Assalamualaikum I am 28 year old student. Of late, I am being bothered by the thoughts of all the mistakes/ sins I have committed in the past. Inshallah I am planning to perform Hajj in near future. As I have to seek forgiveness from all the people i have interacted before I do it , I am feeling a bit nervous and also bad. Is it compulsory to do it before Hajj?

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. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

You should know that Allaah legislated repentance to purify His Slaves from their sins and lift their burden from them in this life and in the Hereafter.

Moreover, scholars mentioned some etiquettes which a pilgrim must observe before he travels for Hajj. Here are some of them:

1)     To repent to Allaah from all sins, as it is an obligation upon every servant to repent to Allaah immediately. Allaah Says (what means): {And turn to Allaah in repentance, all of you, O believers that you might succeed.}[Quran 24:31]. Allaah further Says (what means): {And ask forgiveness of your Lord and then repent to Him. Indeed, my Lord is Most Merciful and Most Affectionate.}[Quran 11:90]. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 83145.

2)     To give people their rights back. If the rights are material, such as money stolen or the like of that, then it is an obligation to give the money back to people. Feeling shy or avoiding embarrassment is not a valid excuse for not giving back such rights. Nonetheless, if one knows that giving money directly back to their rightful owners will be a burden or cause him harm, then one may give it back to them by any other means, such as depositing money in their bank account or by entrusting someone to give it back to them. If this money does not belong to a particular person, such as the money that was earned from a prohibited source, like Ribaa (interest or usury), then one may spend it in any charitable cause. However, if these rights are moral, such as slandering, backbiting or insulting, it is an obligation to ask for forgiveness from the people whom he wronged, provided that this is possible and does not cause a greater harm. In addition, if one knows that informing people of his slandering and backbiting of them and seeking their forgiveness will cause a greater harm, then, in this case, it is not an obligation on him to do so. In such case, one should earnestly supplicate to Allaah to forgive them, and should praise them in front of the same people before whom he backbit and wronged them. Moreover, he should perform good deeds as much as possible. It is confirmed that the Prophet said: "If someone has wronged a person with regard to his dignity or honour, he has to seek his forgiveness today before The Day when there would be no Dinaar nor Dirham.  On that Day, if a person has good deeds, they will be taken from him according to the extent of wrong he did to the other person, but if he has no good deeds, then the bad deeds of the person whom he wronged will be transferred to him." [Al-Bukhari and Ahmad]

3)     To learn all the Hajj rituals without which Hajj becomes invalid.

Allaah Knows best.