society, that's your right. It's a right to your land and it's a right to your home and this should not be happening to you. There's a difference between the two because if you think about right now the discussion about refugees and immigrants, well, what do they do for us?
What are they bringing to us? What do they do for us? Of course, all of that is based in racism and not in facts about what immigrants contribute to the population, what refugees do in most places that they go to. But that particular thing that, look, even if you offered no particular benefit and you weren't an extraordinary person, it's not right for you to be forced out this way. So he offered him that asylum, he offered him that protection, and he took him back to Mecca to give him that. This also conceives of not just the way the people deal with one another, but also it goes to the state and it goes to leadership. If you think about the broader frame, and as we come to the last 10 ahadith, you're going to see a lot of these broader frames play out. When the Prophet ﷺ says, هل تُرزقون وتُنصَرون إلا بضعفائكم? Are you given by Allah ﷻ victory and spent on, meaning given rizq, sustenance, except by the way you treat your most vulnerable? That's a frame, that you will be treated as you treat your most weak and your most vulnerable. The Prophet ﷺ, he says, مَا مِنْ إِمَامٍ There is no leader يُغْلِقُ بَابَهُ دُونَ ذَوِي الْحَاجَةِ that there is no person who closes his door to someone in need. Now the Prophet ﷺ says ذو الحاجة, so a person who has any need, a general need, وَالْخَلَّ وَالْمَسْكَنَةِ so a person who's in any general need, and then the Prophet ﷺ specified poverty. So there is no leader who closes his door, who shuts his door, to a person who is in need or one who's suffering in poverty, إِلَّا أَغْلَقَ اللَّهُ أَبْوَابَ السَّمَاءُ دُونَ خَلَّتِهِ وَحَاجَتِهِ وَمَسْكَنَتِهِ Except that Allah ﷻ will shut the gates of the heavens for him when he is suffering from any need or when he himself is in poverty
or is looking for any type of assistance. So Allah particularly, or the Prophet ﷺ particularly talking about the leader who shuts the door, who turns away the one that is in need and what the implications are for that person in the hereafter. That's also a hadith that's in Sunnah Turmidi. That's in regards to the individual, that when you turn someone away, Allah will turn you away. That if someone comes to you as an authority or someone who is in a position to elevate them or to alleviate them and you turn them away, then the doors of the heavens will be shut like you. So if you think about the Prophet ﷺ, he's the shutting of borders to people in need that take place today. How many people are earning the wrath of Allah ﷻ as individuals and as nations for shutting borders in the face of people, refugees and people that are fleeing persecution, many times because of some of the same actions of those governments that are closing those doors. This hadith should be looked at in the spiritual sense and it should be looked at in the broader sense as well. That when a nation turns people away, when a nation shuts its doors on those who are needy and those who are in poverty and those who are looking for a place to live in safety, that that directly will be tied to the loss of their own safety and the poverty of that nation. That's from an Islamic ethics perspective that the barakah, the blessings of the wealth that's in that for that nation and their safety will be taken away from them because of the way that they're treating other people. And it's interesting here because historically speaking, the scholars mentioned that there is no person who is more giving to all of those that were seeking help than Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz. When you look at Islamic history, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz would take in people and grant protection and asylum to anyone that sought it.
In fact, interestingly enough, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, he was the governor of Medina at the age of 25, from 25 to 33. Then he became the khalifa once again at 38. So there's a lot of lost history usually before his khalifa, but he made some amazing reforms as the governor of Medina from 25 to 33. One of the things that he would do is he'd take in all the refugees that were being persecuted by Hajjaj, by another Muslim leader. And it annoyed Hajjaj that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was taking them in and then preventing Hajjaj from harming them in Medina and actually stopped Hajjaj from entering in Medina and took these people. And he didn't set up refugee camps. He placed it on the citizens of Medina to take in those people that were being harmed by Hajjaj in other Muslim lands. So it wasn't like a Muslim, non-Muslim thing. And when we talk about the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and his companions fleeing to Medina as refugees and being taken in by the Ansar, that's not just a specific situation here. What Allah mentions to us about those people as they took them in is an example for all of us, not just to be invoked in fundraisers. There's something more to it than that. So Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, rahimahullah, was someone who was well known for taking care of people that fled persecution, for granting asylum to all of those that sought it, and for opening his doors. And what happened to the nation of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz? It was the richest Muslim nation, the most stable Muslim nation that we'd ever seen in our history. Truly. I mean, the things that happened in the time of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz in terms of stability in the ummah, in terms of the social welfare in the ummah, in terms of, you know, he dismantled any type of, you know, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz stopped any type of outside warfare, right?
He just wanted to manage the affairs of the ummah, righting the wrongs of government corruption, getting to a point where they couldn't find anyone to collect zakah anymore because he was solving all of the problems at a policy level. You know, all of the justice that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz brought to the ummah in his short time led to a situation of safety and led to a situation where there was blessing in the wealth at the time of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, rahimahullah, so those two things are tied. Justice and blessing in the wealth of a nation are tied together. Safety and how the poor are treated are all interconnected in the Islamic connection. Now we already mentioned that Allah likens a person being forced out of his home to a person being killed, okay? That it's almost like a person no longer lives if they're being forced out of their home. Therefore, it's more than just offering them a house but there are also emotional needs and all types of special needs that are to be afforded to those that are in that situation. So in Surah al-Hashr, verse 9, where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions the ansar, literally the supporters, those in Medina who took in the migrants, who took in those, the muhajireen, those who came from Medina. How does Allah describe them? يُحِبُّونَ مَنْ هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِمْ They love those that have migrated to them. This is something that cannot be taught except through faith. Let me give you an example, and it's a very sad example by the way. What ends up happening in almost any, even Muslim land. Let's just take a Muslim land with Muslim refugees. Just to specifically attach it to this idea here. Initially, there's a call to humanity, there's a call to take people in. Once refugees come in and people start to feel the pinch on their society, what happens? They develop a resentment towards the refugees themselves.
And it happens everywhere. There is a resentment that's developed towards those refugees. Why? Because these refugees come into a country, and initially it's like everyone go out and give them charity, and take some food to them, and spend your weekends, and spend a part of your wealth, and there are national calls to take care of people. Then as the situation goes on, refugees need to find work, they're undocumented. So they'll take jobs at lower rates. Think about immigrants or refugees, they'll take jobs for pennies, just to be able to eat and drink to anyone that's willing to employ them. And then when someone else who's a national, a citizen of that country, is not getting a job anymore, is feeling poor, who do they start to turn their blame and their resentment towards? These people that came into our country. So it's not like we're one anymore. The whole Universal Brotherhood out the window, the whole even Ummah Bond out the window, it's these people took our jobs. And they are draining, those people are draining our nation. So resentment is directed, and that's why I said the entire refugee crisis has to be spoken about, you know, with a broader discussion about just political and social constructs as they exist today. It's heartbreaking, and you want to, you know, you start, it's disgusting to a person who's not living in that country when you go there and you actually see that, but it happens. Right, it happens. And it might not have started that way, but that resentment grows. So what does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mention? The very first thing Allah says about the Ansar and the Muhajireen. The Ansar and the Muhajireen, the people of Medina and the people of Mecca. The Ansar don't know the Muhajireen. They're not tied to them in any way. All right, these are our brothers and sisters who are fleeing persecution. We are the comfortable people here in Medina. And the very first way Allah describes them is, yuhibboona man haajara ilayhim. They love those that have come to them.
They love those that have come to them. Why? What makes the Ansar love those that have come to them? Because they know that they're earning the pleasure of who in the process of taking care of them. They understand from a faith perspective that we're earning His pleasure as we take care of them. And so you are instruments of gaining the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So without even having seen your smile and without ever even having heard your story or why you've been persecuted, because the Muhajireen are of different levels, right? No matter what, Bilal and Abdurrahman ibn Auf are not the same. They've got different histories. But you know what? These are people that are coming to us seeking our help. They're giving us an opportunity to take them in. yuhibboona man haajara ilayhim. They love those that have come to them. You're not a drain on me. I don't resent you. I don't hate you for the persecution that you felt. But instead, there is a love that is given towards them. Now as time goes on though, what ends up happening, again, it's economic. The drain is economic. So what's the second way Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes them? Anyone know the ayah? I guess not. wala yajiduna fee sudurihim haajatan min ma'udhun. They have no ill feelings in their hearts of what the immigrants were given. So they're not looking at what they have and what we have or looking at their situation and our situation and starting to feel any type of resentment towards them. And Allah mentions, wa yu'thiroona ala anfusihim. This is a step further. wa yu'thiroona ala anfusihim walaw kana bihim khasasa. Instead, they will even give them preference over themselves even if that puts them in hardship. Even if that means it's going to put me in a hardship, I'll actually prefer that person to myself.
I mean, you can't get further than that. That touches mental, emotional, physical, economic, everything. That you know what, not only will I not resent you, I love you and I'll even protect you or I'll even prefer you to myself. So Allah mentions them as being loving towards those that migrate to them, selfless in seeking Allah's pleasure, indiscriminate in regards to the situations that are in front of them that they will give them no matter what it is that they are dealing with, even if that means they will incur hardship themselves. walaw kana bihim khasasa. So this is the way that Allah describes it. And of course Allah talks about Ibn al-Sabeel in particular in the Quran. Ibn al-Sabeel is the wayfarer. Ibn al-Sabeel literally means the son of the street. But a person who is in a strange land and disconnected from their wealth. Those are the two things that are mentioned about this person, a person who is in a strange land, so they're not in their homeland and they don't have their wealth. And Allah stressing that that person actually has a right to your wealth and to your protection and to your health. Well what if someone says, well, you know, this is something in the Islamic conception that just deals with the Ummah. Ansar muhajreen are Muslims. So this is all about Muslims taking care of Muslims. But when Allah mentions in Surah al-Tawbah, in the sixth verse of Surah al-Tawbah, that even if one of the disbelievers, istajarak, seeks protection from you, then you should give that person protection, you should give that person that protection, that asylum, until they hear the words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then that shows that, look, Allah mentions the right to asylum in particular.
When someone's in a detrimental situation, it doesn't matter what their situation is, that when they seek protection, they are to be given protection. And this is something that is only amplified when you're talking about your Muslim brothers and sisters and so all of the hadith about being in the service of your brother and what that means in terms of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala being in your service. And Imam al-Awza'i rahimallah has a commentary on that verse in Surah al-Tawbah where he was asked about talab al-istijara, that a person who's seeking, or talab al-jiwara, a person who's seeking that protection, or istijara as a human right, Imam al-Awza'i was asked, you know, where is his place of security or what if that person has some serious demands in seeking that security or in looking for that security. If one of the disbelievers come to you seeking security, what does that mean and what's the extent of that? So he said, or Imam al-Awza'i was asked, do you think if that person says my place of security is Constantinople, and it's really interesting here because Allah does not say just grant him protection, Allah mentions take him to a place of security. So it's not just a temporary protection, then be on your way. It's to try to set them up in a situation where they have security, where asylum or protection is long term. So Imam al-Awza'i was asked, look, would we have to take him? What if someone comes to us and says my place of security is not going to be until Constantinople? Do I have to take him there? And Imam al-Awza'i said, well, you should take at least that person to one of their fortresses or one of their strongholds to where they'll have that security. So you have to assure that. He said, what if, and this is now talking about mushrikeen versus, you know, or disbelievers, you know, living in a Muslim country. He says, what if, you know, the mushrikeen are met by a Muslim patrol in their country before they reach their place of security?
He said, then the patrol should not stand in their way, the Muslims should not stand in their way, so they should make sure that they're able to reach their land safely. He said, what about the enemy who enters under Muslim land, under a safe conduct which is valid until his return? Now, Islamically speaking, there are different statuses that would be afforded to a person. There's a person who's mu'ahid, there's a person who's under a treaty, there's a person who's a citizen in the sense that, you know, they're living in that Muslim land permanently. There's a person who comes from a, you know, who belongs to a people that are actually in hostility with the Muslim community at that time, and they themselves are not involved, and so they're under a covenant, or they're under a treaty. There are different statuses that exist for a person in this regard. So, he says, what about the enemy who enters Muslim land under a safe contract, which, under a safe conduct, which is valid until his return, and then on the way back to his place, on the way back to his country, he climbs a mountain within his own territory, but he's forced by strong winds back into the Muslim land. And then the enemy then says, I am here under safe conduct, what should be done? Al-Awza'i says that even then he's entitled to remain protected, and he's to be taken to a place of security. Of course, the point of that conversation within the tafsir, and Al-Awza'i is one of the earliest commentators of the Quran, that if someone's seeking asylum from you, or seeking protection, it doesn't matter what their status is, you are obligated to try to give them that. And this is something, when you think about asylum in the Islamic conventions, as opposed to modern law conventions, it's very different. So, this is a means of tying the entire world together, that when it comes to istijar or talib al-jiwab, when someone is seeking protection or seeking safety, that you are to go above and beyond to give them safety and security,
and to also put them in a situation where they can pursue what you're trying to pursue, so where they end up with the same rights and responsibilities as you, once they are granted asylum. And this, of course, when we talk about modern refugee law, number one, it doesn't guarantee asylum. So, some refugees are in permanent refugee status. Number two, even those that are granted asylum are not guaranteed any type of livable condition, or anything that's going to actually take care of them in the long term. So, the concept of aman here, the concept of safety, as a right that's to be given to people, no matter what their situation is, and that you are to try to assure someone who's lost a home that they can find another home and that they can find security and they can find their same pursuits, is deeply embedded in our deen. And of course, subhanallah, it's in the Muslim psyche. It's in our, if you think about our anbiya, our prophets. Ibrahim, alayhis salam, has to flee. He's a refugee that has to flee with his family. And then you find, you know, Musa, alayhis salam, having to flee, right? So, you have Ibrahim and his family having to flee. And then you have Musa, alayhis salam, having to flee to Madian. And what does Allah praise about the way Musa, alayhis salam, was taken care of? He's provided with housing, he's provided with employment, and he's provided with an opportunity to start over, right? After he's fled from, from Musa, after he's fled from Egypt. And then, of course, the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, himself instructing his ummah to flee to Abyssinia, and then he himself becoming a refugee with the majority of his followers seeking refuge in Madina. So, this was embedded in our psyche as a Muslim community because our anbiya were, for the most part, all refugees or immigrants at some point left in a land where they did not have those protections,
where they did not have those things that were guaranteed to them. So, again, we talk about our modern day situation. How do you restructure the entire political, social constructs that really tie into modern refugee law? Okay? When we're talking about just notions of citizenship and what they mean, and disparity in wealth, and how that plays into notion of citizenship. Think about the discussions between countries as to who gets visa-free travel. And it's always tied to the money, right? And people that don't have certain protections in certain countries just because they're from other countries. And how that ties into all these systems, and particularly now the greatest human crisis, or the greatest refugee crisis in history that we're seeing right now, where people all around you, how many refugees are here in Dallas? You'd be shocked how many people are here in Dallas, and it's not just putting a roof over someone's head. How many immigrants, how many people are living without status, undocumented, and not understanding what their future holds? That in and of itself, not being assured that I'm going to be safe till tomorrow, is a crime, islamically. It's a crime, islamically. Okay? That a person doesn't know that they're going to have safety till tomorrow, just because of their paperwork, or just because of, you know, who they are, and they don't have a livable condition to return to or to go anywhere. Right? And the resentment that's being created towards immigrants and refugees, all in the name of protecting ourselves, and protecting our country, and protecting this. By the way, it's the same rhetoric. It's not just, you know, it's not just in Texas. It's not just here in the States. That same rhetoric is employed against refugees and immigrants in any country where the majority starts to suffer economic decline, and they're told to blame this group of people, for their hardships and for their decline. So this is not something that's unique to the Muslim, or to the United States,
or to Muslim refugees, or anything of that sort. And subhanAllah, just one more thing that I'll mention here, what that means for the safety and the barakah of a nation, the blessing of a nation. Najashi in Abyssinia faced a major revolt after he took in the Muslim refugees. Okay? Not because of that issue specifically, but there was a major revolt on his kingdom. All right? And Umm Salama, radiyAllahu anha, mentions where they went out and they watched this battle taking place, and they were afraid that a Najashi was going to lose his place, because that would mean that the Muslims were going to lose their place as well. The refugees, their status would be up in the air as well. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala established Najashi in his rule, and put blessing in his rule, and further solidified his authority, and there was more blessing that was brought to Habesha, brought to the fruits of Abyssinia, and brought to the wealth of Abyssinia as a result of them taking those refugees. That ties into this entire thing that there's barakah on an individual level, blessing on an individual level, when you use it to take care of someone else, who for no doing of their own, no crime of their own, is viewed as less of a human being in the world today. And there is blessing to a nation when it opens its arms to people that are in desperate situations, and uses its resources to empower them, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala empowers that nation as a result, and empowers that people as a result as well. So this is a large subject, I'm sorry if I went all over the place, but it's a very difficult situation. It's very hard to analyze this, you know, just because of all of the differences that we have in our systems today, as opposed to the Islamic systems, but at the same time, it gives us at least an ethical background of how the Quran and the Sunnah view this idea of taking care of the stranger,
taking care of the immigrant, taking care of the refugee, and particularly a person who's fleeing persecution, so the one who's seeking asylum, and what that actually means in guaranteeing them protection, as well as showing them love and empowering them to be able to stand on their own two feet. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not punish us because of the refugee crisis today, and because of the way that immigrants and refugees and people are being treated in our country and around the world today. Wallahi, if you just interact with these refugees, you worry, you seriously worry about yourself. Like, you seriously worry about yourself. Because it's like, at the end of the day, we can go do our charity for a few days, and we're able to walk back to our comfortable lives, but we have to really start thinking about what we're going to do as a community at the policy level, and as much as we can do as possible for these groups of people. Okay? These large swaths of humanity. And it's just not a sustainable situation. It's only getting worse. It's amazing how these things disappear from the news, and subhanallah, you think that, you know, like, you just have in your imagination that, you know, that the Syrian refugees are still Syrian refugees, and then you've got some that are being killed right now in that regard. And remember that the ultimate goal here is to empower those people to get back to their land, because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala likens that situation of being forced out of your home to death. So the ultimate good that could be done is to grant a person safety, and, you know, to put a person in a situation where you're able to secure them back in their homeland. So refugees don't want to stay as refugees for their entire lives, but they'd much rather be in a livable condition, you know, than an unlivable condition that they are in right now. And then at the same time, trying to put people back in a situation where they're able to live in their homes. There have been mass, you know, there have been mass groups of people, large groups of people,
that have left Syria just in the last few weeks that are now finding their way to different countries. And in many situations, people are still being turned away, and resentment is being shown towards them. So whether it's the Rohingya or whether it's the Syrians or whatever it may be, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to find a way out for them. And when we're talking about immigrants here in our country that are being treated the way that they're being treated, for no crime of their own, nothing that they did right now, the entire dreamers debate, the uncertainty that they live in and what that does to you mentally and emotionally, not knowing if at any moment someone's going to burst, you know, ICE is going to burst your door down and lock you up and take you away from your family and you won't see them maybe for years or ever again, you know, for nothing that you did wrong, even though you're doing everything that you're supposed to do as a person. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be in the service of those people and protect them and protect us and forgive us when we don't do enough for them, and allow us to not only serve them, but to also work ethical policy as much as we can to stop that bleeding and to hopefully allow people to return to their lands in full security and in full happiness. Allahumma ameen. Questions? I'm sure there are probably a lot of questions on this subject. Yeah.
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