Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (1292–1350)
Ibn al-Qayyim was a master of both the law and the heart. A devoted student of Ibn Taymiyyah, he combined sharp intellect with a soul that yearned for Allah. His writings breathe life into knowledge, turning theology into guidance and jurisprudence into a path of love and submission. Across centuries, seekers have turned to him for wisdom that speaks not only to the mind but also to the heart.
📖 Ṭarīq al-Hijratayn wa Bāb al-Sa‘ādatayn
قال ابن القيم رحمه الله:
«الهجرة هجرتان: هجرة إلى الله بالطلب والمحبة والعبودية والتوكل والإنابة، وهجرة إلى رسوله ﷺ بالتحكيم والتسليم والانقياد، واتباع ما جاء به.»
Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
“Hijrah is of two kinds: a migration to Allah — through seeking Him, loving Him, worshipping Him, relying upon Him, and turning back to Him — and a migration to His Messenger ﷺ — by accepting his judgment, submitting to his command, obeying him, and following what he brought.”
This is one of the most powerful passages where he summarizes the whole book in a single statement. In his celebrated book, The Path of the Two Migrations and the Gate to the Two Blessings, Ibn al-Qayyim describes the believer’s true journey. He teaches that every soul is called to make two hijrah (migrations):
1. A migration to Allah — fleeing from the illusions of the world to the One who created it; escaping the slavery of desire to the freedom of worship; moving from heedlessness to remembrance.
2. A migration to the Messenger ﷺ — surrendering to his guidance, embracing his Sunnah, and letting his light lead every step.
For Ibn al-Qayyim, these two journeys are inseparable. Together, they form the only road to nearness, the only path where the heart finds its rest: in Allah, and through His Messenger ﷺ.
But let’s get deeper.
I- Hijrah to Allah in Ṭarīq al-Hijratayn
Ibn al-Qayyim explains that hijrah to Allah is not about moving from one land to another. It is the soul’s escape from everything other than Him, and its journey back to its true Master.
1. From worship of creation to worship of the Creator
The heart naturally clings — either to Allah, or to people, wealth, desires, and status.
The true hijrah begins when the servant flees from being a slave to anything created, and becomes a servant only of Allah.
This is the essence of lā ilāha illā Allāh: no god, no refuge, no love is worthy except Allah.
2. From desires to obedience
Ibn al-Qayyim describes how the nafs (ego) pulls a person to lusts, laziness, and sins.
Hijrah to Allah means abandoning the prison of one’s lower self, and choosing the freedom of submission.
It is to prefer what Allah loves over what the self desires.
3. From heedlessness to remembrance
The heart is either alive with dhikr or dead in forgetfulness.
Migrating to Allah is to leave behind the sleep of ghaflah (heedlessness), and awaken to constant awareness of Him — in prayer, supplication, Qur’an, and presence of heart.
4. Trust, love, and surrender
The hijrah to Allah is fueled by maḥabbah (love), tawakkul (reliance), ubūdiyyah (servitude), and inābah (turning back).
The traveler knows he cannot reach Allah by his deeds alone, but only by Allah’s mercy — so he relies fully on Him, while working tirelessly in obedience.
Ibn al-Qayyim emphasizes that this journey is one of the heart before the body.
5. The Qur’anic foundation
Ibn al-Qayyim ties this idea to verses such as:
> “So flee to Allah. Indeed, I am to you from Him a clear warner.”
(Qur’an 51:50)
This fleeing (fafirru ilā Allāh) is the very essence of hijrah to Allah: a desperate escape from everything harmful, empty, or false — to the safety and mercy of the Only One who can save.
In summary:
Hijrah to Allah is the migration of love, fear, hope, and obedience — leaving all else to find rest in Him alone. It is a constant inner journey, renewed every day, until the servant meets Allah with a sound heart.
II- Hijrah to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ
Ibn al-Qayyim teaches that the second essential migration is to the Messenger ﷺ. If the first migration (to Allah) is about love and servitude, the second is about guidance and obedience. Together, they cannot be separated.
1. Migration with knowledge and obedience
One cannot reach Allah except through the path of His Messenger ﷺ.
Migrating to him means accepting him as the only guide to Allah, the interpreter of revelation, and the model of worship.
It is a migration of the intellect and will: to submit fully to his teachings, even when they go against habit, culture, or personal desire.
2. Making him the judge
Ibn al-Qayyim emphasizes that hijrah to the Prophet ﷺ means accepting his judgment over all disputes.
Allah says:
“But no, by your Lord, they will not [truly] believe until they make you, [O Muhammad], judge concerning that over which they dispute among themselves and then find within themselves no discomfort from what you have judged and submit in [full, willing] submission.”
(Qur’an 4:65)
True hijrah to the Messenger ﷺ is surrendering with the heart before surrendering with the tongue.
3. Following his Sunnah completely
Ibn al-Qayyim describes that this migration means walking in his footsteps in worship, character, dealings, and da‘wah.
No invention, no alteration, no personal opinion can replace the light of the Sunnah.
The believer’s path is lit only by what the Prophet ﷺ brought from Allah.
This was meant as a principle of loyalty: no guidance, no light, and no salvation exists outside what the Prophet ﷺ conveyed from Allah.
⚠️ But some groups misunderstand this element. They wrongly assume that anything not mentioned word-for-word in the hadith collections is bid‘ah. They fail to see the living application of the Sunnah by the Ṣaḥābah themselves, who sometimes made new rulings or arrangements that were not explicitly practiced by the Prophet ﷺ, yet were fully in harmony with his guidance.
Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله taught that the believer’s path must be guided only by what the Prophet ﷺ brought from Allah. This means we never seek guidance in contradiction to the Qur’an and Sunnah.
But some have misunderstood this principle. They think that if a practice was not carried out exactly as stated in the collected hadiths, then it is automatically an innovation (bid‘ah).
They forget that the Rightly Guided Caliphs themselves made rulings and arrangements not explicitly found in the Prophet’s ﷺ lifetime, yet were accepted by the whole Ummah as part of the Sunnah:
Abū Bakr fought those who refused to pay zakāh, even though the Prophet ﷺ had not faced that situation and the Qur’an did not mention this ruling explicitly.
Abū Bakr also oversaw the first collection of the Qur’an into one manuscript, something the Prophet ﷺ had not ordered during his life.
ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb reintroduced the Tarāwīḥ prayer in congregation, calling it “a beautiful innovation (niʿmat al-bidʿa hādhihi).”
ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān standardized the Qur’an into the dialect of Quraysh to preserve unity, even though the Prophet ﷺ had allowed multiple recitations.
Imām al-Bukhārī compiled hadith in written form, while the Prophet ﷺ had initially prohibited writing them to avoid confusion with the Qur’an.
These examples prove that “only what the Prophet ﷺ brought” does not mean restricting Islam to a frozen literalism. It means remaining faithful to his message, even as the community applies it to new circumstances with wisdom and consensus.
True hijrah to the Messenger ﷺ is not blind rejection of anything not word-for-word in the hadith, but trust in the guidance he left through revelation and through the living example of his Companions and scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamāʿah.
This distorted understanding also empties the meaning of the hadith:
«من سن سنة حسنة فله أجرها وأجر من عمل بها»
“Whoever introduces a good practice in Islam will have its reward and the reward of those who act upon it.” (Muslim)
If people gather to read Qur’an, both Qur’an and jamāʿah for worship are from Islam — it cannot be called an “invention,” even if no specific hadith describes the Prophet ﷺ or his Companions doing it.
In fact, it is scientifically and theologically impossible to prove that something was never done. The hadith collections do not cover every word, action, or practice of the Prophet ﷺ, his family, or each of his Companions — vertically (the full detailed life of every individual Companion) nor horizontally (the collective practices of all of them together). At the Prophet’s passing, there were at least 30,000 trained warrior-Companions, not to mention the women, children, elders, and new Muslims — did we collect and preserve everything from all of them? Certainly not.
Thus, the rules are clear:
1) No prohibition unless there is an explicit text forbidding it, or unless it contradicts the spirit and rules of Islam.
2) The Prophet ﷺ not doing something is not a sufficient reason for a permanent prohibition — as seen in the tarāwīḥ jamāʿah revived by ʿUmar, and the Qur’an’s collection under Abū Bakr.
4. Loving him above all creation
Hijrah to him is not only legal submission, but also emotional allegiance.
Loving the Messenger ﷺ more than family, wealth, and even one’s own soul is part of this migration.
That love ensures obedience is sweet, and sacrifice is easy.
5. From self-guidance to Prophetic guidance
Without this hijrah, a person risks following the whispers of the self or the trends of people.
Migration to the Prophet ﷺ means choosing his guidance over the ego’s reasoning, over cultural customs, and over the pull of desires.
Those who falsely claim to follow Ibn al-Qayyim often seize upon his statement about leaving blind imitation and making truth dependent only on what Allah and His Messenger ﷺ brought. But tragically, they wield this argument as a weapon against every other group — while never applying it to themselves or their own shaykhs.
Why? Because from the very first step of their learning process, their minds are formatted with the assumption that whatever their scholars or leaders say is exactly what Allah and His Messenger ﷺ said — not an interpretation, not a human understanding, not a selection among multiple valid scholarly views, but the very essence of revelation itself.
In this early stage, they are taught that they are not allowed to question, analyze, or even critically think about what their shaykhs present. All reasoning is suspended in the name of “following evidence.” Yet what is presented to them as “evidence” is already filtered, selected, and interpreted by those very scholars.
Then, once they advance to a deeper level of study, it is too late: their intellectual independence has already been paralyzed. By that stage, they can no longer use their minds to question or re-examine; instead, they cling even more tightly to the framework instilled in them, believing that any deviation from it is rebellion against Allah and His Messenger ﷺ.
This is the very opposite of Ibn al-Qayyim’s intent. He called Muslims to migrate from ego, partisanship, and blind loyalty to any one figure — to the pure evidence of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, with humility and openness. The fake followers, however, reproduce the very disease he condemned: they turn their scholars’ words into an unquestionable absolute, making their taqlīd appear as if it were tawḥīd.
If someone, out of fear and caution, wishes to stick only to the clear and proven texts — that is good, and praiseworthy. But if he truly wants to follow the footsteps of the Prophet ﷺ, he must restrain himself from accusing others of being misguided simply because they chose to follow the Prophet ﷺ in a broader, more extended way.
He must also stop twisting his mind to invent futile arguments whose only purpose is to condemn others — not only as wrong, but as ḍāllīn (astray), and to imply that they are practically not Muslims at all, or at best, not “good enough” Muslims.
Allah warns against this false sense of superiority:
«فَلَا تُزَكُّوا أَنفُسَكُمْ ۖ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنِ اتَّقَى» (النجم: 32)
“So do not claim purity for yourselves. He knows best who is truly God-fearing.”
This type of rigid ideology, or distorted theology, was implemented by the enemies of Islam to weaken the Ummah from within. History bears witness: the Khawārij in the early centuries, who declared the majority of Muslims as disbelievers; sectarian ideologies fueled by political rulers to divide Muslims; and, in modern times, colonial powers who encouraged imported or extremist theological models to fracture Muslim societies. All of these are examples of false constructs that divide and destroy rather than unite and uplift.
Ibn al-Qayyim himself warned:
«وأعظمُ الناس غرورًا من ظن أن الحق منحصر في قوله واعتقاده، وما خرج عنه فهو باطل وضلال.»
“The most deluded of people are those who think that truth is confined to their own words and beliefs, and that whatever differs from them is falsehood and misguidance.” (Ṭarīq al-Hijratayn)
He also drew a sharp contrast between those who cling to their egos and opinions versus those who humbly yield to evidence:
«من جعل الحق تبعًا لقول فلان ومذهبه وشيخه لم يَزَلْ في التِّيه، ومن جعل الحق ما جاء به الرسول، وقصد معرفة مراد الله ورسوله، استقام له طريق الهجرة.»
“Whoever makes truth dependent on the words of so-and-so, or the school of his shaykh, will remain lost in confusion. But whoever makes truth to be what the Messenger ﷺ brought, and seeks to know the intent of Allah and His Messenger, the path of hijrah becomes clear for him.” (Ṭarīq al-Hijratayn).
In summary:
Hijrah to the Messenger ﷺ is to surrender in judgment, obey in practice, and love in devotion. Just as hijrah to Allah purifies the heart from attachment to creation, hijrah to the Prophet ﷺ purifies the path from misguidance.
Together, the two migrations are the essence of faith: to Allah, by the Messenger ﷺ.
Roots of Hijra 