Searching for Refuge: Challenges in the Contemporary Muslim World

Abstract

Searching for Refuge: Challenges in the Contemporary Muslim World Muhammad Shafiq Western industrialization followed by the colonization of most of the Muslim world confronted the Muslim community with a new political and identity crisis that they are still struggling with. The ethnic and nationalist movements against colonizing in the early part of the twentieth century resulted in ethnic nation‐states with conflicting views. Today many Muslims are living in a sort of nostalgia between the ideal past and the reality of the present. Ethnic disputes, economic disequilibrium, corruption, and political instabilities along with Western vested political and economic interests are sinking many of the Muslim‐majority countries into the dark ages of oppression. This article aims at analyzing some of the Qur'anic verses about hijrah (seeking refuge), tracing the issue of refuge in Muslim history with focus on medieval terminologies of dar al harb (abode of warfare) and dar al Islam (abode of peace), and ending with contemporary challenges in the Muslim‐majority countries which force Muslims to search refuge. Hijrah in the Qur'an The Qur'an emphasizes to search for refuge, a new home, when living in a country of birth becomes terrible. The Qur'an stands for freedom of worship, protection of human rights, and human dignity. The Qur'an says: And he who forsakes the domain of evil for the sake of God shall find on earth many a lonely road, as well as life abundant. And if anyone leaves his home, fleeing from evil unto God and His Apostle, and then death overtakes him—his reward is ready with God: for God is indeed much‐forgiving, a dispenser of grace. (Surah 4:100) Another verse emphasizes: Behold, those whom the angels gather in death while they are still sinning against themselves, [the angels] will ask, “What was wrong with you?” They will answer: “We were too weak on earth.” [The angels] will say: “Was, then, God's earth not wide enough for you to forsake the domain of evil?” For such, then, the goal is hell—and how evil a journey's end! (Surah 4:97) These and other such verses relate to the period when Muhammad and his companions sought refuge in Madinah. However, the early Muslim history records that even before his migration to Madinah, Prophet Muhammad had asked his companions to seek refuge in Ethiopia, a Christian country at that time, from the persecution of the Meccans (Makkah) (Brown , 76). The Muslim calendar did not begin from the birthday of the Prophet, or his death day, or the day God appointed him to be the messenger. Instead, it started from his migration (hijrah) to Madinah. Hijrah in Islam stands for freedom from oppression, strength from weakness, and protection of human rights. Hijrah is like Exodus in the Bible, which stands for spiritual purity along with liberty and freedom from oppression. Most of the Qur'anic verses about hijrah are about the migration to Madinah. Finding a new home at Madinah, the Qur'an asked Muslims who stayed behind in Makkah to migrate to Madinah: BEHOLD, as for those who have attained to faith, and who have forsaken the domain of evil and are striving hard, with their possessions and their lives, in God's cause, as well as those who shelter and succor [them]—these are [truly] the friends and protectors of one another. But as for those who have come to believe without having migrated [to your country]—you are in no wise responsible for their protection until such a time as they migrate [to you]. Yet, if they ask you for succor against religious persecution, it is your duty to give [them] this succor‐except against a people between whom and yourselves there is a covenant: for God sees all that you do. (Surah 8:72) The Qur'an praises the Muhajirun (the migrants) and those who shelter them (Al‐Ansar) with abundance of rewards: And as for the first and foremost of those who have forsaken the domain of evil and of those who have sheltered and scoured the Faith, as well as those who follow them in [the way of] righteousness—God is well‐pleased with them...