The Ruling on Emergency Leave for Traveling to Perform 'Umrah

The questioner : A questioner says, and these are actually many questions regarding the topic of emergency leave for one who wants to perform 'Umrah or something else? He requests a detailed explanation, and I say, O Shaykh, questions about this topic have become numerous.

The Shaykh : In any case, the word "emergency" means that there must be a dire necessity, and 'Umrah is not a dire necessity. 'Umrah is not a dire necessity at all, even if it were an individual obligation and the person is an employee, it is not obligatory for him because he is occupied with his job, so how can it be when it is voluntary?
Likewise, regarding the imams of the mosques, those who go to perform 'Umrah and leave their mosques, they are in reality like the one who builds a palace and demolishes a fortress. They go to do voluntary acts and leave the obligatory ones, and this is due to a lack of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). They have a desire for good, without a doubt, and nothing drove them to this except the desire for good, but they have a deficiency in fiqh; they do not know and do not distinguish between matters, because remaining in their work, in which they perform an obligation, is better than their going to perform 'Umrah, because remaining in work is from the category of obligations, and it is established in the authentic hadith that Allah said: .
So, if we take the meaning of the word "emergency leave," it means that it is not permissible except in the case of dire necessity, such as a sick person or a person who wants to accompany a sick person who has no one to care for him except him, or something similar to that. This is in addition to what we have seen in the letter issued by the Ministry of Service, stating that traveling for 'Umrah or i'tikaf (spiritual retreat) in the mosques and leaving the obligation on the employee is not permitted explicitly. That is, they explicitly mentioned 'Umrah because people became preoccupied with it, and they explicitly mentioned i'tikaf because i'tikaf became common among some employees who enter i'tikaf from the first ten days before the leave begins and leave their work. The Ministry of Service explicitly stated that this is prohibited and is not considered a dire necessity. Yes.