Taking advantage of asylum benefits
16-2-2017 | IslamWeb
Question:
Assalaamu alaykum. I asked the question of fatwa No. 342220 before, and I would like to get some more details. It is not 100 percent certain that the government would withdraw asylum from the wife, because the one who is persecuted is the husband and not the wife. In this country, the asylum rulings are such that if the husband receives asylum, then his wife and children also do regardless of whether they are persecuted or not. I have two questions:
1) You said that the wife is not permitted to take benefits. Does this also include benefits that are not only for refugees? For example, new mothers receive benefits for their babies, the one who has no job receives benefits, every person who is less than 24 years old receives special benefit, etc. The condition for these benefits is merely having any kind of residency permit, like citizenship, visa residency, asylum.
2) The person who travelled is my mother-in-law. When she travelled, she also took my wife with her. My wife was 11 years old at the time. My wife also has asylum, and I have visa residency. Is my wife permitted to take the above mentioned benefits? We have a 6-month-old child, and my child also received asylum because in this country the child gets the residency permit which the mother has. My wife receives benefits as a new mother and has special benefits for herself and for our child. Are these benefits haram or halal given that my mother-in-law took my wife to their home country even though they are banned (due to asylum) from traveling to that country?
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.
With respect to these benefits, the permissibility of taking them depends on the country that gives them. If the country stipulates conditions for entitlement and the person meets those conditions, then it is permissible for them to take the benefits, otherwise not.
For example, in regard to the benefits given to the new mother or to the child, if it is required that they are living in that country, then it is not permissible for whoever is living outside that country to take the benefits as this condition is not met.
The Muslim must fulfill the conditions that he is required to fulfill with people regardless of whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims; Allah says (what means): {O you who have believed, fulfill [all] contracts.} [Quran 5:1]
Also, the Prophet said, “Muslims abide by their conditions, except a condition that forbids what is lawful or makes permissible what is unlawful.” [Abu Dawood and At-Tirmithi]
Allah knows best.