Pilgrimage: Inability to bear heat
of summer
Q433 :A relative who is in his sixties has asked me
to perform the pilgrimage on his behalf. Although he is quite healthy
and capable of looking after himself in every way, he feels unable to
bear the heat of the summer. He says that he gets weak and tired if he
is exposed to the sun for a long time. This makes him reluctant to come
for pilgrimage. Please advise.
A433 : Pilgrimage is a personal duty which is owed
to Allah by every human being. A personal duty must be performed by
every person. However, Allah has given a concession to those who are
very old or chronically ill to ask someone else to do the pilgrimage on
their behalf. The person who makes such a request must fulfill the
conditions of ability to undertake the journey, other than his illness,
including his accommodation and the fares for all necessary travel
undertaken in connection with the pilgrimage. He need not pay him any
wages for his undertaking. The person traveling to do the pilgrimage on
some-one else's behalf must have done the pilgrimage himself in order
to qualify for such a substitute pilgrimage. While illness is an
acceptable justification for asking someone to do the pilgrimage on
one's behalf, many scholars suggest that illness should be of a type
that is unlikely to be cured. The Prophet was asked by a woman how she
could help her father do the pilgrimage when he is too ill to sit up on
the back of the camel. The Prophet told her to do the pilgrimage on her
father's behalf. It could not have been expected that the woman's
father could recover his strength, when he was too old and his illness
had very much to do with old age. In the case of your relative, he is
quite healthy but he is worried about the heat. What he should do is to
consult a doctor who is well familiar with the duties of pilgrimage and
the conditions that are likely to prevail in June [or in any other
month involved] in Saudi Arabia. If the doctor tells him that he could
not bear the heat and that such an exposure is likely to make him ill
or sap his strength in a way which makes it very difficult for him to
regain it later, then you may do the pilgrimage on his behalf. If he is
simply worried, he should try to determine the most comfortable way of
offering the pilgrimage, trying to minimize his exposure to the sun.
For example, he could ask someone to do the stoning on his behalf, or
he can do it very close to sunset, or even after sunset. The Prophet
made this concession to women as well as to weak and elderly men. When
he is in Makkah, he can stay indoors during the day and go to the Haram
at night. If he can possibly do the pilgrimage himself, he may not
appoint someone to do it on his behalf.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News - Jeddah )