A person, who has come here for work, having borrowed money for his travel and initial period, finds himself unable to settle all his debt before the pilgrimage is due. Yet he is eager to do the pilgrimage, because he feels the chance to do so may not be repeated. Can he delay the repayment in order to perform the pilgrimage?
The rule is that the repayment of one’s debts takes priority over funding any religious obligations, including the pilgrimage. If one does not have enough to repay his debts, he is not required to do the pilgrimage, because he does not meet the condition of financial ability. However, in the case you have mentioned, where the pilgrimage will not cost much, particularly for a person living in Jeddah, there is a case to be made for offering the pilgrimage, even though this will delay the completion of repayment.
The proper thing for this person to do is to write to his creditor informing him of his desire and telling him that he knows that he has a stronger claim. He should ask his permission to delay repayment for a while in order to offer the pilgrimage. Unless his creditor is in desperate need of the money, he will not stop him from doing the pilgrimage. The debtor should pray for his creditor when he is on pilgrimage. It should be said that if a debtor offers the pilgrimage without first securing the agreement of his creditor, he does wrong but his pilgrimage is valid.
Some people realize that their earnings have not come from legitimate or halal sources. Nevertheless, they want to perform the pilgrimage, using the same money, after “purifying” it. The purification is done in two ways. They either borrow an amount of money sufficient to cover the expenses of pilgrimage, making use of the cash they borrowed in meeting the expenses during their pilgrimage and repaying the amount later from their normal earnings. Or they pay the dower due to their wives and then the wife makes a gift of the same dower to her husband. He then uses that money to perform the pilgrimage. My question is whether at the end of the day, can we consider the money used for pilgrimage to have been legitimately earned. Is pilgrimage done in this way valid and acceptable?
It is well known that pilgrimage earns the reward of complete forgiveness of past sins. A Muslim undertakes this difficult journey, hoping to wipe his slate clean and to shed the burden of sins and misdeeds he had accumulated in his life. Pilgrimage, therefore, comes as a result of a process, which includes taking stock of what one may have done in the past, concluding that one needs to get rid of the burden of the past and make a fresh start. For a Muslim the best and surest way of doing that is through pilgrimage. For this reason, a person who intends to go on pilgrimage should declare his repentance for what errors and slips he may have made, and resolve not to repeat these in future. When such repentance is coupled with undertaking the journey of pilgrimage it ensures God’s acceptance and forgiveness.
When we speak of repentance and forgiveness, we must remember that God forgives any violation of the limits. He has imposed on us, as long as it represents an offense against Him. He does not forgive an offense, which we may commit against other people, unless the aggrieved party forgoes his rights first. When God wants someone to be forgiven even that latter type of sins, he takes it upon Himself to satisfy the aggrieved party either by giving him much more than he would have taken from the offender or by increasing his reward. A person who earns his money in an illegitimate way must have earned it through wronging other people. If it is the case, then he cannot hope to be forgiven such an offense by using that money, which he has earned through an illegitimate means to cover the expenses of his pilgrimage. If one person takes the money of another in an illegitimate way and then prays for forgiving him while using that money for his own benefits, then he is creating a very farcical situation and playing games with Islamic principles. There is one genuine way for him to be forgiven that offense. That involves repenting his offense, returning the money, which he has taken unlawfully, to its rightful owner, and asking him to accept it and to pardon him. Then he should pray for forgiveness. If he does all that, his repentance is genuine and he makes amends for his misdeeds.
The situation which, you have mentioned is very similar to our farcical example. Imagine someone who has poured himself a glass of whisky. Holding the glass in his hand he says: “My Lord forgive me,” then he drinks that whisky. To us, such a situation seems ridiculous and we may tend to say that God will never forgive such a person, because he knows what he is doing and insists on doing it and he may be making fun of the Islamic principle of forgiveness. Yet, God may in His mercy forgive such a person much sooner than the one who undertakes the pilgrimage in the way you have described.
What such people actually do is to try to deal with in the same way as they deal with their fellow human beings. A person may try to evade payment of income tax by a variety of tricks he may play on the tax inspector. He may get away with that because he knows that the tax inspector is a human being and he can only act on the basis of the information he has. That information is never complete. If a person tries to deal with God in the same way, he runs the risk of incurring God’s displeasure. That is something which none of us can afford.
Let us examine the two ways, which you have mentioned as being employed as a “purifying process”. The first one is a straightforward loan. It is true that money you have in hand as a result of borrowing is lawful and when you pay that money for your pilgrimage expenses, you are using legitimate money. But how is the loan to be settled? Obviously from the money earned illegitimately. It needs neither a mathematician nor a philosopher to say that the pilgrimage expenses were paid from illegitimate money. Illegitimacy is not a stain, which is placed on the currency itself. It is something attached to the whole transaction, which resulted in illegitimate earnings. That process of borrowing and settling a loan is superfluous. It does not change the facts.
The same applies to the other method. By paying one’s wife her dower and getting it back as a gift, as a result of either an explicit or implicit agreement, one does not change the position in any way. Why has he chosen this time in particular to make these arrangements? It is only to try to convince his own self that he is going on pilgrimage using legitimate funds. He only deceives himself by doing so. He cannot deceive God.
There are two Hadiths, which are particularly relevant to this whole affair. The first says: “God does not look at your shapes and forms, but he looks at your deeds.” This means that a genuinely good deed is rewarded, while bad one is punishable. Either method of “purification” of earnings has no motive other than giving a false disguise. God knows that and knows the reality of the intention behind every action. He evaluates such actions on the basis of the intentions behind them. This is what is meant by the Prophet’s `Hadith. “Actions are only by intention. Every human being shall have only what he has intended.” So, a person who seeks to play a trick on, will get only what such an action merits. He simply deceives himself and he spends his money to no avail. We must remember what the Prophet, peace be upon him, says: “God is good and he accepts only what is good.” Playing tricks is certainly not good. An action, which involves any such trick, is simply rejected by God.
In the case of a pilgrimage paid for by money earned unlawfully, we have to remember the Hadith, which states. “When a man sets on his pilgrimage, having good money earned legitimately, and declares his intention saying: “Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik” (which means I respond to your call my Lord), the angels will answer him: “Your response is welcome. So be happy. You have food paid for by good money and your expenses are paid by legitimately earned money and your pilgrimage is accepted.” On the other hand, when a man is set out on pilgrimage with money unlawfully earned, then as he makes his declaration that he is responding to God’s call, the angels will say to him. “No response is accepted from you, and no happiness is given to you. Your food is unlawfully earned and your expenses are paid with illegitimately earned money, and your pilgrimage is unacceptable.” This Hadith shows how Islam lays strong emphasis on the need to have lawfully earned money to pay for the great act of worship of pilgrimage, which earns complete forgiveness of past sins. We cannot hope for such forgiveness if we intend to go on with our erring ways. Those people who resort to such tricks are simply demonstrating their unwillingness to repent of their erring ways. How can they hope for God’s forgiveness? I do not know. ~
I am told that if a person performs the Umrah after the end of Ramadhan, then it becomes obligatory that he must perform the pilgrimage that year. Is it true?
This is a very confused notion which people bring up time after time, although they do not have any basis for it. The Prophet, peace be upon him, did the Umrah four times, all of which were in the month of Dul-Q’adah, but he performed the pilgrimage only once. Had what you mentioned been true, he would have done the pilgrimage four times. The Umrah may be offered at any time during the year, and it is independent of the pilgrimage. It is the pilgrimage that may be associated with an Umrah, not the other way round.
People get confused when they are told that if they do the Umrah in the pilgrimage months, not intending to do the pilgrimage, then they decide to do the pilgrimage in the same year, their pilgrimage is automatically in the Tamattu‚ method