OBLIGATION TO PERFORM HAJJ

It is clear from the Holy Quran and the traditions that performance of Hajj is obligatory on every person who has attained puberty and has the requisite wealth stated below.

Hajj is one of the basic principles of the religion; its performance is one of its essentials, and its non-performance, after recognition of it being obligatory, is a grave sin. Denial of the obligatory nature of Hajj, when there is no room for any doubt about it, is blasphemy (kufr). Allah states in the Holy Quran, "Allah has made it obligatory on those who can afford and are able to make the journey to perform the pilgrimage; and if anybody denies it, then Allah is above all the universes. "

Sheikh Kulayni has reported authentically that Imam Sadiq (a.s.) has said, " Whoever dies without having performed the obligatory pilgrimage when he was not prevented by lack of means or illness or a Sultan, dies a Jew or a Christian." Indeed, there are many reports on the pilgrimage being obligatory and its importance, but the brevity of this work does not permit setting them all out so that we confine ourselves to the verse.

In religion the performance of the pilgrimage is obligatory on a person once only and is known as Hijjatul Islam.

Performance of the pilgrimage becomes obligatory immediately in the year in which the conditions for it are ascertained to have realised.If one fails to perform it, deliberately or for an excuse, it must be fulfilled in the ensuing year, and so on. Postponing it without valid reason is a grave sin.

When proceeding to pilgrimage becomes obligatory, one must make all the preparations and arrangements for the journey to be able to perform the ceremonies in time. If there are several groups one could join or flights one can take and one has confidence to reach in time if one joins any of them or takes any of the flights, it is permissible to join or take any of them, although it is preferable to chose the one that would definitely reach in time.

If it was possible for a person to join the first group but did not do so in the confidence that the later group would reach in time but then was not able to join it or it would not have reached in time for the pilgrimage because of the delay, the obligation to perform the pilgrimage does not become fixed on him, even though his delay was excusable.