Istijarah ( ar, إستجارة, ) is an Islamic term for

asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea ...

, accepting a person at risk as a member of own tribe.http://www.icmif.org/doc_store/takaful/Doctrines%20Justifying%20Takaful.doc

Definition

A system of clan protection existed in

Pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia ( ar, شبه الجزيرة العربية قبل الإسلام) refers to the Arabian Peninsula before the emergence of Islam in 610 CE. Some of the settled communities developed into distinctive civilizations. Informatio ...

, and people without a clan would stand without protection. Such a person could request for ''Istijarah'' (asylum) from a person already having a clan association in order to receive protection from that person. This was a common practice in

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plat ...

, this was used by some Muslims who returned from the first

Migration to Abyssinia The migration to Abyssinia ( ar, الهجرة إلى الحبشة, translit=al-hijra ʾilā al-habaša), also known as the First Hijra ( ar, الهجرة الأولى, translit=al-hijrat al'uwlaa, label=none), was an episode in the early histor ...

The Sealed Nectar ''Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum'' ( ar, الرحيق المختوم; ), is a seerah book, or biography of the Prophet, which was written by Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri. This book was awarded first prize by the Muslim World League in a worldwide competitio ...

br>The Second ‘Aqabah Pledge
on sunnipath.com and Muhammad himself requested ''Istijarah'' from Mut'im ibn Adi after his return to

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...

from the visit to Ta'if. The term is also used in the Qur'an.

References

{{reflist Quranic words and phrases Arabic words and phrases Law of war