بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The time for Hajj is upon the Horizon, with that regard, Shaikh Rabee’ bin Hady حفظه الله was asked about performing Hajj on behalf of someone and so he replied [paraphrased]:

“There is some difference [on some issues related to this affair]; there is one aspect the scholars agree upon and another aspect they differ on. They agree regarding the performance of Hajj on behalf of a relative, and that is due to the questions in the ahaadith related to the issue all being related to family members, some of them stating “my father died and did not make Hajj…”, others, “my mother died and did not make Hajj…”, and “my father is required to make the obligatory Hajj however he is old and weak…”. Similarly the hadith of Ibn ‘Abbas that the prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم  heard a man say “Labbayk for Shubruma”, so he صلى الله عليه و سلم asked, “Who is Shubruna?”, the man said, “A brother or relative of mine”. The prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم then asked, “Have you performed Hajj for yourself [before]?”, he said, “No”, so the prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم said, “Perform Hajj for yourself first then on behalf of Shubruma”.

Therefore some scholars restrict the affair to relatives only, i.e. only allowing for people to perform Hajj on behalf of relatives and they do not allow for people to pay someone the fees to perform it on their behalf if he is not a relative, [perhaps a random individual not even known to the actual person himself].”

[The other opinion of many of the scholars is clearly that it is permissible whether it is on behalf of a relative or otherwise, and that appears to be the opinion followed by many of the scholars]

The Shaikh then went onto say, “Hiring people to perform Hajj on your behalf has become a business for some, certain individuals may take money from several different  individuals and then perform one Hajj on behalf of all their names in one go! And I don’t know if they even [bother] to do it for any of them!” [Scolars have mentioned the impermissibility of this, like Shaikh bin Baz]

The Shaikh also mentioned, “Shaikh ul-Islam has a good opinion on this, if the one who takes money to go and perform Hajj on behalf of someone else genuinely has a desire to be with the muslims engaging in the rites of Hajj and obedience then it is good, and he will benefit himself and the one he performs the Hajj on behalf of. However if the intent is purely for the money and he does not care about the opportunity to go to make Hajj, then this is eating people’s wealth unlawfully”

[via Sahab]