But he cited the chain of transmission previously given by al-Bayhaqi, reaching Umm Salamah, though without the hadith quoted under this heading. She said:
“When we reached the land of Abyssinia, we found there the best of neighbours: the Negus. We were secure in our religion and worshipped Allah Most High without being harmed …” He then mentioned the hadith in full.
Ahmad likewise narrated it in al-Musnad (1/201 and 5/290) through Ibn Ishaq, with this chain. After attributing it to Ahmad (6/27), al-Haythami said:
“Its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih, apart from Ibn Ishaq, who explicitly stated that he heard it directly.”
I say: Its chain is therefore sound. Al-Hafiz also made no comment on it in al-Fath (7/188).
This documentation shows that the attribution by the eminent brother Salman al-Awdah, in his beneficial treatise The Ethics of the Caller to Islam (p. 45), of either the hadith or the phrase, “in whose presence no one is wronged,” to Imam Ahmad is not without a degree of laxity. Allah is the Granter of success.
The hadith plainly indicates that it is permissible for a Muslim to emigrate from a land of disbelief, if pressure from its people becomes severe, to another land where he can find religious freedom. This is not comparable to what some young Muslims do when they travel from their Muslim country to certain lands of disbelief merely because they encounter some restriction or mistreatment at the hands of certain unjust rulers. This is not permissible, in view of the many hadith that prohibit it, such as his saying—peace and blessings be upon him: “The fires of the Muslim and the polytheist should not be visible to one another,” and similar reports. Moreover, immorality and licentiousness are widespread everywhere in those lands, such that it is rare for a Muslim not to be affected by them. How then could this not be so for his children, who are raised there and suckle at its breast, as is plainly observed?! Therefore, we advise them—and those of its people who embrace Islam—to emigrate to one of the Muslim lands, where they can observe the rites of their religion and increase