Fleeing with religion from non-Muslim countries
Question:
Your Eminencies, Muslim Scholars in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I would like you to provide me with your opinions on my question during this critical moment in my life, I live in this foreign country; Brazil. The people in the city where I live are Christians and Mushrikun (those who associate others with Allah in His Divinity or worship). I am married to a Non-Muslim woman, and I have three children, two boys and a girl: the first is the girl who is 40 years old, the second is Nasir who is 37 years old and the third is Samir, he is a 33 year old doctor who is married to a Brazilian woman and his in-laws are non-Muslims. My children can not read Arabic well as there is no Muslim in this city except me. I am very sad and depressed, and I cry copiously over my circumstances among this large majority of non Muslims. I keep imagining what the case will be when death befalls me without having any believing Muslims beside me to purify, wash, enshroud, and bury me, for there is only one cemetery here and it is a Non-Muslim one. My life is very hard and I am 75 years old, I have never abandoned offering Salah (prayer) or reciting Qur’an during the day or night, is it permissible for me to leave my wife and children and return to my homeland Lebanon to die there among my Muslim brothers and parents? I hope that Allah will forgive me and guide my children. I am waiting for your opinion and reply. As-salamu ‘alaykum warahmatullah wabarakatuh (May Allah’s Peace, Mercy, and Blessings be upon you!).
Answer:
If you can move to Muslim lands, then you should do so, for the sake of your religious commitment, as Allah (Exalted be He) has obligated every Muslim to offer Hijrah (a believer’s migration to an Islamic land) from the countries of the disbelievers to Muslim countries, and He has threatened whoever is capable of doing so but refrains from doing it.
Allah (Exalted be He) says: “Verily! As for those whom the angels take (in death) while they are wronging themselves (as they stayed among the disbelievers even though emigration was obligatory for them), they (angels) say (to them): “In what (condition) were you?” They reply: “We were weak and oppressed on the earth.” They (angels) say: “Was not the earth of Allâh spacious enough for you to emigrate therein?” Such men will find their abode in Hell - What an evil destination!” [al-Nisa: 97]
But if you are incapable of Hijrah, you will be pardoned provided that you adhere to the Islamic religion and to be consistent with it. Allah Says (Exalted be He) after the previous Ayah: “Except the weak ones among men, women and children who cannot devise a plan, nor are they able to direct their way. These are they whom Allâh is likely to forgive them, and Allâh is Ever Oft-Pardoning, Oft-Forgiving.” [al-Nisa: 98-99]
And we recommend you to advise your children, try to guide them and continue calling them to Islam rather than Christianity. We pray Allah to grant us, you and them, guidance.
- Chairman : Shaykh Abdul-Aziz ibn Baz
- Deputy Chairman : Shaykh Abdul-Aziz Aal al-Shaykh
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