Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

My daughter,husband and i went for Haj this year .My daughter is not keeping good health but managed to do all the arkans up to Arafat and muzdalifa plus jamrah for two days after that she was spotting ,we could not delay our departure and did haj tawaf and safa marwa ,on her behalf

Iam feeling very guilty and wonder my husband and iI did wrong,because of her health we did the best we could and deep in my heart I dont think I have done any thing wrong.But this feeling of guilt is with me .

pls reply to me personally I dont wont to make this public .

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Missed some hajj rites

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Fiqh-us-Sunnah Fiqh 5.94b

There is consensus among the Muslim scholars that spending the Day at Arafah is the most important part of Hajj. Ahmad and the compilers of the Sunan have reported from Abdur Rahman bin Ya'mur that the Prophet (saws) ordered an announcer to proclaim "Hajj is (spending the day at) Arafah, so he who joins other pilgrims on the night of Muzdalifah before dawn, will be considered as having performed Hajj."

Sunan of Abu-Dawood Hadith 1944 Narrated by AbdurRahman Ya'mar ad-Dayli

I came to the Holy Prophet (saws) when he was in Arafat. Some people came from Najd. They commanded someone (to ask the Prophet (saws) about the Hajj). So he called on the Messenger of Allah (saws), saying: ‘How is the Hajj done?’ He (the Prophet(saws)) ordered a man (to reply). He shouted loudly: ‘The Hajj, the Hajj is on the day of Arafah. If anyone comes over there before the dawn prayer on the night of al-Muzdalifah, his Hajj will be complete. The period of halting at Mina is three days. Then whoever hastens (his departure) by two days, it is no sin for him, and whoever delays it there is no sin for him.’ The narrator said: He (the Prophet (saws)) then put a man behind him on the camel. He began to proclaim this loudly.

Dear and Beloved Sister, if your daughter was present on the plains of Arafah on the Day of Hajj, be rest assured that she will be recorded as having performed the Hajj in the sight of Allah Subhanah. If she has missed some obligatory rites of Hajj, Shariah has prescribed that she would have to perform atonement through the performance of ‘damm’ (sacrifice); and if for a valid reason she has missed some non-obligatory rites of Hajj, it is expected that she will find her Lord Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful.

Depending on the type of Hajj one has intended to perform {Rad (Hajj only), Tamattu '(Hajj and 'Umrah combined with a break in between), or Qiran (Hajj and 'Umrah without a break}, in principle the obligatory rites of the Hajj are:

The declaration of intention and the ‘ehram’ from the meeqat.

Spending the Day at Arafah

Throwing pebbles at Jamarah for 3 days

The Tawaaf of Hajj

The Sai of Hajj

The Staying at Mina for 2 or 3 days

The offering of sacrifice

The shaving or cutting of one’s hair

Assuming that you do not live in Saudi Arabia, it is most likely that you would have intended to perform the Hajj Tamattu, which basically means that as soon as you enter Makkah you perform the Umrah, then take off the ‘ehram’ and re-enter into the ‘ehram’ on the 8^th of Dhil-Hajjah to perform the Hajj. You have confirmed in your notes that all the rites upto Arafah, Muzdalifah, and the stoning of the Jamaraat for two days were performed by your daughter before ill-health forced her to abandon the rest.

We assume that someone performed the sacrifice on her behalf, someone threw the pebbles at the Jamaraat on her behalf on the 3^rd day, and she cut a little bit of her hair. If any of these obligatory rites were not performed, then she has to offer the atonement by offering a sacrifice for each of the rites missed.

If your daughter stayed a part of the day or night in Mina for the first two days immediately following the Day of Arafah, that is the 10^th and 11^th of Dhul-Hajjah, she would have fulfilled her obligation. But if due to ill-health, she was absolutely unable to attend the required two days at Mina, then she has to offer the atonement by offering a sacrifice for missing this obligatory rite of Hajj.

Thus what remains of the obligatory rites on her is the Tawaaf and the Sai between Safa-Marwa of Hajj, and these rites can neither be performed by someone else on her behalf, nor can an atonement of sacrifice be offered for missing these rites. These obligatory rites of Tawaaf and Sai of the Hajj would remain a debt upon your daughter until the next time she is blessed to visit the Sacred House of Allah Subhanah and performs these belated Tawaaf and Sai of Hajj at any other time of the year.

If your daughter is married, she cannot consummate with her husband until she comes back to the Sacred House and performs the belated Tawaaf and Sai of Hajj; and if your daughter is not married, she is permitted to perform the Nikaah but she cannot consummate with her husband until she performs the belated Tawaaf and Sai of Hajj.

Dear and Beloved Sister, our answer is based on the assumption that your daughter’s intention was to perform the Hajj Tamattu. If our assumption is inaccurate, and your daughter intended to perform Hajj Rad or Hajj Qiran, then the requirements of her atonement might alter slightly.

The performance and the completion of the Hajj rites is so important that the Messenger of Allah (saws) named it one amongst the five pillars of Islam. Thus if you have any further queries regarding the Hajj of your daughter, or need any clarification whatsoever in any of the laws or rites of Hajj, or in the performance of any of its atonements, etc. we strongly advice you as your brothers in faith and your sincere well-wishers in Islam that you either write back to us or take proper advice from a knowledgeable scholar in Islam.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your Brother in Islam,

Burhan