Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Dear brother burhan

In the past too, you gave me valuable advice in the light of quran & hadths & I am following it with great success.

This time again I want to ask you something which is not related to our deen fully but my belief is that Islam has solutions to every problems in this world, but only need to bring to kind attention to persons like you who has really deep insight to Quran and Sunnah of our beloved prophet.

I am a graduate engineer lived many years in the gulf country, due to homesickness and other family problems I returned back to my country where I started a business but I failed in business miserably. In India it’s very difficult to find a job, so I applied in the gulf country again and I am getting an opportunity but employer not giving family visa. So my wife is not allowing me to go. And she is arguing that if you follow the Islam truly, how can you live away from your wife for more than a year.

I don’t understand on one hand I have to fulfill my Islamic duty towards my children in the form of school fees and other expenses, and on the other hand I have to remember my Islamic duties towards my wife. Please clarify on this subject asap.

May allah reward you with great success in this world and in life hereafter for the pious work of dawah and valuable advices you are giving to mankind

thanking you in anticipation.

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Can one work Overseas

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Beloved Brother in Islam, if the question is whether it is legal in Islam for a believer to leave his family for a prolonged period of time to fulfill his financial responsibilities; then the answer would be: ‘Yes’, it would be legal.

What needs to be determined by the individual here is not the legality of the matter, but rather what course of action would be better. It is indeed true that Allah Subhanah has laid upon the believers multiple duties and responsibilities, and commanded the believes to give each party their due rights (be it to His Lord Creator, his parents, his family, his relatives, his friends, or even to himself, etc.); and the test of life is that one has to strive to strike a balance and fulfill the rights of each part without affecting the rights of the other.

If it is possible for one, while living in the place with his family and loved ones, and still make enough where one can fulfill one’s basic needs; and the wife solemnly declares that she would be happy and satisfied with whatever her husband would bring as income….it would obviously be better and even purer for the person to live amongst his loved ones.

But if one finds oneself in a situation that one is not able to fulfill even his family’s basic requirements from his earnings in the place where one lives, there is absolutely no harm if the person decides to seek work abroad and sacrifice the comfort and blessing of living amongst one’s loved ones.

Your Question: In India it’s very difficult to find a job, so I applied in the gulf country again and I am getting an opportunity but employer not giving family visa. So my wife is not allowing me to go. And she is arguing that if you follow the Islam truly, how can you live away from your wife for more than a year.

I don’t understand on one hand I have to fulfill my Islamic duty towards my children in the form of school fees and other expenses, and on the other hand I have to remember my Islamic duties towards my wife. Please clarify on this subject asap.

Beloved Brother, if you can earn enough to fulfill the basic requirements of your family, and if your wife solemnly confirms that she would be happy and satisfied with whatever little you may earn in the place you are currently residing; it would indeed be prudent and best for you not to sacrifice the comfort and blessing of living amongst your family and loved ones.

But if Allah forbid, the situation is such that your earnings are not sufficient to fulfill even the basic requirements of raising your family; and you have no choice but to seek to fulfill your financial responsibilities towards your family by sacrificing your comfort of living amongst them…there is no harm if you seek to work abroad. It may be that once you reach your destination, and through your hard work and sincere dedication you are able to convince your employers to give you a family visa; and Allah Subhanah might bless and unite you to live amongst your loved ones again in the near future.

Thus, my beloved brother, this decision of sacrificing one’s comfort of living amongst one’s loved ones in search for one’s halaal earnings is one which would have to be made in light of one’s own individual situation and condition.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 42 Ash-Shura verse 12:

12 To Him (Allah) belong the keys of the (treasures of the) heavens and the earth: He enlarges and restricts the sustenance to whom He Wills: for He knows full well all things.

Beloved Brother in Islam, rest assured that your sustenance is Decreed for you by the Lord Most Gracious; neither can man increase a cent from what is Decreed for him, nor can anyone decrease it! Your condition is no more than a test for you and your loved ones from your Lord, and rest assured that your Lord is well aware of the condition of each and every one in His creation. Remain constant in your supplication to your Lord Most Merciful and beseech and implore Him and Him Alone to provide you out of His Infinite Bounty.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 35 Surah Fatir verse 2:

2 What Allah out of His Mercy doth bestow on mankind there is none who can withhold: what He doth withhold there is none who can grant apart from Him: and He is the Exalted in Power, Full of Wisdom.

Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 79 Narrated by Umar ibn al-Khattab

Umar heard the Prophet (saws) say: 'If you put your faith completely in Allah, He will arrange for your sustenance in the same way as He provides for the birds. They go out in the morning with their stomachs empty, and return filled in the evening.'

May Allah Subhanah make your trial easy for you, have mercy on you and your family, and provide for you in abundance from His Unlimited and Infinite Bounty; and make you and us content and satisfied with what our Lord has Decreed for us. Ameen.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your Brother and sincere well wisher in Islam,

Burhan