{"id":112236,"date":"2017-08-03T18:14:08","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T18:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/?p=112236"},"modified":"2017-08-03T18:14:08","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T18:14:08","slug":"refugees-a-human-condition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/2017\/08\/03\/refugees-a-human-condition\/","title":{"rendered":"Refugees: A Human Condition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Refugees on the Unarmed Road of Flight: A Human Condition<\/h3>\n

A Muslim Perspective<\/p>\n

Hamza Yusuf<\/p>\n

Every religion has a cosmology, a foundational narrative of how we arrived here. In all three Abrahamic faiths, Islam being the last one, we find the arrival of human life on earth itself to be
\na refugee narrative.<\/p>\n

Adam and Eve f were expelled from a garden and given refuge for a time here on our planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said, \u2018O Adam, live with your wife in Paradise and eat freely from it anywhere you may\u00a0wish. Yet do not approach this tree lest you become transgressors.\u2019 But Satan caused them both
\nto slip from their state, and forced them out. We said, \u2018Go down from here enemies one to the\u00a0other, and on earth you shall find refuge and livelihood for a while\u2019\u201d (Qur\u2019an 2:35-36). Thus, the
\nhuman story begins with banishment and a flight from one place to another: our first parents had
\nrefugee status.<\/p>\n

Fleeing and migrating as strangers to strange lands\u2014and finding refuge\u2014is a recurring story\u00a0among the shared Abrahamic prophets. The Prophet Abraham e fled from Nimrod the king to
\nthe \u201cLand of Canaan\u201d; the Prophet Moses e and the Children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt\u00a0and fled to Sinai; the Virgin Mary fled with Joseph from Jerusalem to Egypt to protect her child
\nf; the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s community fled the persecution of the Meccans and migrated to\u00a0Ethiopia, and the Prophet s himself was a refugee, fleeing Mecca to migrate to Medina.<\/p>\n

The Qur\u2019an reminds us, \u201cThere is no refuge from God except to God\u201d (9:118). The conditions of\u00a0this earthly abode, it seems, are often divinely orchestrated so the outward physical journey to
\nseek a safe haven is accompanied by an inward spiritual journey to seek refuge in God. The\u00a0Prophet Muhammad s was once asked, \u201cWho is the true refugee to God?\u201d He replied, \u201cThe one
\nwho opposes his self and flees from sin.\u201d The twelfth century theologian Abu Hamid al-Ghazali\u00a0said, \u201cAll of humanity are wayfarers moving inexorably toward their Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Islam, all wayfarers are deserving of food and safety. The Qur\u2019an states, \u201cLet them worship\u00a0the Lord of this House who has satiated their hunger and freed them from fear\u201d (106:3\u20134).<\/p>\n

Exegetes state that these two conditions\u2014freedom from hunger and freedom from fear\u2014are\u00a0prerequisites for worship; interestingly, in Abraham Maslow\u2019s famous \u201chierarchy of needs\u201d
\npyramid, physiological needs and safety are at the base, as they are the most important basic\u00a0needs. The Prophet Muhammad s is reported to have said, \u201cThe child of Adam has no entitled
\nrights beyond these: shelter from the elements, clothes to cover his nakedness, and grain and\u00a0water to nourish him.\u201d In Islam, these are God-given human rights. Hence, those of us who have
\nare obliged to give to those who have not. This obligation to provide for those in need is\u00a0manifested in zakat, a poor tax of 2.5 percent of wealth, a percentage of animal stock, and a 5-10
\npercent grain tax, depending on irrigation techniques.<\/p>\n

The etymology of the word \u201crefugee\u201d includes the Latin fugere, which means \u201cto flee.\u201d As for\u00a0those who flee persecution, whether religious or political, they have another God-given right,
\nknown as ^aqq al-\u00cfw\u00a5\u2019, \u201cto seek and receive refuge.\u201d Believers are qualified by their service to\u00a0those in need: \u201cThey care for those who have taken refuge with them, and have no desire in their
\nhearts for what has been given them, preferring them to themselves, even if it means hardship for\u00a0them; and those who are preserved from their own avarice are the ones who succeed\u201d (Qur\u2019an\u00a059:9).<\/p>\n

We are asked to tend to the needs of those burdened with hardships, no matter who they are or\u00a0what land or nation they fled, because the earth and all that is in it is God\u2019s, and God\u2019s servants\u00a0have the right to travel in the earth seeking provision: \u201cIt is God who made the earth accessible\u00a0to you, so travel its roads, and eat of what God has provided, but know to God you will return\u201d\u00a0(Qur\u2019an 67:15).<\/p>\n

The fourteenth century poet Hafez famously asked, \u201cHow would you act if you\u00a0realized that all who inhabit the earth are God\u2019s guests; how would you treat them then?\u201d The\u00a0first prophetic tradition taught to students of Hadith is \u201cThose who show mercy will be shown\u00a0mercy by the Merciful Himself; have mercy on those in the earth, and the One in Heaven will\u00a0have mercy on you.\u201d This is a foundational tradition, and scholars are in agreement that \u201con\u00a0those in the earth\u201d covers all peoples regardless of color, creed, or country.<\/p>\n

Like its sister religions, Islam has a checkered past but also has many glorious examples of the\u00a0ideals of the faith that call us to serve the Creator by serving His creation: in 1492, the Ottoman
\nSultan Bayezid II welcomed over 150,000 Jews fleeing Spanish persecution to Turkey, granting\u00a0them citizenship and then building beautiful synagogues\u2014many stand to this day\u2014for the newly\u00a0arrived refugees. In the 1840\u2019s, during the Irish potato famine, Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Majid sent\u00a0not only money but ships with grain to provide relief for the needy. In 1860, when local Druze\u00a0attacked the Christian quarter in Damascus, Emir Abdelkader of Algeria saved over four\u00a0thousand Christians, including the French consul and his staff, by giving them refuge in his\u00a0compound and defending them with his Algerian troops. During the Nazi occupation of France,\u00a0Si Kaddour Benghabrit, a Moroccan Imam, risked his own life and hid hundreds of Jews at the\u00a0Paris mosque and saved many others by issuing certificates that allowed them to hide their\u00a0Jewish identity and claim they were Algerian Arabs instead.<\/p>\n

Refugees have always been a part of life on earth and tending to their needs has always been a\u00a0part of the Islamic tradition.<\/p>\n

It is that noble tradition of service to others that is urgently needed today, as we are overwhelmed\u00a0with a refugee crisis that the world has not seen since World War II. Our response is a test of our\u00a0mettle and a reflection of our national character, and it will shape our own future for better or for\u00a0worse. From a metaphysical perspective, we are in a profoundly precarious situation. Our\u00a0Prophet s taught us, \u201cThere is no leader who closes the door on someone in need or one\u00a0suffering in poverty except that God closes the gates of the Heavens during his time of need.\u201d<\/p>\n

We shall reap what we sow, and now is the time for sowing seeds of solace. In due time, God\u00a0willing, we might reap the rewards of the righteous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shaykh Hamza Yusuf
\n“in 1492, the Ottoman
\nSultan Bayezid II welcomed over 150,000 Jews fleeing Spanish persecution to Turkey, granting\u00a0them citizenship and then building beautiful synagogues\u2014many stand to this day\u2014for the newly\u00a0arrived refugees. In the 1840\u2019s, during the Irish potato famine, Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Majid sent\u00a0not only money but ships with grain to provide relief for the needy. In 1860, when local Druze\u00a0attacked the Christian quarter in Damascus, Emir Abdelkader of Algeria saved over four\u00a0thousand Christians, including the French consul and his staff, by giving them refuge in his\u00a0compound and defending them with his Algerian troops…”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":112238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[242],"class_list":["post-112236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-shaykh-hamza-yusuf","column","twocol","has-thumbnail"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112239,"href":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112236\/revisions\/112239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}