Is it permissible to take a fee for performing Hajj on behalf of another person?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah reward you. What is the ruling on taking a fee for someone who wants to perform Hajj on behalf of another person?
The Shaykh:
What is the ruling?
The questioner:
What is the ruling on taking a fee for someone who wants to perform Hajj on behalf of another person?
The Shaykh:
This is not called a fee, and it is not permissible to call it a fee. This is called expenses, because Hajj requires expenses. If he wants to perform Hajj on behalf of someone else for free, from his own money, may Allah reward him with good; that is better. And if he wants to take the expenses he spends on Hajj, there is no harm in that. As for making Hajj a trade, taking Hajj for the sake of trade with the intention of money, he has no Hajj. The one who intends money has no Hajj, because he made Hajj a means to money. This is unlike the one who performed Hajj and took money to help him with the Hajj; he made money a means to worship, and there is no harm in that.
Therefore, it is obligatory for the Muslim to be sincere to Allah in Hajj and other acts of worship, and not to make acts of worship a source of earning and trading in them. Indeed,[Hud 11:15-16] it is obligatory for the Muslim to be sincere to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and there is no harm if the representation in Hajj and other acts requires expenses that he takes what he spends, yes, because he made money a means to worship, yes.
May Allah reward you. What is the ruling on taking a fee for someone who wants to perform Hajj on behalf of another person?
The Shaykh:
What is the ruling?
The questioner:
What is the ruling on taking a fee for someone who wants to perform Hajj on behalf of another person?
The Shaykh:
This is not called a fee, and it is not permissible to call it a fee. This is called expenses, because Hajj requires expenses. If he wants to perform Hajj on behalf of someone else for free, from his own money, may Allah reward him with good; that is better. And if he wants to take the expenses he spends on Hajj, there is no harm in that. As for making Hajj a trade, taking Hajj for the sake of trade with the intention of money, he has no Hajj. The one who intends money has no Hajj, because he made Hajj a means to money. This is unlike the one who performed Hajj and took money to help him with the Hajj; he made money a means to worship, and there is no harm in that.
Therefore, it is obligatory for the Muslim to be sincere to Allah in Hajj and other acts of worship, and not to make acts of worship a source of earning and trading in them. Indeed,
(15) Whoever desires the life of this world and its adornments - We fully repay them for their deeds therein, and they therein will not be deprived. (16) Those are the ones for whom there is not in the Hereafter but the Fire. And lost is what they did therein, and worthless is what they used to do.
كَانَ يُرِيدُ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا وَزِينَتَهَا نُوَفِّ إِلَيْهِمْ أَعْمَالَهُمْ فِيهَا وَهُمْ فِيهَا لَا يُبْخَسُونَ أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ لَيْسَ لَهُمْ فِي الْآخِرَةِ إِلَّا النَّارُ وَحَبِطَ مَا صَنَعُوا فِيهَا وَبَاطِلٌ مَّا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [3436/1050] هل يجوز أخذ مقابل مادي للحج عن الغير؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.