The Ruling on Travelling to the Lands of the Disbelievers

Question :

In the newspapers, some companies publish invitations to the sons of the Muslims to spend the summer holidays in Western countries in order to learn English.

Answer:

For the reply to this, let us refer to the enlightenment of His Excellency, Shaikh Abdul Aziz bin 'Abdullah bin Baz on this topic:

All praise and thanks be to Allah, Alone, and may peace and blessings of Allah be upon the one after whom no Prophet will come, our Prophet, Muhammad and upon his family and Companions and those who obey him until the Day of Recompense. As for what follows:

Allah has bestowed upon this community many blessings and favored it with many virtues and made it the best community ever raised up for mankind, enjoining the good and forbidding the evil, and believing in Allah. And the greatest of these blessings is that of Islam, which Allah has chosen for His worshippers, as a way and a path of life and by it He has completed His Favor upon His worshippers and perfected by it the religion.
Allah, the Most High says:
This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.

But the enemies of Islam looked with envy upon the Muslims due to this great favor and their hearts became filled with rancor and jealousy, and their souls overflowed with enmity and hatred for this religion and its followers. They would like nothing better than to steal this favor from the Muslims or to expel them from it, as Allah says, describing what fills their souls:

They wish that you reject faith, as they have rejected faith and thus that you all become equal (like one another).

He, the Most High says:
O you who believe! Take not as (your) Bitanah (advisors, consultants, protectors, helpers, friends) those outside your religion (pagans, Jews, Christians and hypocrites) since they will not fail to do their best to corrupt you. They desire to harm you severely. Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, but what their breasts conceal is far worse. Indeed, We have made plain to you the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses) if you understand.

And He, the Almighty, the Majestic says:
Should they gain the upper hand over you, they would behave to you as enemies and stretch forth their hands and their tongues against you with evil, and they desire that you should disbelieve.

And He, the All-Powerful, Most High says:
And they will never cease fighting you until they turn you back from your religion (Islamic monotheism) if they can.

The Verses which prove the enmity of the disbelievers towards the Muslims are many; and what is meant is that they will go to any lengths and follow any path in order to achieve their aims and reach their objectives of harming the Muslims. They have many ways of achieving this, their methods being both open and hidden. These include the activities of some travel and holiday firms in these times of disseminating travel brochures, which invite the sons of this country to spend their summer holidays in homes in Europe or America, for the purpose of learning the English language, in pursuit of which they arrange a complete program which occupies the whole time of the traveller. This program includes numerous matters, including the following:

a) Choosing a disbelieving English family with whom the student will live, with all the dangers that involves.

b) Musical performances, the theatre and theatrical performances in the city in which he is living.

c) Visiting dance halls and places of recreation.

d) Dancing in the disco with English girls and dance competitions.

e) One English city boasts the following forms of entertainment: nightclubs, disco halls, jazz, rock and modern music concerts, theatres, cinemas and traditional English pubs.

The aim of these pamphlets is to achieve a number of dangerous goals, which include the following:

1. To send astray and misguide the Muslim youth.

2. To corrupt their morals and deprave them by preparing the means of dissolution and placing them in their hands.

3. Causing the Muslim to doubt his faith.

4. Promoting admiration and esteem for the Western lifestyle.

5. Molding him in the shape of the Westerner and encouraging him to adopt their evil customs.

6. Accustoming him to not follow his religion and to disregard its morality and commands.

7. Recruiting the Muslim youth in the service of Westernization in their countries after they return home from their trip and filling them with Western ideas, customs and lifestyle.

These are some among other dangerous aims and intentions which the enemies of Islam seek to achieve by the power which they have been given and by all ways and means, both open and hidden. They may even disguise themselves under Arabic names and national companies through which they operate, in order to deceive, create doubt and misguide the Muslims regarding their true intentions in the lands of Islam.

For this reason, I warn my Muslim brothers in this country in particular, and in all Muslim countries in general, not to be deceived and attracted by such brochures. And I implore them to be cautious and wary and not to reply to any of them, because they are deadly poison and a plot by the enemies of Islam, which aim to oust the Muslims from their religion and to make them doubt their beliefs and to spread Fitnah among them, as Allah has mentioned in His perfect Revelation, saying:
Never will the Jews nor the Christians be pleased with you (O Muhammad), until you follow their religion.

I also particularly advise the guardians of the students to protect their sons and not to respond to their requests to travel abroad, because of the dangers and evils to their religion, their morals and their country, as we have explained above, and to direct them to recreations and summer vacations in our country, of which there are many, praise and thanks be to Allah, and to be content with them, as opposed to others (abroad).

In this way, the desired objective will be achieved and our youth will be safe from the dangers, pains, disastrous consequences and difficulties which they will face in foreign. lands. Finally, I ask Allah, the All-Powerful, Most High to protect our lands and the rest of the Muslim lands and their sons from every evil and hateful thing, and to ward off from them the plots and plans of the enemies of Islam, and to drive back their machinations. I ask Him, the Most High to make those in charge of our affairs successful in taking action against these harmful advertisements and dangerous brochures and to make them successful in achieving all that is beneficial to the worshippers (of Allah) and the (Muslim) lands. He is the Guardian of that and Able to do it. And may peace and blessings be upon His worshipper and Messenger, Muhammad, and upon his family and Companions and those who follow him in goodness, until the Day of Reckoning.