We know that the pilgrimage is a duty of all Muslims, provided that they are able to undertake the journey. An important question, therefore, is to know when the duty becomes due so that we can take the necessary steps to fulfill it.
In order for the pilgrimage to become due, a person must be sane and must have attained puberty. Moreover, he must be able to afford and undertake it. This means that an insane person is not required to do the pilgrimage, nor is it acceptable from him. A child below the age of puberty may do the pilgrimage, and his parents or guardian who take him on pilgrimage will also be rewarded for that pilgrimage, but the pilgrimage in his case is not a duty. Therefore, when that child attains puberty and the pilgrimage becomes a duty applicable to him or her, they are not considered to have fulfilled it because they were under age at the time when they did the pilgrimage. This is the same like offering Dhuhr prayer before it is due. It would not count as an obligatory prayer, but as a voluntary one. When Dhuhr falls due, the person concerned is required to offer it then.
The ability, according to scholars, is both physical and financial. In the early generations of Islam, scholars used to speak of food and transport and the ability to provide for oneself during the journey. Nowadays, there are other expenses involved in undertaking the journey to do the pilgrimage. Therefore, with food we must include what a pilgrim reasonably needs during his stay in the pilgrimage until he returns home, such as a reasonable accommodation and any fees he may have to pay on his journey, as in the case of pilgrims who must travel through one or more countries and have to pay fees for their visas. While in the past transport meant a camel, owned or leased, today we may speak of fares of a plane or a boat.
It is a condition of financial ability that the prospective pilgrim should have enough to cover all this in excess of what he and his dependents may need of accommodation, food, etc. If he has incurred some debts, whether to other people or to God, as in the case when he may not have paid a portion of the zakah due from him, the money he needs for his journey should also be in excess of the money required to cover his debts, or he should first settle his debts.
If a person does not own enough to cover his expenses during his pilgrimage, but someone else, say a friend or a relative, or any other person or a company, offers to pay his expenses, it is not obligatory for him to accept the offer. If we were to say that he must accept, then the pilgrimage becomes due from him. It is not the case, because the financial ability must be his own. Nevertheless, if he accepts and performs the pilgrimage, his action is valid and he is considered to have fulfilled his duty.
It is important to point out that Islam takes everything into consideration. In some cases, accepting such an offer may put the person concerned in a position of moral indebtedness to the one who has offered him that. What Islam is telling him is that if he declines that offer, he incurs no sin and he has not failed to fulfill his duty. This applies even to a woman whose husband offers to take her on pilgrimage. She does not have to accept his offer. If she declines, she commits no sin. She is not even negligent of her duty. Indeed, she may have a very good reason for declining the offer.
It may be asked whether a person should change his lifestyle if such a change will enable him to meet the expenses of pilgrimage. There can be no rigid rule in this regard. Let us take the case of a married couple who have no children and are unlikely to have any, but the man has a big house or a villa in which he lives with his wife, yet does not have much money of his own. If this man were to sell his house and buy a smaller but perfectly adequate one, he will have the required money. In this case, he should sell it and offer the pilgrimage. On the other hand, if the owner of such a house needs it for the accommodation of his family, or to use its rent for maintaining his dependents, he need not sell it. If he has some articles that are in excess of his needs, he should sell them to meet the expenses of his pilgrimage. On the other hand, a person is not required to reduce the level of his stock in his business if that will mean a decrease in his regular income. If he has tools which he needs for his work, he need not sell them, but if he does not particularly need them, then he should sell them and use the proceeds of such sale to cover the expenses of his pilgrimage.
Debt is another point of consideration. The normal situation is that a debtor need not offer the pilgrimage until he has settled his debts. However, if he has bought a car on installments and his regular income makes him perfectly able to pay each installment on time until he clears the debt, and yet he has enough money to meet the pilgrimage expenses, he should do the pilgrimage. A clearer example is that of a person who has bought his house on mortgage. He is perfectly able to pay the monthly installments, and has enough money to pay for his pilgrimage, he must not wait until he has settled the mortgage. He should offer the pilgrimage now that he has the means to do so.
If a person is financially well off and can easily afford to pay for his pilgrimage, but has some physical disability, or illness that is unlikely to be cured, the pilgrimage duty applies to him, but he is not required to do it in person. He must engage someone to undertake the journey and perform the pilgrimage on his behalf, paying all his expenses, including obtaining the necessary visas and paying any fees incurred to have a passport, etc. The person so hired must have already offered his own obligatory pilgrimage and must declare at the point of entering into the state of consecration that his pilgrimage is on behalf of the person who hired him. He should not charge any fee for doing this substitute pilgrimage. However, if he agrees with the person concerned a lump sum to cover all his expenses, and he manages to spend less than the sum paid to him, he can keep for himself whatever is in excess of his actual expenditure.
When a person finds himself in a position where he meets the ability conditions to offer the pilgrimage, is he required to do it immediately or can he wait for a couple of years or more before doing it? Scholars differ on this point, with some schools of thought maintaining that the duty becomes binding now. Others say a delay is acceptable. Perhaps the view that it should be done immediately enjoys stronger validity. To start with, if he puts it off till next year, he cannot tell whether he will be alive or fit enough next year. If he dies, someone else will need to do it on his behalf. He would have missed a highly gratifying experience. On the other hand, he cannot tell that his means will continue to enable him to undertake the pilgrimage in future years. Therefore, doing it now, at the first occasion, is far better.