Performing Hajj for deceased father

18/10/2009| IslamWeb

Question: My father died following illness. Unfortunately, he did not perform Hajj. Can I do Hajj and make that Hajj for him and then make another one for me? Please, advise me with the proper Hadith (s) that can answer my question.

Fatwa: 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.

The Muslim scholar have two different opinions concerning the person who has not performed his own obligatory Hajj; is it permitted for him to offer Hajj on behalf of another person or not?

1) It is permissible as reported from Imams Abu Hanifah and Malik . But, Imam Malik permitted doing so only on behalf of a dead person. However, it is likeable to perform his own obligatory Hajj first.

2) It is not permissible to perform Hajj on behalf of others if he has not performed his own obligatory Hajj. Even if he offers Hajj on behalf of someone else the Hajj becomes his own obligatory Hajj. This opinion is reported by Imams al-Shafi'e and Ahmad.

The second opinion is the preponderant one for the Hadith of Ibn Abbas that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) heard a man saying: 'Labbayk on behalf of Shubrumah. He asked: 'who is Shubrumah'? He replied: 'a brother or relative of mine'. He asked: 'Have you performed Hajj on your own behalf?' He said: No. Then, he said to him: 'perform Hajj on your own behalf, then perform it on behalf of Shubrumah". [Reported by Imams Abu Dawood and Ibn Majah ].

Therefore, dear brother, do not perform Hajj on behalf of your father till you perform your own Hajj.
Allah Knows best.