Hadith Lessons: On Being an Immigrant


It is related on the authority of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As that the Messenger of Allah said: "The true immigrant (muhajir) is a person who leaves behind everything that Allah has forbidden."

This hadith was related by Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, and Nasai

Lesson: External and Inner Meaning

The nobility of an immigrant (muhajir) is enshrined in the early Muslims who left their homes in Makkah to establish a new life in Madinah where they could freely practice their faith.

The outward context of migration is physical, but the hadith shows that immigration has an inner significance.

Any person who migrates in the outward sense of leaving home to settle elsewhere but pays no heed to the inner significance of abandoning all that is against the divine law loses the virtue of being a true muhajir.

The hadith has a lesson for everyone who is immigrating from country to country or city to city in search of a better life must keep in mind this inner dimension of adopting God Conscious values.

Adapted from "A Sufi Study of Hadith" by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi. Translated by Shaykh Yusuf Talal Delorenzo


Related Suggestions

 
COMMENTS DISCLAIMER & RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
The opinions expressed herein, through this post or comments, contain positions and viewpoints that are not necessarily those of IslamiCity. These are offered as a means for IslamiCity to stimulate dialogue and discussion in our continuing mission of being an educational organization. The IslamiCity site may occasionally contain copyrighted material the use of which may not always have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. IslamiCity is making such material available in its effort to advance understanding of humanitarian, education, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and such (and all) material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.