Performing voluntary Hajj or giving the money to another one to perform obligatory Hajj

18/10/2010| IslamWeb

Question

After performing the obligatory Hajj, is it better to perform Hajj once more or give the money to someone who is healthy, but does not have the money to perform Hajj?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) is His Slave and Messenger.
If you are asking about donating the money of the voluntary Hajj to someone who is incapable of affording the Hajj expenses so that he would perform Hajj, you should know that he is not asked to perform Hajj anyway as long as he in incapable of doing so. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {And [due] to Allah from the people is a pilgrimage to the House - for whoever is able to find thereto a way.} [Quran 3:97] Giving money to such a person is a form of charity and scholars said that performing Hajj is better than giving its cost as a charity unless there is a necessity. Shaykh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah  may  Allah  have  mercy  upon  him said, "Voluntary Hajj is better than voluntary charity. However, if the person has poor relatives or if there are people who will be harmed if they do not get his charity, then giving charity for them will be better. If the two acts are voluntary, Hajj will be better because it is a physical as well as a financial act of worship."
Some scholars said that giving charity is better than performing voluntary Hajj. This was mentioned by Ahmad  may  Allah  have  mercy  upon  him. Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen  may  Allah  have  mercy  upon  him said that it is better to give money to another person so that he would perform obligatory Hajj than to perform voluntary Hajj. He was asked, "If someone pays the expenses of Hajj for someone who has not performed the obligatory Hajj, will he get the same reward as the person to whom he gave the money? Is this better than assigning someone to make Hajj on his behalf?”
He replied, "Yes, Allah willing, he will get the same reward of performing obligatory Hajj as the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) said: 'Whoever equips a Ghazi (fighter) in the way of Allah is as if he has taken part in the fighting himself.’ Hajj is a type of Jihaad and giving a poor person money to perform the obligatory Hajj is better than giving the money to someone to perform voluntary Hajj on his behalf. This is because he will help his fellow brother to take the reward of performing one of the pillars of Islam."
If you mean that you want to perform Hajj by yourself and grant the reward of this Hajj for an incapable person, this is impermissible as it is permissible only if the person is dead or physically unable to perform it.
And Allah knows best.

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