this is superior to the believer who keeps away from people and cannot endure their harm. Yet at times circumstances arise in which withdrawal is better than social interaction—for instance, when a person fears that he may be put to trial: he might live in a country where he is pressured to deviate from his religion, invited to adopt religious innovation, confronted with widespread immorality, or afraid of falling into major sins and the like. In such situations, seclusion is the safer course.

For that reason a person is commanded to migrate from a land of disbelief to one of Islam, and from a land of flagrant sin to one of uprightness; the same principle applies when people and the age themselves have grown corrupt. Thus it is authentically reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “A time is coming when the best wealth a man will own will be a flock of sheep which he drives to the peaks of the mountains and the places where rain falls, fleeing with his religion from tribulation.”

This is the balance: if mixing with people brings harm and religious temptation, seclusion is better. Otherwise, the default is that mixing is preferable, for in society a Muslim can command what is right, forbid what is wrong, call to the truth, and clarify the sunnah— and this is good. But if he cannot be patient and the trials multiply, then seclusion is preferable, even if he must worship Allah on the summit of a mountain or in the bottom of a valley.

The Prophet ﷺ also explained the merit of the person whom Allah loves, saying, “Indeed, Allah loves the devout, self-sufficient, inconspicuous servant.”

Devout (taqiyy) refers to one who fears Allah: he fulfills His commands and avoids His prohibitions—performing the prescribed prayers in congregation, paying the zakah to those entitled to it, fasting Ramadan, making the pilgrimage to the Sacred House, honoring his parents, maintaining ties of kinship, showing kindness to neighbors and orphans, and engaging in every other form of piety, righteousness, and avenue of good.