In the Name of Allah, most Compassionate, most Merciful

 

 

We cannot live in the towns and cities of the disbelievers.  The proof of this is taken from the verse of Quran and the hadith as follows: 

An-Nisa 4:97. 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 earth." They (angels) say: "Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to emigrate therein?" Such men will find their abode in Hell - What an evil destination!

Abu Dawood narrated in his Sunan (2645) and al-Tirmidhi narrated in his Jaami’ (1640) from the hadeeth of Jareer ibn ‘Abd-Allaah that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: I disavow myself of every Muslim who settles among the mushrikeen. They said, O Messenger of Allah, why? He said, Their fires should not be visible to one another.

Imam Ahmad recorded that Buraydah bin Al-Hasib Al-Aslami said, "When the Messenger of Allah would send a commander with an expedition force or an army, he used to say, When you meet your disbeliever enemy...Call them to embrace Islam, and if they agree, accept it from them and turn away from them. Then call them to leave their area (immigrate) and come to areas in which the Muhajirin reside...

Imam Ahmad (4/365) and al-Nasaa’i (4177) narrated that Jareer said: I came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) whilst he was accepting the people’s oaths of allegiance, and I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, give me your hand so that I may give you my oath of allegiance., and you may stipulate your conditions, for you know best.’ He said, ‘I accept your allegiance on the basis that you worship Allah, establish regular prayer, pay the zakat, are sincere towards the Muslims and you forsake the mushrikeen.’"  

Also from Abu Dawood we find other hadith that says "If you live with them, you are one of them."  You can find this in the commentary of 4:97 in Ibn Kathir.  In An-Nawawi's book of 40 hadith, he mentions that a believer is not allowed to live among a group of people who are cursed/hated by Allah.

So if a Muslim willfully lives among the disbelievers for any reason, he is thought of as one who has apostated. 

 

 

 

 

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