If wife perform Hajj(not became mandatory for her) with her husband & next time when it appears to be madatory, is it required to perform again ? OR what ever she did is encounted the obligation. Please explain clearly. May ALLAH help you. Abdurrazzaque

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.

A Muslim is obliged to perform Hajj only once in his life time. It is reported that Al-Aqra' Ibn Haabis asked the Prophet : ''Is Hajj obligatory every year or only once in a lifetime?'' He replied: ''It is obligatory only once, and whoever performs Hajj more than once, it is optional.'' [Abu Daawood]. 

Therefore, whoever performs Hajj after reaching the age of puberty, even if its expenses were paid for him by someone else, then the obligation of performing Hajj is dropped from him, unless he vowed to Allaah to perform Hajj. For instance if he says: ''I vow to perform Hajj to Allaah'', then in this case he is obliged to perform Hajj another time because of the vow, as the Prophet said: ''Whoever vows to obey Allaah, he should obey him.'' [Al-Bukhari].

However, if one performed the obligatory Hajj and then he was able to perform Hajj another time, then this second Hajj is not an obligation on him as he has already performed the obligatory Hajj the first time.

Finally, it should be noted that whoever performs Hajj before the age of puberty is not exempted from the obligatory Hajj, and when he reaches the age of puberty, he is obliged to perform Hajj again. Many scholars reported that there is a consensus about this issue.

For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 82630, 87030 and 87129.

Allaah Knows best.