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The verse (and fitnah is worse than killing) in surah Al-Baqarah (The cow) – verse 191, some scholars explained the word (fitnah) as (being expelled from your country) since it came after (expel them from wherever they have expelled you) – (Book: Merkat Al-mafateeh – the book of Jihad)

This concept is the base upon which the sacrifice of Muslims when the emigrated to Medinah was highly valued. They accepted to leave their homes to keep the religion they voluntarily chose by their own free will. If patriotism was not deeply engraved in the hearts, God wouldn’t have praised their sacrifice. God Almighty says: (Those who migrated or were expelled from their homes, and were persecuted for My sake and fought and ˹some˺ were martyred—I will certainly forgive their sins and admit them into Gardens under which rivers flow, as a reward from Allah. And with Allah is the finest reward!") – surah Al-Imran verse 195.

In another verse God speaks about those who fight against the spread of religion and those who spread corruption: (Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment,) – Surah Al-Maaedah verse 33. Imam Shafei said: being exiled from their country is a sufficient humiliation for their heinous deeds.

Second: Patriotism in the noble Sunnah

Imam Al-Sahli said that this story is a solid proof of how difficult it is to leave your homeland, since when Waraqa told our noble prophet, peace be upon him, that he will be treated with hostility, he was not affected, but the idea of being exiled from his homeland had a strong effect on him.

Abdullah Ibn Udai Ibn alhamraa narrated that when Prophet Mohammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was leaving Mecca he said: “How good you are as a land and how dear you are to my heart! Had your people not forced me out of you, I would have never come out and left you and would have never resided in any other city but you." [At-Tirmithi, AlNassaei and Ibn Majjah]

When the disciples arrived at Medinah, some of them fell sick and had severe fever including Abu Bakr and Bilal, may Allah be pleased with them. Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, reported: (When we came to Medina, and it was an unhealthy, uncogenial place, Abu Bakr fell sick and Bilal also fell sick.

When God's Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, saw the illness of his companions he said: “O Allah! Make us love Medina as You made us love Mecca, or more, and transfer the fever that is in it, to Al-Juhfa. O Allah! Bless our Mudd and our Sam' (kinds of measures)." (Sahih al-Bukhari 6372 – Book of Invocations). AL-Suhaili, the reputed Islamic scholar, explained that this hadith shows how leaving Mecca had affected the health of the companions, may Allah be pleased with them.

Mother of the believers Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, said that when a person complained of some trouble, or if he had a sore or a wound, the Prophet would say while pointing with his finger, "In the name of God. It is the soil of our land with the spittle of one of us (the suggestion is that the Prophet took some earth on his finger and spat on it), that our sick one may be healed by our Lord’s permission." (Bukharl and Muslim.)

This hadith proves how Islam understood the bond between someone and his home land to the extent that when he can get sick when he leaves it, just as what happened to the companions when they left Mecca.

Imam Al-Dhahabi in his book, Siyar a`lam al-nubala narrating some of the things that Prophet Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him, loved he said: "He loved Aisha, her father, Usama, his grandchildren, sweets and honey, the mountain Uhud and loved his country".

At this point, it is unacceptable to mix things up and claim that this clear love and attachment was only because of the high regard in Islam to Mecca and Medinah or that the pain someone suffer from when leaving one’s country is because of leaving family, friends and neighbours since such a claim is totally refuted by the divine punishment to the people of Israel who refused to fight with Moses, peace and blessings be upon him to enter the promised land. They were a complete group family and friends however their punishment was to be banned from their promised land and to live in the labyrinth for forty years.

Third: Patriotism in Islamic Jurisprudence and Scholars opinions

2- Some scholars considered that one of the causes for the extraordinary award for pilgrimage is that it disciplines the pilgrim by giving up all adornment of life and the separation from his home land only to fulfill God’s order.

3- Islamic jurisprudence made the punishment for the unmarried adulterer banishment from his home land. A high price to pay for a shameful crime.

4- Banishment was the most common punishment that most God’s messengers and prophets suffered from by their people. Once a prophet announces his religion, his people would exile him as an immediate punishment.

In the Holy Quran the people of Lot, Peace and blessings be upon him, said: ("Expel the family of Lot from your city. Indeed, they are people who keep themselves pure.") – Surah Al-Naml verse 56.

The same thing was done by the people of Shoaeb, Peace and blessings be upon him. The Holy Quran says: (Said the eminent ones who were arrogant among his people, "We will surely evict you, O Shuʿayb, and those who have believed with you from our city, or you must return to our religion." He said, "Even if we were unwilling?) – Surah Al-Araf verse 88. So Shuayb, Peace and blessings be upon him, had to choose between banishment or returning to his people’s religion.

God almighty mentioned the people of Israel and says in the Holy Quran: (And if not that Allah had decreed for them evacuation, He would have punished them in [this] world, and for them in the Hereafter is the punishment of the Fire.) – Surah AlHashr verse 3. So when the people of Israel told Moses, peace and blessings be upon him: (They said, "O Moses, indeed we will not enter it, ever, as long as they are within it; so go, you and your Lord, and fight. Indeed, we are remaining right here.") – Surah Al-Maidah verse 24 which is one of the major sins the punishment for those was to live in exile for forty years. In the Holy Quran: ([Allah] said, "Then indeed, it is forbidden to them for forty years [in which] they will wander throughout the land. So do not grieve over the defiantly disobedient people.") – Surah Al-Maidah verse 24

Fourth: Patriotism in Islamic as seen by the righteous and the wise

So, where is the problem
The problem lies in the extremist deviant opinions that were adopted by those who are disloyal to their countries and those who were brain washed to believe that patriotism and loyalty to your country is anti-religious to the extent that one of their leaders dared say: (Homeland is nothing but a handful of rotting sand). As if patriotism and nationalism have suddenly become shameful. Of course, we cannot ignore that those people have their own Agenda that aims at shaking the roots that bind a human to his country so that his loyalty becomes directed towards them and all of a sudden the group becomes more valuable than the country and the country, according to them, becomes nothing but borders created by occupation and accepting these borders becomes surrendering to the will of the invader.

The real motive behind this confusion Simply shake the roots to depreciate the concept of Homeland to reach a certain target in two steps:
1- Weaken the bond between a man and his country and consolidate the idea that (Homeland is nothing but a handful of rotting sand). Consequently, according to them, you cannot be loyal to it and loyalty to religion is a higher precedence.

2- Convince the (victim) that they are the spokesmen of religion. Consequently, loyalty to religion is equivalent to absolute compliance and loyalty to them.

By that the (victim) has surrendered completely to people who are using religion to achieve certain political ambitions or other hidden goals and hence misrepresented and abused religion, may God rid us of them all.

To answer these people we say:
1- Patriotism is an instinct ever since the creation of mankind, long before the existence of the current concept of occupation
Extremists purposely overlooked the fact that the borders of many countries were not established by the occupation, but was and will continue as it is across history. They purposely overlooked that even the occupying countries themselves had historical borders and would never accept any transgression against them. From this we can clearly see that the concept of (country borders) is as old as history itself and the principle of (loving your Homeland) existed since human touched earth. It is definitely not a modern concept that appeared with occupation.

Actually, the presence of occupation is a bigger cause to make a person more attached to his Homeland and more ready to defend it at any cost especially when he realizes that someone wants to occupy it partially or totally. So the concept of loyalty to the Homeland with its intact borders is deep in our instincts before the emergence of the concept of occupation.

2- Patriotism is a virtue and an honour in the era of the Caliphate
Those violent rebels and those who have their own deviant ideas will never stop talking about loyalty to the (Islamic Caliphate) and how it is the only religiously-accepted political regime. So let’s take the (real righteous Islamic caliphate) as an example. Did the righteous Caliphs refuse the idea of homeland? Had they ever punished ANYONE who declared openly that he loved his country? Was it EVER reported that they tried to obliterate the identity of any country under their Islamic rule and to dissolve it in one Islamic caliphate identity? NO, IT WAS NEVER reported that the righteous caliphs tried to do that. On the contrary, there are numerous reports and incidents that prove they preserved the identity of each country under the Islamic rule and respected its peoples’ cultures as long as it does not contradict with the basic Islamic principles. For example:

- It was reported that the second righteous caliph Omar Ibn El-Khattab said: (If an animal tripped in Iraq I will be questioned before God on the Day of Judgment as to why I did not pave the roads for it) The main focus here the word (Iraq), he didn’t say for example the seventeenth province. He said (Iraq) with its known borders. The second righteous caliph didn’t find any problem with mentioning a country under the Islamic rule since Islam always cherished the characteristic identity of each country with its known borders.

- In the book (Letters of Al-Jahez), it was reported that Omar, may Allah be pleased with him, said: (Had it not been for the love of one’s country the corrupt country would be ruined)

- The most prominent Islamic scholars were usually attributed to their homeland. That is why Imam Bukhari, who came from Bukhara. Salman Alfaresi, may Allah be pleased with him, the famous companion of prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was attributed to his homeland Fares (Persia). Many other scholars in various fields were proudly attributed to their homelands or the lands where they lived, learned and died. We have never heard that any of the companions or followers refused or even criticized this attitude, so loving one’s country and feeling proud of it was never shameful at that time, but all of a sudden it is now?

- The Islamic state throughout its history has always nourished the cultures in its vast land and furnished a nurturing environment to these cultures to grow and flourish. The best example is what the Jews call (The golden age of Jewish culture). That was when Muslims were ruling Andalusia (Iberia peninsula, meaning Spain, Portugal). If it is the Islamic ruling that all cultures would fade and melt within the Islamic culture and had Islam ordered Muslims to fight non-Islamic cultures, we wouldn’t have seen the Jewish culture evolve and flourish under an Islamic ruling.

Actually the examples are numerous from the sayings of the prophet’s companions and the followers, may Allah be pleased with them all, that prove that patriotism was and still is a virtue in the eyes if Islam and that Islam really encouraged it. For Islam Patriotism was NEVER regarded as a shameful accusation, but an honour we hold on to and take pride in.