Refugees in Islamic History

In today’s post-Sykes-Picot Middle East, borders have not only become cages that divide Muslims on arbitrary lines, but fellow Muslims have become foreigners and undesirable to one and other. This was not the case after the establishment of the Islamic State by the Prophet (saw) in which the previous borders between tribes and nations were erased, allowing people to seek their livelihood and live where they wished within the Khilafah state. Those who lived outside the state and wished to migrate were allowed to do so.

Islamic values, unlike today’s values of nation-states, are not affected by political climate. The Islamic State’s borders were open to anyone who sought safety, unlike the “free world” which prevents refugees from moving freely through its borders and checkpoints.

The state’s duty is not only to open the borders to let refugees in and provide relief but to restore normalcy in their lives. This is what the Prophet (saw) and the rulers after him did.

Abdullah ibn Umar (raa) reported: The Messenger of Allah (saw) said, “Every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock. The leader of people is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects…..” Bukhari 

We look at some examples in history how the Prophet (saw) and the rulers of the Islamic state dealt with the plight of refugees.

Migration from Makkah to Madinah

When Muslims of Makkah migrated to Madinah to help establish the first Islamic state, they mostly came with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Having faced severe persecution in Makkah by Quraish they were unable to bring any wealth or asset. The love and generosity shown to them by their hosts, the Ansar, remains an example for all times.

The Prophet (SAW) paired one migrant with a local (ansar) and made them brothers. They shared their homes and wealth with them. This established a firm bond of brotherhood and a solution for their immediate housing and welfare needs.

“And [also for] those who were settled in al-Madinah and [adopted] the faith before them. They love those who emigrated to them and find not any want in their breasts of what the emigrants were given but give [them] preference over themselves, even though they are in privation. And whoever is protected from the stinginess of his soul – it is those who will be the successful.” [TMQ 59:9]

Abdur-Rahman (RA) was paired by the Prophet (SAW) with Sad ibn ar-Rabi’ah (RA). Sad, in the spirit of generosity and magnanimity with which the Ansar greeted the Muhajirin, said to Abdur-Rahman: “My brother! Among the people of Madinah I have the most wealth. I have two orchards and I have two wives. See which of the two orchards you like and I shall vacate it for you and which of my two wives is pleasing to you and I will divorce her for you.” Abdur-Rahman replied, “May Allah bless your wealth and your family; just show me where is the market?” This was the result of the brotherhood and love that Islam created in the hearts of men and women. Compare that to today when one of us gives few dollars and feels as if he has given a mountain.

An-Nu’man ibn Basheer reported: The Messenger of Allah (saw) said, “The example of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.” Bukhari 

Refugees Caused by Famine

We are all familiar with the story about the woman who pretended to be cooking in order to appease her crying children. The Khaleefah of the Muslims, Umar (RA), used to patrol Medinah during the night. On one occasion he was attracted by the fire in the distance and came to enquire about the crying children he could hear. The mother and her family had migrated to Madinah during the time when a severe famine had hit the area. Although she had no food she pretended to cook in order to pacify her children who were starving from hunger. Umar (RA) went back to the bait ul maal (state treasury) and collected ingredients, cooked and fed the children and left only after he saw them in a state of happiness. Can you imagine a president, prime minister, or king – in the East or the West – personally attending to the needs of a refugee? Glory to Allah (swt) for giving us the example of the Khilafah State; the best system for humanity.

People were never turned away from even the capital of the Islamic State. For example, the State allocated funds from the treasury to establish the camps required to feed the migrants who fled to Madinah in search of food. To be clear, Umar (RA) was well aware of the obligation to provide from the state treasury and this wasn’t simply an act of charity.

Jewish Refugees of Spain

Much has been written about the Jews who were expelled by the Christians from Spain. Even though they were not Muslims, the Khaleefah gave them abode in the Khilafah state.

In response to the Alhambra Decree, expelling the Jews from Spain by July 31, 1492, Sultan Bayezid II sent the Ottoman navy under the command of Kemal Reis to Spain in order to save the Jews who were expelled. He sent out proclamations throughout the territory he held authority over that the refugees were to be welcomed. He granted the refugees permission to settle in the Islamic State and become citizens. Bayezid addressed a decree to all the governors of his European provinces, ordering them not only to refrain from repelling the Spanish refugees, but to give them a friendly and welcome reception and help them to settle in the Islamic state. This was when the land of Islam was borderless. When a citizen of the state could go and live anywhere he/she pleased in the vast land ruled by Islam.

Muslim Refugees of Crimea, Caucasus & the Balkan

The last century and a half of the Ottoman Khilafah was marked by forced displacement of people into the Khilafah on a huge scale. Between the Russian conquest of the Crimea in 1783 and the second Balkan war in 1913, five to seven million Muslims entered the Ottoman domains. Some were already citizens of the State, leaving – or expelled from – areas that had broken away from the Khilafah. Others were fleeing the consolidation of Russian rule in the Crimea and the Caucasus.

Managing the flow of refugees became one of the chief tasks of the Khilafah state. The ‘migrants commission’ was set up in 1860, in the midst of a refugee crisis that followed Russia’s official adoption of a policy of forcible expulsion of Crimean Muslim Tatars. It developed into one of the key agencies of the Ottoman state, arranging long-distance resettlement and channeling aid to refugees in the form of land grants and agricultural subsidies (like seeds and tools). This helped the refugees to settle and start anew in the lands of the Khilafah state.  

Islam has a proud history of dealing with refugees whether Muslims or non-Muslims. These are values enshrined in the Quran and Sunnah which the Muslims lost to Sykes-Picot in the aftermath of the demise of the Khilafah.

Our Responsibility

We need to re-assess our own roles and what we have been doing to alleviate the suffering of the Ummah. Will we be able to justify ourselves on the Day of Judgment by pointing to the charity we have been giving all this time while the problems continued to worsen.

We need to realize that unfortunately the problem of refugees will keep growing until we work for the solution to the problems in this Ummah. The solution is the unity of the Ummah. The solution is the Khilafah state upon the method of the Prophethood, which acts as our shield, protects us from the plans of the colonial powers and represents us on the world stage. In the past, the Khilafah was the place where people under oppression fled to as they saw the Shariah as just and the law which secured the rights of humanity. It is only under Islam where the interests of the Ummah lie above the interests of individuals or nations, and where our acceptance of refugees isn’t for economic gain, rather it is to bring them from the darkness into the light.

May the Nasr of Allah come soon to bring relief to the oppressed and suffering, Ameen.