Can a Muslim live among non-Muslims? Why not? Indeed Islam, as we know, is the message sent to all mankind. “Say O mankind, I am the Messenger of God to you all.” (7:158) says the Quran. This message can only be conveyed when people have access to Muslims through meeting them, be introduced to them and deal with them. That was how Islam spread in various countries in the past. So in principle Islam is not in favor of keeping Muslims in isolation from other people. On the contrary, Muslims should travel far and wide to spread Islam through both practical models and proper presentation.

We are, however, faced with one saying of the Prophet PBUH where he says: “I disown every Muslim who settles among polytheists.” In what way should we understand this tradition; and how can we solve this paradox? Let us come closer and see what really takes place. Muslims living as minorities all over the world are either native citizens of these lands who have been there for centuries, or immigrants- students and others – who were forced to immigrate either to seek knowledge and obtain university degrees or people who could not live in their own countries due to a variety of reasons – political, economic, etc… These Muslim minorities could establish themselves to a certain degree as distinct communities having their own Islamic centers and schools. There is a varying degree of commitment to Islam by different members of these communities. Some of these communities enjoy a greater degree of freedom of expression and well-being than Muslims living in many majority Muslim countries. This is one hand. Secondly, among the minority Muslims there is a good percentage of people who are either stateless refugees who cannot return to their original homeland or are natives of those non-Muslim countries they live in. If this category of people are required to move and settle in Muslim countries either they will not be accepted or they will be treated as foreigners deprived of many rights. How can we ask them to emigrate to other countries under these circumstances? The situation for many is exactly the opposite. Thousands of Muslims are now immigrating to new homelands all over the world especially Western lands. Thus instead of asking Muslims to go back to majority Muslim countries most of whose people are living under great disadvantages, we have to review our attitude and understand how the command of our Prophet applies to the present situation. We have to acknowledge here an important fact. There is a big challenge for our Islamic identity, especially for the new generation when it lives in a non-Muslim sometimes an anti-Islamic environment. Prophet Muhammad PBUH says: “The wolf can only eat the straying sheep.” The reference here is to individual Muslims who do not care about Islam. They rarely or never go to the Mosque; they rather behave as non-Muslims even worse in some cases. The natural result would be complete assimilation and disappearance of these so-called Muslims. You may not even recognize their names, which they have changed into non-Muslim names lest they should be singled out as different. This type of people are also led astray even in majority Muslim countries. There is another category of immigrant Muslims to non-Muslim lands. These brothers and sisters feel the cultural shock they are facing and they try their best to join other Muslims in establishing centers, mosques, schools, etc…to protect themselves as well as their children from the danger of assimilation. They are proud of being Muslims and they live up to the values and ideas of Islam. The host community is given a favorable image about Islam by this group which is on the increase. Thus, and based on the Quranic verse referred to earlier that makes it a duty on Muslims to spread the message of Islam to the whole world, what is required is not to withdraw to other majority Muslim countries where they would not fare better than they do in non-Muslim lands; What is needed is rather to support the committed Muslims materially and morally to enable them bring straying Muslims back to Islam on the one hand and to introduce Islam to other members of humanity on the other. The big question here is that why could other minorities keep their identity and culture while much is desired among Muslims? First, Muslims need unity. They should be caring to help one another and have a community feeling. They should sacrifice their time and money to establish various institutions necessary to preserve their identity. They have no other choice either to do this or disappear and cease to exist. It is under these circumstances that they are condemned by the Quran which says: “When angles take the lives of those who wrong themselves they say: In what condition were you? They reply: Weak and depressed were we in the land. They say: Was not the earth of Allah wide enough for you to immigrate through it. Such will find their abode in Hell – what an evil refuge.” (4: 97) Here a Muslim should not tolerate humiliation anywhere in the world, nor should he accept to be oppressed and forced to act against his religion. As this is the case in many countries today; thus a Muslim is in fact encouraged to flee for his religion even if this requires that he should go to the end of the world as long as he can practice his religion there. This is exactly what happened in Makkah at the time of Prophet Muhammad when he commanded a large number of his companions to emigrate twice to Abyssinia and once to Medina. As for the Prophet’s tradition in which he disowns all Muslims living among polytheists, this applies to those who do not assert their Islamic identity, those who are ready to be assimilated and those who live the lives of polytheists. But as long as Muslims carry the torch of Islam, practice it and invite others to its path, they can live and settle anywhere in the world. Islam would not be the second widespread religion today had it not been that thousands of the Prophet’s companions lived and died outside the Arabian Peninsula. In fact some of them traveled as far east as China and as far west as Morocco and Spain. By the same token, Muslims will influence others rather than be influenced by them and their religion will spread as long as they are committed to it, and as much as they resist the temptation of assimilation. It is indeed a big challenge that only true believers can stand. May Allah Almighty make Muslims viable examples of their faith in front of the rest of humanity. Then and only then spread the Islamic message of peace and mercy. i.e. Islam.