Some ignorant preachers, doctors, and professors may imagine that the Prophet’s saying, “There is no emigration after the Conquest” (1), abrogates emigration altogether. This is glaring ignorance of the Quran, the sunnah, and the statements of the imams. I heard this from one of those professors who profess knowledge, during a discussion between him and me occasioned by the controversy stirred up against me by the preacher mentioned above. When I reminded him of the explicit hadith cited earlier concerning the fact that repentance does not cease, whose wording begins, “Emigration does not cease ...,” and so on, he could offer no reply.
On this occasion, I shall relate to the noble readers what Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said concerning the two aforementioned hadiths, namely, that there is no contradiction between them. He said in Majmu‘ al-Fatawa (18/281):
“Both are true. By the first, he meant the emigration known in his time: emigration to Medina from Mecca and elsewhere in the Arabian lands. That emigration was prescribed when Mecca and the other lands were territories of disbelief and war, while faith was in Medina. Thus, emigration from the land of disbelief to the land of Islam was obligatory for whoever was able to undertake it. But when Mecca was conquered, becoming a land of Islam, and the Arabs entered Islam, all these lands became lands of Islam. Thus, he said, ‘There is no emigration after the Conquest.’
“The classification of a land as a land of disbelief, a land of faith, or a land of sinful people is not an inherent, permanent quality; rather, it is an incidental quality determined by its inhabitants. Every land whose inhabitants are believing, God-fearing people is, at that time, a land of Allah’s close servants. Every land whose inhabitants are disbelievers is, at that time, a land of disbelief. And every land whose inhabitants are sinful people is, at that time, a land of wickedness. If it comes to be inhabited by people other than those we have mentioned, and its former inhabitants are replaced by them, then it becomes their land.
“The same applies to a mosque: if it is converted into a tavern, or becomes a place of wickedness, oppression, or a church in which partners are ascribed to Allah, then its status is determined by its inhabitants. Likewise, a place of wine and wickedness, and the like, if it is made into