• Pilgrimage: Fulfillment of duty & reward — unattached issues
In my last pilgrimage, I met a person who came from Asia to perform the pilgrimage, sponsored by a non-Muslim film actor. How far is this acceptable from the Islamic point of view?
We have a couple of points to consider it. The first is that if a person earns his money in an illegitimate way, such as accepting bribes or selling forbidden things like wines, drugs, etc., and he offers the pilgrimage, using for his expenses money that he has earned in this way, his pilgrimage is not accepted and he receives no reward for it, but he is deemed to have fulfilled his duty. The two things are separate, because pilgrimage is a personal and financial duty. Since, he has gone to pilgrimage in person and fulfilled its duties, he has discharged that requirement, but because his money is foul, he receives no reward for his pilgrimage.
From another point of view, if a person is invited by another to offer the pilgrimage at the latter's expense, he may accept that invitation. He will be rewarded for his pilgrimage and his duty will be deemed to have been discharged. However, he is under no obligation to accept that invitation. If he declines it, he does no wrong. It is permissible for a Muslim to accept a gift from a non-Muslim, as long as he is certain that the non-Muslim does not have any ulterior motives which may be detrimental to Islam. Such a gift is considered a legitimately earned money. If one uses it for his expenses in pilgrimage, he does no wrong.
In the light of the foregoing, when this man has done the pilgrimage at the expenses of the actor, his pilgrimage duty is fulfilled. He certainly need not have accepted that gift. Whether he should have declined it or not is something else. He should have asked himself why the actor is offering such a sponsorship? Definitely not as a service to Islam, because he is a non-Muslim. Most probably, the actor is after increasing his own popularity and to win favor with Muslims. He may also want to give his own people an image of tolerance. In the circumstances, I would say that Muslims should not help such people achieve their purposes. That man should have declined to do his pilgrimage at the expense of a non-Muslim actor.
Is there any special pilgrimage described as "grand" or "Hajj Akbar"? If so, when does it fall?
No, there is nothing called grand pilgrimage. There is a mistaken notion that if the day of Arafat happens to be on Friday, then that pilgrimage is grand and it is rewarded as seven times the reward of ordinary pilgrimage. As I say, this notion is completely mistaken. The mistake comes from misinterpreting a phrase which occurs at the beginning of surah 9, entitled "Tauba " (repentance). That verse speaks of a declaration which the Prophet was ordered to make to people on the "grand day of pilgrimage." Some people misinterpret it as "on the day of grand pilgrimage." The grand day of pilgrimage is said by some scholars to be the day of Arafat, while other scholars consider it to be the following day, i.e. the day of Eid, when the pilgrims have to do several duties.
• Pilgrimage: Inability to bear heat of summer
A relative who is in his sixties has asked me to perform the pilgrimage on his behalf. Although he is quite healthy and capable of looking after himself in every way, he feels unable to bear the heat of the summer. He says that he gets weak and tired if he is exposed to the sun for a long time. This makes him reluctant to come for pilgrimage. Please advise.
Pilgrimage is a personal duty which is owed to Allah by every human being. A personal duty must be performed by every person. However, Allah has given a concession to those who are very old or chronically ill to ask someone else to do the pilgrimage on their behalf. The person who makes such a request must fulfill the conditions of ability to undertake the journey, other than his illness, including his accommodation and the fares for all necessary travel undertaken in connection with the pilgrimage. He need not pay him any wages for his undertaking. The person traveling to do the pilgrimage on some-one else's behalf must have done the pilgrimage himself in order to qualify for such a substitute pilgrimage.
While illness is an acceptable justification for asking someone to do the pilgrimage on one's behalf, many scholars suggest that illness should be of a type that is unlikely to be cured. The Prophet was asked by a woman how she could help her father do the pilgrimage when he is too ill to sit up on the back of the camel. The Prophet told her to do the pilgrimage on her father's behalf. It could not have been expected that the woman's father could recover his strength, when he was too old and his illness had very much to do with old age.
In the case of your relative, he is quite healthy but he is worried about the heat. What he should do is to consult a doctor who is well familiar with the duties of pilgrimage and the conditions that are likely to prevail in June [or in any other month involved] in Saudi Arabia. If the doctor tells him that he could not bear the heat and that such an exposure is likely to make him ill or sap his strength in a way which makes it very difficult for him to regain it later, then you may do the pilgrimage on his behalf. If he is simply worried, he should try to determine the most comfortable way of offering the pilgrimage, trying to minimize his exposure to the sun. For example, he could ask someone to do the stoning on his behalf, or he can do it very close to sunset, or even after sunset. The Prophet made this concession to women as well as to weak and elderly men. When he is in Makkah, he can stay indoors during the day and go to the Haram at night. If he can possibly do the pilgrimage himself, he may not appoint someone to do it on his behalf.