Home
Discover Islam
Quran Recitations
Lectures
Fatwa
Articles
Fiqh
E-Books
Women
Boys & Girls 
Enter Question
View By Subject
Fatwa Of The Week
Selected Fatwa
Fatwa CenterSelling Items Paid for by Father to Emigrate to Muslim Country
Question
Can I sell for profit what my father has bought me once from his own money such as clothes, books, etc? Can I do that? Note that I live in a western country with my father and I want to emigrate to a Muslim country. And my father does not want me to emigrate to Yemen (my homeland). So, I thought of selling some of my clothes and books to buy myself a ticket to go to Yemen. This is because my father does not and will not give me a ticket after an argument I had with him. Can I go ahead with my plan? Is what I am doing by leaving considered as breaking the ties with my father? Can I leave in secret because he may try to stop me from traveling? Note that my father does not really need me to be with him.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Every Muslim can easily figure out the bad consequences of living in non-Muslim countries. Probably one may be influenced by their culture, adopt their character, and love to imitate them in their customs, appearance and fashion due to living and mixing with them.
In addition, the widespread obscenity, evils, dissoluteness among them impacts negatively on the religion and character of the Muslim. Moreover, Muslims do not have the power to change that widespread immorality; on the contrary, the power is in the hands of those who support these evils. A Muslim lives there in weakness and disgrace, which is contrary to the true nature of a Muslim. There are many other disadvantages that one may easily discover through observation.
Therefore, if a Muslim is not compelled to live there, he is not permitted to live there. So, if you believe that living in that place may adversely affect your religion or your character whereas you have your relatives or friends in Muslim countries who may provide shelter for you and you may live there peacefully fulfilling your everyday religious obligations, then you are obliged to migrate from that country to the Muslim country where you find good shelter. Try your best to get what you need to travel. If you cannot cover the expenses of the journey except by selling books or extra clothes given by your father, then you may do so. This act would not be considered as being undutiful to your parents; rather; it is an act of obeying Allah and His Prophet who said: “There should be no obedience to a creature in disobeying the Creator.” [Al-Bukhari]
Living in a place of Kufr and dissoluteness is not a good act; rather, it is an evil practice, so one should avoid it.
Imam Ibn Taymiyyah 
said: “The state of the countries is similar to the state of human beings. Generally, it happens that at times a person would be Muslim and at other times he becomes a Kafir. Sometimes he may be a true believer and at some other times he would be a hypocrite. Similarly, sometimes he would be pious and sometimes he commits sins and becomes dissolute. The state of countries is similar to the state of human beings depending on their activities. Therefore, the migration of a person from the place of Kufr and evil to the place of Iman (belief) and obedience of Allah is like making repentance towards Allah; i.e., he migrates from the life of disobedience of Allah to the life of obedience. And this act of migrating from bad to good, from Kufr to Islam, and from a bad place to a good one will continue till the Day of Judgement.”
For more benefit on Muslims living in non-Muslim countries, please refer to Fataawa 81142, 81464, 81642, 86405, 377986, 369667, 89879, and 88291.
Allah knows best.
Search Fatwa
Fatwa Subject
