Modern Muslima.com: A Western Muslim's Guide to Hijrah: Money Matters

Yes, the cost of living is much lower in many Muslim countries than it is in the West. However, once you get to The Islaamic Republic of Utopia, you may find that you are legally barred from working. I know a number of people who came over here with very little in savings, thinking their American passports, college degrees, skills, English speaking, and what have you would get them a plum position in a country where the “professional class” isn’t that large. What they found were myriad arcane and prejudicial laws, quotas, and other legal means that keep foreigners from working, or working without the sponsorship support (or outright wasta — favoritism) of some local citizen. Sometimes, you are at the mercy of this person in order to keep your job. If he gets angry at you, you may find yourself unemployed. Another problem seems to be that people don’t think that the double digit unemployment rates in many Muslim countries can apply to them. Well, all over the Muslim world, there are thousands of college graduates sitting around watching television all day. Why should it be any different for a foreigner (that’s you)? You come over here without something saved up for a rainy day, you will probably find yourself soaking wet.

In addition, there are often numerous unexpected fees pertaining to your immigration status, your children’s schooling, your living costs, and so forth. In some countries, you have to factor in the cost of bribery (let’s call a spade a spade; bribery is rife in many Muslim lands). It is often very difficult for people to obtain legal residency status in a Muslim country, let alone citizenship. Some countries, such as Jordan, require you to leave the country every three or six months for a minimum period of 24 hours. That means that every three or six months, you have to purchase plane, bus, or boat tickets, pay for hotel and food, other transportation, and visa and exit fees in and out of Jordan and the country you choose to spend your 24 hours in. For your entire family. And if you overstay your visa, you’ll be required to pay other fees and fines. Is that something you can do every three or six months? For a lot of people, including professionals, it is not. To obtain residency, you may be required to deposit a large amount of money in a local bank, purchase a large amount of real estate, marry a local (which may not work for men… or women, snort), enroll in a university, or be sponsored by a local employer.

If you can afford it, the husband should come over before hand (preferably with the wife, if possible) to get the lay of the land. Explore employment prospects. Check out the schools and the real cost of living. Check out the standard of living. Talk to other expats (hijrah or mijrah, you’re part of the expat community that includes aid workers, oil workers, and many other non-Muslims). When you make the decision to move to that country, you should have enough money for return tickets, transportation to another, nearby land if you must leave the country, your house and all its furnishings, visas and fees, school for your children, and something else for that rainy day. If you come with money saved that you never really need, it’s a lot better than coming over with nothing saved and really needing it.

For some reason, I hear of a lot of people coming overseas to Muslim countries not knowing this. You don’t leave “dar al Kufaar” (America) and then come over to “dar al Islaam” expecting your little blue passport to work magic for you with the authorities. Or they know, and choose to remain illegal, failing to obtain residency or even to renew their visas. What kind of hijrah is that — you come for the sake of Allah, and then immediately start violating the law?

I know several people who stayed illegally in Muslim lands, and this later got them in to a tough spot. If you’re in the country illegally, for example, and get seriously ill, going to the hospital may get you deported. A friend of mine went overseas some years ago on hijrah to a rural village where “they’re living the true Sunnah.” When she got typhoid fever, she couldn’t go to the hospital because she knew she would be deported, and she knew it was possible that the authorities might then come to her village and deport all of the other illegal Americans, Brits, and other Europeans living there — a major problem since they lived in an anti-government region where both men and women walked around armed. She ended up toughing it out with some local mountain village doctor who lived miles and miles away from her. She had to pay for local villagers to bring him back and forth in their pick-up truck, pay for him to go get her medicine (on top of paying for the medicine), and so on. There was no sense of “This is our sister in Islam who made hijrah here for the sake of Allah and now we must care for her because she has a serious and deadly disease.” No, it was “How much can you pay us?” Needless to say, she ended up back in the United States later.

If you come and you establish a business (which is also illegal, since you’re not there legally and you haven’t obtained the proper licenses), you can lose everything. If you buy property and you’re there illegally, you may lose all your property. You may very well, of course, end up enjoying the hospitality of the Leader, spending time in any one of his notorious, dank prisons where, by the by, torture is commonplace and often legal, and where there are no such things as “Miranda rights,” and due process. I know of people who were strolling around a Muslim country, including the one I live in, with an expired visa in their passport — or worse, not carrying their passport with them — who ended up sitting in a cell while some friend or neighbor entreated the authorities with money or their passport with a legal visa in it. So, a tip: keep your passport with you, or a copy of your passport, particularly the page with your valid visa stamp, with you at all times. In some countries, it is the law that you have this sort of identification on you whenever you are in public.

So before you make a life changing decision (and especially before you get on the plane), you need to have ample money with you and you need to have some sort of familiarity with the visa and employment laws of the country you are moving to. If you stay in a country illegally or without enough money to adequately support your family, you may very well end up living with a great amount of stress that nullifies any Islamic and soul benefits you should be getting from your new home.

الصلاة والسلام على سيدنا محمد المختار خير من أوفى ومن نذر ، ومن أكرم الجار وعلى آله وصحبه السادة الأبرار والتابعين وتابعيهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين