Muslims Living in Non-Muslim Lands: Contesting Muhammad Saeed Al-Qahtani’s Argument on Hijrah- Al-Walā’ wal Barā’ Nexus

Abstract

This paper examines Muhammad Saeed Al-Qahtani’s argument on the nexus between the notion of hijrah (emigration) and the Salafi concept of Al-Walā’ wal Barā’ (loyalty and disavowal) referred to here as WB. AlQahtani’s works on WB asserts that Muslims who live in a non-Muslim land and under non-Islamic political system that is solely based on Sharīʿah law must emigrate or perform hijrah to Muslim lands. He added that Muslims who willingly accept the rule of non-Muslims and live under any rule other than the Sharīʿah are committing acts that nullifies their faith and tantamount to violation of the creed of WB. This paper challenges Al-Qahtani’s argument on the obligation of hijrah in the contemporary period. It will also discuss the position of hijrah from the Islamic viewpoint and examine the concept of dār al-Islām and dār al-harb (land of Islam and land of war) as counter arguments to the claims made by Al-Qahtani.