Every Muslim living in the West dreams of making hijrah at least once in their lifetime. The desire to move to an Islamic country, with the adhaan (or call to prayer) ringing out loudly from every masjid, appeals to practising Muslims who understand that their true purpose in life is to worship Allah SWT. Most Muslims seek nothing but a simple life where they can practise their faith in peace while looking after their families in an Islamic environment.
In this post, I will share five hijrah-friendly ways to make money online. These opportunities can be utilised anywhere in the world, and all you need is a laptop, phone and an internet connection.
Before we get into these, let’s discuss hijrah in a little more detail.
What is hijrah?
Hijrah is defined as the migration from one place to another. In Islamic history, it refers to the time when the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) moved from Makkah to Medina to escape persecution. Nowadays, Muslims are obligated to make hijrah (or migrate to a Muslim country) if they are unable to practise Islam openly and if they have the means to make hijrah.
Over the past 20+ years, it has become increasingly difficult for Muslims to feel justified in living in the West. The ongoing war in Gaza and now Lebanon, and the support from the West, have made Muslims, including myself, feel uncomfortable knowing that our taxes may be contributing to Muslims being slaughtered abroad.
As well as Western support for the persecution of Muslims abroad, another reason that Muslims wish to make hijrah is the rise in Islamophobia in the West. Should we still be living here and raising our families in lands where we are made to feel unwelcome by an increasing section of society?
During the summer of 2024, the UK faced riots by far-right groups who made their feelings about Muslims and immigrants very clear. The riots were triggered by the senseless stabbing of young girls at a dance class by a Christian boy, but the far right were quick to blame Muslims, and they allowed their hatred for Muslims to take over, which led to many riots and incidents, mainly against Muslims.
Since Elon Musk took over X (formerly Twitter) and allowed “freedom of speech”, the far right have crawled out of the woodwork and spewed the most vile, racist and Islamophobic tweets unchecked, which has resulted in an increase in Islamophobic and racist incidents in public.
Fortunately, the majority of non-Muslim society are tolerant and respectful of different cultures, but the minority can sometimes drown out the reasonable voices.
These are two of the main reasons why Muslims wish to make hijrah, although there are others, including the weather (don’t get me started on the dull weather!) and general quality of life.
If Muslims want to make hijrah, what is stopping them? There could be many factors, but I believe the two main reasons keeping Muslims from making hijrah are family and financial issues.
Family
- Muslims may have elderly family members who depend on them, and they may not be able to move their elderly relatives with them if they decide to move abroad.
- Muslims tend to have large extended families, and many times they do not want to separate their children from cousins, aunts and uncles.
A solution to the family issues is to make hijrah with your elderly relatives and extended family, but logistically, this is not the easiest option in the world.
Financial
One of the benefits of living in the West is the financial incentive. Although life is becoming increasingly difficult in the West, with many people relying on food banks and a rise in homelessness, there are still ample opportunities to make a good life for yourself.
Migrants are risking their lives crossing the sea for a chance to make a better life in the UK and other Western nations. If someone is hardworking, they can begin with menial jobs and work their way up the ladder by taking advantage of the multitude of courses and opportunities available to increase their skills, gain better job opportunities and, in turn, earn a bigger salary.
Muslims who wish to make hijrah would either need a skill or be qualified in a field that is in high demand in Muslim countries. For example, there are many teaching opportunities for qualified teachers from English-speaking countries in the UAE.
For Muslims who do not have a skill or qualification that would help them find job opportunities abroad, they would need alternative means of generating an income if they want to support themselves and their families abroad.
So, let’s look into five hijrah-friendly ways to make money online. If you have a laptop, smartphone and internet connection, then there is no reason why you cannot begin one of these opportunities today to prepare for hijrah in the future.
1. Content Creation
The first way to make money online is to become a content creator. Some people call this being an “influencer”, but I think content creator is more fitting. Content creation is something I have been doing for around a decade, and I can confirm that it is a legitimate way to make money online and is something that can be done from anywhere in the world.
A content creator is someone who creates content in the form of video, images or writing for the internet, in particular, a social media website. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the popular social media platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.
Content creators share content on one or more of these platforms, and they make money in a variety of ways, including the social media platform paying them directly, through sponsorships from companies, or by selling their own products to their followers and subscribers.
For example, YouTube has the Partner Programme, where it allows content creators with 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time (which is the amount of time their videos have been watched over the past 12 months) to apply for monetisation.
TikTok has a variety of ways to earn money directly from its platform, including the opportunity for content creators to join its Creator Rewards Programme for creators who have at least 10,000 followers, as well as ways to earn money by promoting items in TikTok Shop, which is a fairly recent money-making phenomenon for content creators.
Many content creators are taking full advantage of the opportunities to make money from creating content around something they either love or have knowledge of.
The best thing is that you don’t need to show your face or even share your real voice to become a content creator. Many people are creating faceless content. For example, they may share motivational videos with nature backgrounds and use AI voiceovers.
The opportunities are endless, and with a little research, a Muslim can be on their journey to becoming a full-time content creator and achieving the financial freedom to make hijrah.
2. Create eBooks
The next way to make money online from anywhere in the world is to publish eBooks.
What is an eBook? An eBook is short for electronic book, and it is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images or both.
One of the biggest eBook providers is Kindle by Amazon. Did you know that anyone can publish eBooks on Amazon for free? On its Kindle Direct Publishing website, anyone can create and publish eBooks in a variety of formats and genres.
Are you an imaginative storyteller? You can create an eBook story series to publish on Kindle. Want to create your own series of books for Muslim children? This is possible using Kindle Direct Publishing.
If, for whatever reason, you do not want to publish your books on Amazon Kindle, you can create your own website and sell eBooks via your website, or there are alternative publishing companies. However, Amazon is the most popular and owns a huge chunk of the eBook market, putting your eBooks in front of the largest audience.
I have published a recipe book on Amazon, and I do gain a little money each month from my recipe book. Although it is only a little bit, I can definitely see the potential and wish I had more time to create eBooks.
The trick is to create as many eBooks as possible. There are also many tutorials and tips available on YouTube to help you get started with creating and publishing eBooks, as well as websites like Creative Fabrica, where you can use resources such as images to create colouring books.
Even if you do not manage to sell your books, if you join the KDP Select programme, your eBook will become available on Kindle Unlimited, where customers pay a monthly subscription fee to read a selection of eBooks as part of their subscription.
With KDP Select, you can get paid for the number of pages that are read of your book via Kindle Unlimited every month.
If you see yourself becoming a self-publishing author, research is key to creating, publishing and selling eBooks as a means of making money online.
3. Create Digital Products
If eBooks are not your thing, you can create other digital products to sell online instead. Digital products are goods that exist in a digital form.
One way that people are making money online is by creating digital products to sell on websites like Etsy and Shopify. For example, you can create an A4 weekly planner, upload the planner to Etsy as a digital product for buyers to purchase, download or print.
This is an opportunity with minimal costs, but it requires effort to upload as many high-quality digital products as possible.
Some ideas for digital products to sell online include:
- Ramadan planners and journals
- Meal planners
- Printable invitations
- Budget trackers
- Printable recipe cards
Again, the opportunities are endless, and with some thought and research, creating digital products online can be a lucrative way to make money online from anywhere in the world.
4. Coaching/Tutoring
Do you have a specialism or skill? You can easily turn this into a business opportunity online by either becoming a coach, tutor or mentor.
Maybe you are a Muslim woman who is an expert in fitness. You can teach one-to-one classes online to other Muslim women who may want to get fit but do not want to go to a mixed-gender gym and prefer exercising at home.
You can connect via Zoom or other platforms and charge for weekly classes. This is something that can be done from anywhere that has an internet connection.
Alternatively, you can create a course in your specialism and sell this course via Teachable and other websites, using social media to bring in new clients and customers.
Are you a science teacher? You can become a science tutor by connecting with students via websites like Tutorful to earn an income online.
5. Freelancing
The fifth hijrah-friendly way to make money online is to offer your skills and services through freelancing websites like Upwork and Fiverr.
As a freelancer, you can earn money on a per-job or per-task basis, or via short-term contracts.
Some freelance opportunities include:
- Writing and editing
- Graphic design
- Translation services
- Digital marketing
- Social media assistant
If you are serious about making hijrah at some point in the future, it is important to start building your online income stream (or streams) as soon as possible.
It takes time to succeed, and you do not want to be held back in life because you never managed to make enough money online to achieve the financial freedom to live wherever you like.
I hope you found this post useful. The most important thing is to make dua and ask Allah SWT to guide and help you. Only He SWT can open doors that you never imagined.
