When Is a Place Considered Your Permanent Residence?


Hanafi Fiqh

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

When the jurist puts the condition of ومن قصده التعيش لا الارتحال with regards to a person who moved to another country, do any Hanafi jurist ever specify that it should be an intention forever or is it long term? i.e., any amount of time over 15 days with the condition of livelihood (permanent place to stay, daily needs, bills on his name, etc.)

Answer

No, a place of “permanent residence” (watan asli) doesn’t require the intention of actual “permanence” (i.e., living there forever).

Places are either:

(A) A place one is a traveler.

(B) A place of temporary residence—defined 15 days or more without initiating travel but without settling down. This is known as “dar iqama.”

(C) A place of permanent residence. This is a place that one settles down in as a primary place of residence. This is known as “watan asli.” One can have more than one permanent residence. “Permanence” here refers to the intent of settling down as primary residence, not actual residing till death—as that usually is unknowable.

[ref: Tahtawi/Shurunbulali, Hashiyat Maraqi al-Falah; Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar; Abu’s Su`ud/Mulla Miskin/Nasafi, Fath Allah al-Mu`in `ala Sharh Mulla Miskin `ala Kanz al-Daqa’iq]

This is how the issue was related by the teachers I studied with and consulted. 

And Allah is the giver of success and facilitation. 

[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani 

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus and Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), and his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age. He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.) Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been named one of the 500 most influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.