Assalamu Alakium Ya'all

[Dar al Harb]

Yes but which one, because as you already know due to your intense studies of the matter, one person's dar el harb is another's dar el islam

Look, I live in a country where muslims are a minority and sharia law is not practiced.

This is definitely known as Dar al Harb.

I fail to see what the problem is??

[shaad_lko]

Look, I live in a country where muslims are a minority and sharia law is not practiced.

This is definitely known as Dar al Harb.

I fail to see what the problem is??

Salam and welcome to the forum.

I'd say that the terminology of Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb is based within a certain specific time-space context and applying the same today may not be germane. With the proliferation of means of communication, transportation and inter-mixing of different ethnicities, religious communities and different nationalities there is no homogeneous state today as we had in the past where a clear delineation was possible. Further, a majority in one place becomes a minority in another, so much so that tolerance has become a necessity rather than a virtue.. As such, you cannot really call your nation definitely Dar al Harb since it may be Dar al Harb only in a particular interpretation of Islam which could arguably be stated to have misplaced the contextual understanding of that terminology (ie- definiteness would imply that, at the minimum, this is something that all Muslims have agreed upon).

[naderM]

Look, I live in a country where muslims are a minority and sharia law is not practiced.

This is definitely known as Dar al Harb.

I fail to see what the problem is??

H-R-B is the root word for WAR. It is also used for seperation but mainly WAR in classical Arabic. So when it is used opposite to dar el islam, whether one means it or not, it carries a conflictual and/or imperialistic meaniçng. When Abu Hanifa used the phrase, it was in reference to Mecca and its non-muslim inhabitants with whom Muslims were at war for the control of that land. So dar el harb does refer to a land which Muslims are at war with to rule over it ultimately.

However the Quran does not use these terminologies neither explicitly nor implicitly, because its rules of war are defensive not offensive except for the case of Mecca, a land declared sacred by God since the days of Ibrahim, strictly reserved for the ways He established for it and unfit to polytheism 8:34-35,53,9:17-22,28 just like He declared the land of Canaan strictly reserved for the ways He established for it and thus commanded Moses and the Israelites to erase all traces of polytheism from it and rule over it Deuteronomy9

[Dar al Harb]

Good thing I didn't use my second choice "Jahiliyyah" as a user name.

I'd have never heard the end of it. LOL

[lumumba_s]

Although Abu Hanifa used the phrase, it became a general term in Hanafi fiqh terminology to identify someone who was: 1) non-Muslim and 2) not from ahl dhimma. It is not necessarily a statement on the relationship between two nations - in the same way that the word "kafir" in classical terminology was simply the signification of non-Muslims - irrespective of their relationship with the Muslim world. So even though lingusticially "dar al-harb" literally means the abode of war - in the technical usage of the fuqaha, it simply identifies a land that is not under the control of the Muslims, irrespective of whether or not actual conflict exists. People are allowed to use whatever terminology they wish to explain themselves, so it may not be "their" contextual understanding that is misplaced - it could quite possibly be ours. Dar al-Harb expressed clearly how he is using the term and he is being criticized for nothing other than the terminology that he has chosen without any serious attempt to truly understand his perspective. It reminds me of how ethnic Muslims insist that I use the word "revert" to define myself and my experience, objecting to my self identification of "conversion", as if "their" Islam gives them the right to override mine.