The great masses of human beings

When the messenger of Allah (a.s.) ordered his companions to emigrate, he said to them, “Go to Abyssinia, for there is in it a king that no one is treated unjustly near him at all.” He did not give them passports, nor did he requested for them visas from the government of Abyssinia, nor were they forced to change the currency that was available there.

All that was not known or followed at that time, but the land of Allah was vast when man’s country became narrow to him. He rode on his mount and intended the mercy of his Lord. Wherever he went, he found what he sought with no inspectors to watch his goes and comes, and no custom-houses that would ask him to pay customs and taxes, or send him back if he had no documents of vaccination, or ask him to show the document of possession of his mount that it might have been stolen or have not paid the dues of the road.

Yes, civilization, or we may say that the great masses of human beings, required these things; the earth was divided into nations, and then into many countries. Every country or every people that spoke the same language made a government, and every government took a special flag, boundaries in the land and the sea, and put guards at the boundaries so that no one unwanted would inter their country. When the numbers of people increased more and more, and one became greedy for each other, exploited each other, and colonized each other, and revolutions and crimes increased, the developed societies were obliged to define every citizen. Therefore, newborn children and dead people were

counted, and every person had his/her own birth document, identity card, and passport. The boundaries were controlled that no one from a country would enter another except after getting the agreement of that country and to abide by the conditions imposed by that country.

I, like many other young Muslims, when my country became narrow to me, tried to emigrate to another country, but I found that all the doors were closed before me, especially of the Arab and Muslim countries.

I was very confused when I recited this saying of Allah:

Surely (as for) those whom the angels cause to die while they are unjust to their souls, they shall say: In what state were you? They shall say: We were weak in the earth. They shall say: Was not Allah's earth spacious, so that you should have migrated therein? So these it is whose abode is hell, and it is an evil resort.[1]

I said to myself that the earth is Allah’s with no doubt, but the servants of Allah had possessed and divided it among themselves and not permitted it for others.

When I tried to find an excuse for the non-Muslim countries like France, England, Germany, or the United States of America, I might find one, but what would the excuse of the Arab and Muslim countries be? And if I tried to find an excuse for the Arab and Muslim countries that they submitted to the international system as to reciprocity, then what would be the excuse of the rulers of Mecca and Medina who imposed on Muslims visas for going to perform the hajj and umrah besides the taxes that must be paid to enter this land?

I also was confused when I recited this saying of Allah:

Surely (as for) those who disbelieve, and hinder (men) from Allah's way and from the Sacred Mosque which We have made equally for all men, (for) the dweller therein and (for) the visitor…[1]

If the Inviolable Mosque (the Kaaba) that Allah has made as safety and security for all people, the residents and non residents, becomes now as a property of a certain country that permits some and prevents others from visiting it, then we must review our Islam, Qur'an, and all concepts!

I remained for a long time confused between different thoughts and obsessions that at some times I talked with my Lord saying: “O my Lord, You have said and Your saying is the truth:

Was not Allah's earth vast, so that you should have migrated therein?[2]

You also said:

And proclaim among people the Pilgrimage: they will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, coming from every remote path.[3]

But now, this Your vast land has been prevented before people, and this Your House has been possessed and its gate has been closed, so what do we do then?

One day, while I was reading some sermons of Imam Ali (a.s.) in Nahjol Balagha when he talked about the Qur'an, one statement attracted my attention and I reread it many times. I found in it what I sought for a long time. It was the only answer that solved the riddle and removed my obsessions. Imam Ali (a.s.) said in the first sermon when talking about the Book of Allah, “…and  

between a thing that is obligatory at its time and that shall be null in its future…” I understood from this speech that such Qur’anic verses, which were possible at the time of the Prophet (a.s.), would be not possible in the future because of the prevailing of the unjust and the tyranny of disbelievers.

Thus, if someone shall say to his Lord on the Day of Resurrection: ‘I was disabled in the earth’, Allah the Almighty, Who is aware of all things, will know that this man is from late people, and so Allah will not say to him: your abode is Hell and it is an evil resort! And if someone shall say to his Lord on the Day of Punishment: ‘I was prevented from going to perform the pilgrimage to Your Inviolable House’, it shall be said to him: ‘I have said to you that if you can afford the journey to it. So your excuse is accepted, and the one, who prevented you from that, is responsible for it.’

Peace be on you O my master on the day when you were born, on the day when you died, and on the day when you shall be restored to life.[1]