Fatwa

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Spending money saved for Hajj to build house
Fatwa No: 321715

Question

Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. I have a doubt regarding the money that was collected for Hajj. We have started building our house now with the Help of Allaah. We already built it eight years ago but it was not completed. Now my dad needs some money so dat we can finish it. We had been collecting money in order to do Hajj next year Allaah willing. So my dad wants to know if it would be all right to take dat money to complete our house, but I am not satisfied with this because it was kept for a special reason. Please help us out. May Allaah reward you.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Hajj is obligatory on the Muslim who has the ability to afford it. The scholars interpreted the financial ability as meaning that he has surplus money that exceeds his essential needs to finance Hajj. The author of Zaad Al-Mustaqniʻ wrote, "...after fulfilling his financial obligations and covering his basic needs..."

There is no doubt that having a house to live in is one of the basic needs. Ibn Qudaamah wrote, "Money used to finance Hajj should be surplus to whatever is required to cover the basic needs for himself and his dependents, such as a house, a servant, and other inevitable expenses..." [Al-Mughni]

The Shaafiʻi scholar Ash-Shirbeeni said, "...it should be surplus to his need for a suitable house that meets his requirements... "

We have previously explained in other fataawa that it is not necessary that the person owns a house. If he can afford to pay rent and still has surplus money to finance Hajj, he is obliged to perform Hajj. Hence, if you have a rented house and you have extra money for Hajj that is surplus to your basic needs and financial obligations enjoined on you as per the sharee'ah, then it is incumbent on you to perform Hajj and it is impermissible for you to spend this surplus money on completing the construction of the house.

For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 82312.

Allaah knows best.

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