There
is no doubt that continuous eagerness of the hearts to Hajj is the
fruit of the answer of Allah to the call of Ibrahim may Allah exalt
his mention. Allah Almighty says (what means): {And proclaim to the
people the Hajj [pilgrimage]; they will come to you on foot and on every
lean camel; they will come from every distant pass.} [Quran 22:27]
Jurists stated that the conditions of Hajj are: Islam, full possession
of mental faculties, puberty, freedom and ability. The Permanent
Committee for Islamic Research and Fataawa in Saudi Arabia explains
ability by saying:
Ability regarding Hajj signifies that one has
a healthy body; owns a means of transportation with which he can reach
the Sacred House of Allah, such as a plane, a car, or a riding animal;
has the money to rent one of those means, as the case may be; or owns
the provisions that suffice him on his journey till he returns, provided
that these provisions should be beyond the expenditures of his
dependents till he returns from Hajj; and a woman should be accompanied
by her husband or one of her mahram (permanently unmarriageable kin) men
during her travel to Hajj or ‘Umrah.
- Borrowing to perform Hajj
We often find people borrowing money in order to go for Hajj, and this contradicts the guidance of Islam.
Shaykh Muhammad Salih Al-Munajjid, a Saudi Arabian scholar, said:
Hajj
is not obligatory except upon those who are capable. Capacity includes:
financial capacity and physical capacity to travel and perform the
rituals ... One is not obliged to borrow for Hajj, and it is not
recommended to do so. However, if someone does not abide by this and
still borrows money, his Hajj is valid, Allah willing.
The
eminent scholar Shaykh Ibn Baz may Allah have mercy upon him said
about the permissibility of borrowing, "There is no harm in it as long
as one can pay back."
Being free from diseases and disabilities
that hinder performing the Hajj is one of the conditions of the Hajj. If
someone suffers from a chronic disease or a permanent disability; is
impaired; or is very old, to the extent that he cannot travel, then Hajj
is not obligatory upon him. He who is capable of performing the Hajj
with the aid of others is obliged to perform it if there is someone to
help him. Whoever suffers from an incurable disability that prevents him
from performing the Hajj should authorize someone to perform it on his
behalf. However, if someone suffers from a curable disability, then he
should wait till he is cured and then perform the Hajj himself; it is
not permissible for him to deputize someone to perform it on his behalf.
In
some countries, there are financial cooperative societies for the Hajj.
Shaykh ‘Atiyyah Saqr may Allah have mercy upon him said about
this issue:
Among the forms of borrowing is forming a society or
establishing a fund with subscriptions from the members. The sum of
these subscriptions is given to some of the members monthly or yearly in
order to perform the Hajj. The member should continue paying the
subscription to repay his debt. This form of solidarity is permissible.
Trading
during the Hajj: Many people believe that one should perform Hajj from
his own money and that if he goes for work or trade and performs the
Hajj, that this Hajj does not avail him of the obligatory Hajj.
Those
who perform Hajj and conduct business, their Hajj is valid, they do not
have to repeat it, and it avails them of the obligation. Concerning the
reward, the apparent meaning of these texts is that Allah does not
deprive them of it. However, one should take the following authentic
hadith into consideration: "The reward of deeds depends upon the
intentions, and every person will have the reward according to what he
has intended." If there are several intentions for one good deed, then
the reward may depend upon the prevailing among these intentions. The
whole matter belongs to Allah before and after and, indeed, Allah is
Knowing of that which is within the breasts.
Dr.
Nasr Fareed Wasil, the former Mufti of Egypt, said about Hajj as a
grant from a company to its employees or from some of the rich to the
poor:
The jurists of Islam unanimously agreed that if the person
does not have money, he is not obliged to perform Hajj. If a stranger
grants him money in order to perform the Hajj, then, by consensus, he
does not have to accept it. If he accepts and performs Hajj, then his
Hajj is valid, and this avails him of the obligation. Hajj is always
permissible if the money is lawfully earned whether it is the money of
the person himself or the money of others that was donated willingly and
readily.
- Limiting the numbers of pilgrims
Millions
of Muslims wish to perform the Hajj to the Sacred House of Allah.
However, the Saudi authorities ask every country to send a specific
number of pilgrims in order to avoid the evils that may result from
receiving an unlimited number of pilgrims. This limitation is
permissible according to his eminence Shaykh Al-Qaradhawi, who said:
It
is permissible to limit the numbers of pilgrims if this entails benefit
and if not limiting it entails evil. We know that there were about 3
million pilgrims in some years. In several years, the people were so
crowded in the place of throwing pebbles that hundreds of people died.
Therefore, limiting the numbers of pilgrims is a matter of considering
public interest that was not specifically addressed by the Islamic texts
and of the elimination of means that lead to unfavorable results. This
matter was agreed upon by wise Muslims.
The
spread of some contagious diseases makes the authorities take
precautions through vaccination and other means. Due to the harm that
will afflict the Muslims, it is impermissible for man to travel if he
has not taken the required vaccinations when it is most likely that the
infection will spread.
If the infection is certain or most likely
to happen, then this disease causes the Hajj to be not obligatory upon
the sick person till he is cured because the Islamic jurisprudence rule
stipulates that the elimination of evil takes precedence over the
realization of benefit, especially given that the benefit in Hajj is for
the person himself more than for others. Moreover, the evil strikes
many others. Since Hajj is not obligatory upon him, I believe that
taking the risk of travelling in spite of the probability of infection
is prohibited, being either disliked or forbidden, according to the
degree of the probability of infection.
This opinion is based
upon the incident in which the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam
( may Allah exalt his mention ) said to a man with leprosy who came to
pledge him allegiance: "Go back, for we have accepted your pledge of
allegiance." [Muslim] He also said: "Run away from the leper like you
run away from a lion." [Al-Bukhari]
Many people ask whether to
give precedence to their needs or to Hajj. For example, a person may
need a car; so should he then buy the car or perform Hajj
The
car, no matter how much a person may need it, is not considered a
necessity that justifies delaying the Hajj. The sharia-approved
necessity is that which life cannot continue without.
Moreover,
whoever gives precedence to and is keen on the obligations of Islam,
Allah will grant him the car along with other blessings, Allah willing.
In
addition, among the frequently asked questions: should one give
precedence to marrying off his children or to performing the Hajj?
Jurists
have different opinions concerning this issue. A number of jurists
adopt the opinion that he should give precedence to the Hajj because it
is obligatory on him, conditional on capacity, and he is capable. On the
other hand, others believe that if the son or the daughter needs to get
married, then he should give precedence to this based on the fact that
Hajj is a deferrable, not an immediate obligation. The latter is the
opinion adopted by Dr. Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Al-Mahdi, Professor in
Al-Azhar University and President of Al-Jam‘iyyat Ash-Shar‘iyyah (Sharia
Associations).
It is not permissible to perform the Hajj with
unlawfully earned money. However, jurists judge that this Hajj is valid
and availing of the obligation, in spite of the sin therein. According
to the fatwas of Dar Al-Ifta’ Al-Misriyyah:
The sharia stated
that Hajj is obligatory upon every Muslim who is free, adult, and in
full possession of mental faculties and healthy, if he owns the
provisions, the means of transportation, the residence and other
indispensible affairs along with the expenditures of his dependants till
he returns. It is disliked for an indebted person to go for Hajj if he
does not have money to repay his debt, unless the creditor grants him
permission.
It
is a condition that the expenses should be lawfully earned given that
Hajj with unlawfully earned money is not accepted although the
obligation is fulfilled, even if the money is stolen. There is no
contradiction between fulfilling the obligation of Hajj and not
accepting it. The slave is not rewarded because Allah does not accept
it, but he is not punished with the punishment of the one who failed to
perform Hajj (while able to do it) in the hereafter.
He also
builds his opinion upon what An-Nawawi may Allah have mercy upon
him said: "If one performs Hajj with unlawfully earned money or riding a
stolen animal, then he is sinful although his Hajj is valid, and it
avails him in our opinion. This opinion was also held by Abu Haneefah,
Malik, and Al-‘Abdari, and it was adopted by the majority of the
jurists."
Is it obligatory on the father to provide for the Hajj of his son or on the son to provide for the Hajj of his father?
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen may Allah have mercy upon him was asked about this, and his answer was:
It
is not obligatory because acts of worship are conditional on capacity,
and capacity does not come from others. Thus, it is not obligatory upon
either of them to do so. However, if the father demands the expenses of
Hajj from his financially capable son, then obeying him falls under the
ordained dutifulness; thus, it becomes a duty in this respect.
The
majority of the scholars view that there should be a mahram man with
the woman during the Hajj, except for the Shafi‘i school, which adopts
the opinion that it is permissible for women to perform the obligatory
Hajj with a group of trustworthy women if the safety of the road is
guaranteed.Nevertheless, the husband may not prevent his wife from the
obligatory Hajj, as the Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and
Fataawa said: "The obligatory Hajj is an obligation whenever the
conditions of capacity are met, and they do not include the permission
of the husband.
He
may not prevent her. Rather, he should cooperate with her in performing
this duty."This ruling concerns the obligatory Hajj.On the other hand,
he may prevent her from performing a voluntary Hajj if he wishes, as
stated by Imam Ibn Qudamah Al-Hanbali, "Concerning the voluntary Hajj,
Ibn Al-Munthir reported the consensus on the fact that the husband may
prevent his wife from a voluntary Hajj because the right of her husband
is a duty that she should not miss for something that is not obligatory
upon her."
The permission of the parents is not a condition for
the obligatory Hajj, but it is a condition for a voluntary Hajj. Imam
An-Nawawi may Allah have mercy upon him said:
They may
prevent him from a voluntary Hajj, and they are not sinful for this, but
they may not prevent him from the obligatory Hajj, and they are sinful
for preventing him. If he performs the Hajj without their permission,
then his Hajj is valid in any case, even if he disobeyed them in case of
a voluntary Hajj.
It is permissible to give the poor from the
money of the zakah to perform the Hajj. This is the opinion of Ibn
‘Umar, as proven by a narration on his authority: "Hajj falls under the
category of the Cause of Allah."
This is also the view held by
Imam Ibn Taymiyyah may Allah have mercy upon him who said: "One
may give money to someone who did not perform the obligatory Hajj
because of being poor."
