Bismillahi Al-Rahmani Al-Rahim

Muqim vs. Mustautin

[preamble]

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Q
When you say "muqimeen", if someone reaches a destination and plans to stay there for more than 4 days, but it seems to be a city where the sha'air of islam are not present, does one have to make adhan, or is he considered a traveller in this instant? Also, in this sense, who is considered muqim and who isn't? Are refugees considered muqimeen? What is the legal definition of "muqim"?

A
Al-salamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu

The Shari`a differentiates between travelers and residents, and differentiates between two categories of residents. Roughly speaking:

1. Traveler [musafir] ā€" Someone on a journey who has gone more than 81 km from their place of residency.

2. Resident [muqim] ā€" Someone staying in a place for more than four days, or staying in a place where he has a spouse or household.

3. Permanent resident (ā€œsettledā€) [mustautin] ā€" Like (2) with the addition that the person never plans to leave.

So:

If someone becomes resident ā€" even if only temporary ā€" in a place where the outward manifestations of Islam are not being performed, the community obligation rests on his shoulders.

Refugees are resident, even if they intent to return home at some point.

(Source: This is taken aurally from my sheikhs in the Shafi`i and Hanbali madhhabs. Few Shafi`i books are explicit on this; this is mentioned in Al-Sharqawi's well known hashiyah ā€" in the hashiyah or in the basic text. I have yet to see this explicitly mentioned in Hanbali books, though there are things that point in this direction.)

And Allah knows best.

Wa al-salamu `alaykum,
--Musa