With the pilgrimage season approaching people begin to think and prepare for this important duty. Many expatriates entertain the noble thought of helping their parents who live back home to come over for this most blessed duty. They know that for their parents, doing the pilgrimage is a dream they have always cherished but many of them could not afford. Still, with what lingers in their minds of thoughts they might have casually heard about the pilgrimage, they wonder how they should accomplish this feat for their parents. I remember a reader asking me once how his parents’ pilgrimage would be affected if he pays their expenses. No doubt his question is prompted by what he might have heard of the need that a pilgrim should choose money that he had earned in the best permissible way to pay for his pilgrimage because God does not accept any act financed by ill-gained earnings.
This is true, but a son or a daughter paying for their parents is a legitimate way of receiving money. A gift that is not tied by any strings is perfectly lawful. A gift by one’s own child is even more so. Thus, the parents in this case will have a perfectly valid pilgrimage, and the only additional effect is to earn their son a rich reward from God. Their child will be helping them to earn forgiveness of all their past sins. Unquestionably they will be most pleased with their child’s action. Pleasing one’s parents is a goal to which every Muslim son and daughter should aspire. Needless to say, they will mention that child in their supplication, praying earnestly for his or her success and protection from evil. A sincere prayer by a parent who is pleased with his child is bound to be answered. Therefore, any expatriate who can arrange and pay for his parents’ pilgrimage should not hesitate to do so. It should be remembered that the reward of a well-performed pilgrimage is the forgiveness of one’s past sins. This reward remains undiminished even if the pilgrim does not have to spend a single riyal of his own money in performing the pilgrimage. However, expenses incurred in doing the pilgrimage earn an additional reward.
What if the person working in Saudi Arabia does not have sufficient funds to cover the expenses of his parents’ pilgrimage? Should he obtain a loan from his employers if this facility is available to him? Well, he is under no obligation to do so. If his parents are unable to pay for their own pilgrimage, then the duty is not applicable to them. If he does not have enough money to pay for their trip, he need not borrow that money. However, if the facility is available and he is willing to take it up, his parents’ pilgrimage remains perfectly valid. Suppose that his employers will simply deduct a portion of his salary every month in repayment of the loan and what remains of his salary will be sufficient for his own family’s living, this is perfectly acceptable arrangement.
Many people are confused about the question of being in debt and offering the pilgrimage. This confusion arises from scholars’ emphasis on the need to repay one’s debts before offering the pilgrimage. This is certainly an important point, because Islam is keen that everyone should have their dues, and none has to suffer as a result of someone else’s performance of a religious duty. God has made it clear that the duty of pilgrimage is binding only on those who are able to perform it. The condition of ability is paramount, and the ability mentioned here is both financial and physical. Yet a person who started work in Saudi Arabia only a few months back may be in debt. His presence in the country provides a strong motivation to do the pilgrimage. In his eagerness to do so, he thinks about postponing the repayment of his debts. We need to make it clear, therefore, that the repayment of his debts should take priority over performing the pilgrimage. God does not want us to be encumbered with debt in order to fulfill the duties He has imposed on us. Thus, in the case of our new arrival in the country, and his creditors back home who are awaiting the repayment of what they have advanced to him, the duty of pilgrimage is not applicable. He should repay his debts first.
Having said that, I should add that a pilgrimage financed with borrowed money remains valid. If a person goes ahead and offers the pilgrimage, delaying the repayment of his debts, his pilgrimage is valid and he receives, God willing, the reward He has promised to all pilgrims. Before undertaking the pilgrimage, however, such a person should speak to his creditors to find out whether they are willing to wait for the repayment of their dues. It may be that one or more of them are desperate to get their money back. In this case, the pilgrimage should wait and the repayment of debt takes paramount priority.
An important point that relates to the pilgrimage is the question of prayer in Makkah and Madinah and its reward. We find that pilgrims are keen to offer every prayer in the Grand Mosque in Makkah and in the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah. Many are also keen to stay eight days in Madinah, to offer 40 prayers.
The question here is one of reward. The Prophet (peace be upon him) has told us that we may undertake travel for the purpose of visiting only three mosques: The Sacred Mosque in Makkah, the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. In another Hadith he mentions that a prayer in Al-Aqsa Mosque is rewarded at 500 times its equivalent elsewhere, and a prayer in his mosque in Madinah earns the reward of 1000 prayers while a prayer at the Kaaba in Makkah earns its reward multiplied by 100,000. The Prophet said nothing about offering 40 consecutive prayers in his mosque. According to the above, offering more than 40 prayers there is better than offering only 40.
Some people wonder that since all Makkah is a Haram area, does the multiplied reward apply when one prays in other mosques around the city. When we look carefully at the Hadith, we realize that the Prophet was speaking of offering prayers and other acts of worship in his mosque and in the Sacred Mosque in Makkah. He was in no way referring to the Haram area that extends well beyond the city of Makkah. That area is drawn to indicate certain restrictions which must be observed either by the people in the state of consecration, i.e. ihraam, or by all people at all times. The greater reward granted for prayer in the Sacred Mosque in Makkah is meant only for that mosque, not for the whole city of Makkah or the whole Haram area. Otherwise, we would have had a similar area in Madinah to which the special reward for prayers would attach. There is no such demarcation. Hence, if anyone who is present in Makkah wants to earn the exceptionally high reward God grants for prayer in the Sacred Mosque, he must go there in order to get it. If he offers his prayers where he is staying, which may be close to the Haram, it will not count as a prayer in the Sacred Mosque. That is the proper and correct interpretation of the Hadith.