By S.
Arshad, New Age Islam
29 July
2020
Since the
beginning of civilisation, Man has been compelled to leave his place of birth
or ancestors to look for better living conditions or for livelihood. Sometimes
man had to leave his Homeland due to war, calamities or oppression. Sometimes
an entire community had to migrate. Individuals have had to migrate for various
reasons. In modern times too, communities and individuals migrate for the
reasons mentioned above.
Uyghurs in Australia protesting against Cultural genocide of Chinese
Uyghurs by Chinese government
Photo courtesy theconversation.com
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In modern
times, however, there is a section of people who do not migrate due to
disasters or oppression. They migrate to a place or country for better scope of
progress and better living conditions.
The Quran
speaks of migration for two causes: One, due to oppression and another, for the
sake of propagation of the Deen.
Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh/Photo courtesy Vox.cim/AFP/Getty
images
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The holy
Prophet pbuh migrated from his homeland Makkah to Madina after preaching and
propagating his Deen (Islam) for more than ten years. During these years, he
was subjected to every kind of torture, humiliation and hardship but he
persevered on his mission for the reformation of his people. Only it became
almost impossible to carry on with his mission as threats to his life became
imminent, he migrated to Madina. Therefore, the Holy Prophet pbuh migrated due
to the two causes mentioned in the Quran. Due to oppression and for the cause
of Allah.
In Madina,
the holy Prophet pbuh got conducive environment for carrying on with his task
and Islam got a foothold here. After ten years, when Islam became victorious
and Muslims entered Makkah victorious, the holy Prophet pbuh did not return to
Makkah. He made Madina his second home.
Today, the
Muslims of the Islamic world face the problem of migration due to various
causes. Collectively, they have to migrate due to internal strife or civil war,
as is the case with the Muslims of Iraq and Syria or with the Muslims of
Myanmar who are oppressed by the non-Muslim rulers. Another section of Muslims
are those who are stuck in a country where their religious identity is at stake
like the Muslims in China and Palestine.
About the
people stuck in non-Muslim majority countries, the Quran asks those who can
leave the country should leave it if they are not able to fulfill their basic
religious duties there. Quran holds those who can leave their homeland but do
not due to mere love of their homeland guilty: The Quran says:
"Indeed, those whom the angels take (in
death) while wronging themselves (the angels) will say, in what (condition)
were you," they will say, "We were oppressed in the land". The
angels will say, Was
not the Earth of Allah spacious (enough) to emigrate there in. For those, their
refuge is hell."(Al Nisa:97)
However,
the people or group of Muslims who do not have a way out despite their will to
migrate, they are forgiven because God is aware of their dilemma. Muslims of
Palestine and China are in a situation that they have been reduced to prisoners
by the oppressive rulers or political powers. For these Muslim communities, the
Quran asks free Muslim groups and communities to come to their help and rescue
them. The Quran says:
"And
what has happened to you that you do not fight in the way of Allah and for
those who are oppressed, the men, women and children who say O our God retrieve
us from this place as people here are tyrants and raise for us supporters and
those who can help us."(Al Nisa:75)
Thus the
Muslim countries have a duty towards these oppressed and trapped Muslim
communities to use their military and diplomatic powers to rescue them.
From this
point of view, the prominent Islamic scholar Albani had advised the Muslims of
Palestine to migrate from Palestine to some other country where they could live
with dignity and with their religious identity.
The so-called
Muslim countries that claim and boast of being Islamic countries do not have
any will and plan for either the diplomatic solution of the problems of these
trapped Muslim communities or rescuing and deporting them to a safe territory
as the western countries had deported the Jews of the world to Palestine to
give them a safe homeland.
As for
individual Muslims, most of them migrate for better living conditions and
livelihood. They do not face oppression or hindrance in the fulfilment of their
religious duties in their homeland. They migrate from their Muslim homelands
because of violence, sectarian hatred and extremism in Muslim societies without
shunning their own sectarian and extremist beliefs. Millions of Muslims from
Pakistan, Bangladesh and other so-called Islamic countries migrate to European
countries in order to live in peace instead of trying to reform their own
society. Interestingly, since they do not shun their own sectarian and
extremist beliefs, they spread hatred, sectarian violence and anarchy in their
adopted land. This migration is not according to the true spirit of Islam.
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