Ruling on deputizing for an obligatory Hajj

4-5-2023 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalamalaikum warahmatullah Please tell me if someone is permitted to ask others to do badalhajj for him while he’s physically and financially capable but living in a kafir country and He can’t go abroad for some political reasons and the government doesn’t allow him to go for hajj.jazakallahukhair

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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 is His slave and Messenger.

Deputizing for an obligatory Hajj is not legislated except for those who are unable to perform it due to a disability that is unlikely to disappear. As for the reasons that may disappear, they are not excuses for deputizing.

The Encyclopedia of Fiqh (jurisprudence) reads: “If he suffers from a disability with the hope that it will disappear, then it is not permissible to deputize. Rather, it is incumbent upon him to perform Hajj himself when the disability is gone from him.” [End of quote]

The author of Az-Zad said: “and if he was disabled by his old age or a chronic disease that is unlikely to be cured, then it is necessary for him to deputize someone to perform Hajj and 'Umrah on his behalf.”

Ibn 'Uthaymeen said in his interpretation of its meaning: “his saying "incurable", implies that if he were to be cured, he would not have to deputize someone to perform Hajj on his behalf, nor to perform Hajj himself, because he is incapable to. But it is permissible for him to delay the Hajj in this case, so the immediacy is waived from him due to his inability, and he is required to perform Hajj on his own behalf when he gets cured.” [End of quote]

Based on this, if the reasons that prevented that person from traveling for Hajj can possibly be removed, then he does not have the right to deputize someone to perform the obligatory Hajj on his behalf.

Allah knows best.