15 Virtues of Traveling in Islam – Adab

Review by : Yuli SE., MM

Traveling has now become a lifestyle of modern people. However, traveling is not a modern activity at all. All of the Islamic prophet, from Adam (AS) to Muhammad (peace be upon him) had all travel. While Adam traveled to find his wife, Muhammad had travel for trading and later to spread Islam.

Travel or hijra in Islam even holds specific meaning in the history of Islam, where it marked the first day in the first Islamic calendar. The Islamic calendar was first created during the event of hijra from Mecca to Medina.

Islam encourages Muslim to travel, especially when it’s done for good, to spread Islam, or for Hajj. There are good reasons as to why the Prophets love to travel: there are many virtues in it.

Here are the virtues of traveling in Islam:

1. Make Dua During Travel

Dua that made during a Muslim travels is never rejected. That is why it’s best to make dua during traveling. When a traveling Muslim makes dua, then one of these three things would happen: the dua was granted, the dua was not granted but he is protected from a harmful future, or the dua was not granted but Allah replaces it with something better.

Also read: Useful Dua for Journey in Islam

2. Becoming Islam’s Ambassador

Traveling is the best time to spread about Islam to others. When we go to a non-Muslim majority countries, a Muslim represents his religion. As for woman, she become outstanding for her hijab. It’s a good time to explain about Islam, especially for those who don’t truly understand Islam. Hearing directly from a Muslim might change their view about our religion, or even make them interested.

Also read: 15 Blissful Ways to Get Good Deeds in Islam

3. To Learn an Grow

In our daily lives, we engaged to a similar routine every single day that our mind and view become narrow. When we travel, we see things we don’t usually see, which make us learn a lot of new things. Learning is not necessarily from school or by book, but from the people we met and through the activities in which we engaged.

Also read: Rules of Seeking Knowledge in Islam

4. Gain Lessons from the Journey

Every journey has its own uniqueness. None of them will ever be the same. In fact, traveling is the metaphor or afterlife. We cant bring all of our belongings when we go, only the matter ones and what we would need. The same will goes when we die, we only bring all the good deeds we have committed, and the people we knew will remember about what we have done.

Also read: Virtues of Gratefulness in Islam

5. Facing One’s Fear

As life begins in the end of comfort zone, we will learn to face our fear when we travels. We need to survive on our own and stand for ourselves. We only fear about things because we haven’t face them for once. But after we going through the experience, we will understand that we fear for nothing.

More Virtues of Traveling in Islam

Traveling has many more virtues. Here are more of virtues of traveling in Islam:

By traveling we know that we’re not alone in this world. There are many fellow Muslims everywhere, even in a country where Islam is not the majority. We could also learn about Islam’s greatness from the history that we could find in any country.
Many Muslims in the world still suffers until today. They are short of nature resources such as food and water. Seeing our fellow Muslims like this make us very grateful of our lives and what we have today. This may raise our status by Allah SWT.
Allah’s creation is indeed beyond imagination and the best time to witness them is when we travel. We should see the beauty of the nature more often.
The more country you visited, the more you understand that money is nothing more than a paper being exchanged, without any real value.
The help we receive from others during travel make us really grateful and learn that kind people still exists.

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Adab in Traveling According to Sunnah

Traveling is one activity that the Prophet (peace be upon him) had done many times in the past. There are certain adab in travelling that reported by some of the Shahabah:

1. Sharing the Provision

Abu Sa’id Al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) reported:

“While we were travelling with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), a rider came and began to stare on the right and on the left. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, “He who has an extra mount should hand it over to one who has none, and he who possesses surplus provision, should give it to him who is without provision.” He named various kind s of possessions until we began to think (realize) that none of us had any right to anything surplus.” – Muslim

2. Prioritizing the Weak

Jabir (RA) reported:

“The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) used to lag behind while travelling and urge the weak to walk quickly. He used to take up someone behind him and make supplication for him.” – Abu Dawud

3. To Travel During the Night

Anas (RA) reported:

“The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, “Keep to travelling by night because the earth is folded (traversed more easily) during the night.” – Abu Dawud

4. To Choose a Leader During Travel

Abu Sa’id Al-Khudri and Abu Hurairah (RA) reported:

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, “When three persons set out on a journey, they should appoint one of them as their leader.” – Abu Dawud

5. To Call Allah’s Name During Ascending and Descending

Jabir (RA) reported:

“When we ascended (a height) we would proclaim: “Allahu Akbar (Allah is Greatest),” and when we descended (from the height) we would proclaim: “Subhan Allah (Allah is free from imperfection).”‘ – Bukhari

So those are all the virtues of traveling in Islam. As traveling is a sunnah from the Prophet (peace be upon him), as a Muslim we should love to travel. However, let’s follow all the adab the Prophet had shown.

Indah Ariviani