Research into Hijrah, Uzla, Awaa

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نحمده ونصلى على رسوله الكريم
I’m starting this series on the intricacies of Hijrah, Uzla, and Awaa. This first post will be kind of basic and summarize my idea about where I want to go with it.
Hijrah means emigration, Uzla means withdrawal, and Awaa means retreating or seeking shelter. I will use them interchangably, though there are nuanced distinctions between these terms.
If anyone has read Surah al-Kahf “the Cave”, the eighteenth chapter of the Holy Qur’an, they know something about the theme of withdrawal from mainstream society for the purpose of protecting Eiman, especially from the story of Ashab al-Kahf, youthful Believers who retreated to a cave to escape from the trials and tribulations of their society.
Now the burning question is concerning Muslims, now in the 21^st century, entering into this kind of Uzlaa and Awaa in societies which are predominantly Muslim. Saudi Arabia is considered the most Islamic place on Earth, you can’t get more Islamic than Arabia, the homeland of our beloved Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم and the land of the sacred shrines of Islam, like the Ka’bah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.
Yet even in the sacred land of Arabia there are Muslims who, due to the corruption of society, are withdrawing into the “backwater” in order to safeguard their Faith. There are many such believing Muslims who are living in the desert far removed from the urban centers in order to escape the corrosive influence of the society. Similarly, Muslims in Egypt going away from the urban centers, seeking refuge in the wilderness of the Sinai. Muslims withdrawing into the mountains of Afghanistan, or the secluded valleys of Yemen, etc.
In fact, this tendency has been going on for quite some time in recent modern history. Regrettably, it has become somewhat associated with the Takfir movement, for example, that of Shukri Mustafa, and violent extremists like the Juhaimanis and others.
The beloved Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم permitted and even advised some of his Companions that they should withdraw into the wilderness during the iminent time of tribulation. Salamah ibn al-Akwa (Allah be pleased with him) is an example of one such Companion of the Prophet who withdrew into the wilderness to live with the desert Bedouins.
The Prophet (peace be upon him & his family) preferred the rural and secluded lifestyle of the sheep herders. He once said that a time will come when the best property of a Believer will be sheep, which he will take with him to escape into the mountains and rainfall valleys in order to save himself from tribulation (the dischord of society).
While the idealogy of the Takfiri is false and dangerous, which seeks to excommunicate the masses of Muslims from Islam and conceptualize a handful of followers of a particular group or idealogy as the only “true” Muslims, the fact remains that in the latter days it is known that the vast majority of Muslims and Muslim society will have fallen into corruption.
One of the things I will try to discuss in depth is the relationship between the Jama’ah of the Muslims which is promised salvation, and the tendency of pious Muslims to withdraw into the wilderness and secluded areas in order to safeguard their faith. Certainly, the time will come when it will be a sign of belonging to that Jama’ah that a believing Muslim engages in some degree of Uzlaa or Awaa (withdrawal from society).
The Prophet (peace be upon him & his family) has prophecised about the future Hijrah to the Holy Land (Jerusalem and vicinity). That will be the location of the future Islamic society, and all eyes should be fixated on it.
The urbanization and modernization of sacred towns like Mecca is absolutely contemptible. The heart of every God-fearing Muslim aches with pain at the sight of the concrete jungle which Mecca has been transformed into. The towering buildings and fancy hotels have detracted from the spiritual serenity of Mecca.
What is the relationship between Uzlaa (withdrawal) and the tyrannical governments that have imposed themselves upon the Muslim world. In Sha Allah, we shall deal with this question in depth.