Is Hajj obligatory for a person if money is given to him by another, and what is the position of the Hanbali school on this?

The Shaykh : Here is a question, or two questions: Sayyid Sabiq mentioned in *Fiqh al-Sunnah* that the Hanbalis said: "Hajj is not obligatory by the giving of another to him, and he does not become able to perform it thereby, whether the giver is a relative or a stranger." Is this ruling correct, and what are the evidences upon which the Hanbalis relied in this matter? I do not imagine, or I do not know of, the existence of evidence in this issue; rather, it is opinion and independent legal reasoning, like many of the issues of Islamic law. The phrase here carries two possible meanings. He said: "Hajj is not obligatory by the giving of another to him." If the intended meaning of "giving" is actually giving the money to the man who cannot perform Hajj, so that he is able to perform Hajj with it, then in that case he has become able to perform it. In that case, it is obligatory for him to perform Hajj and accept this giving, as long as it was presented to him. If the intended meaning of presenting the giving is making him the owner of it, there is no doubt in our view that this Hajj is obligatory upon him. However, if the intended meaning of "giving" is that money is given to someone other than this one who cannot perform Hajj, so that they perform Hajj on his behalf, then Hajj is not obligatory upon him in that case. Because in this scenario that you have posited, he will not perform Hajj himself, but rather another person will be made to perform Hajj on his behalf with money presented to that other person. If the money is presented directly to the one who does not own it so that he can perform Hajj, then he has become able to perform it, and the well-known verse covers him: . But if he does not own the money, and it is only said to him, "We will make a person perform Hajj on your behalf," then here no one performs Hajj on behalf of another, as we explained in a previous lesson. And in reality, I am surprised by this ruling from the perspective of attributing it only to the Hanbalis. I have not studied this issue, but the reason for my surprise is: It is established in the authentic Sunnah that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he performed the Hajj of Islam, the Farewell Pilgrimage, and returned from it, a woman came to him complaining about her husband to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Her name was Umm Talq. She said: "O Messenger of Allah, my husband has a camel belonging to so-and-so, and he refused to make me perform Hajj on it." Meaning: When he performed the obligatory Hajj with the Messenger of Allah, she said, "O Abu So-and-so, O Abu Talq, make me perform Hajj with you. Your camel So-and-so is extra to your camel." He said, "This is for our irrigation, meaning for the crops, drawing water, watering the palm trees, and the like." So she was complaining to the Messenger (peace be upon him) after he returned from Hajj. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) sent for Abu Talq and told him what his wife had claimed against him, and that you have a camel which is your irrigation camel. He said, "O Messenger of Allah, I prepared it in the cause of Allah." Then he (peace be upon him) said—and here is the point: أما إنك لو أحجَجْتَها عليه لَكانَ في سبيل الله But if you had made her perform Hajj on it, it would have been in the cause of Allah. So from here, Imam Ahmad, among all the imams who spoke on the interpretation of the saying of the Exalted regarding the recipients of zakah: إِنَّمَا الصَّدَقَاتُ لِلْفُقَرَاءِ Zakah expenditures are only for the poor[At-Tawbah 9:60], then He said at the end: وَفِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ for the cause of Allah[At-Tawbah 9:60]. The imams said: "In the cause of Allah" means jihad. Ahmad added to them and said: "And Hajj." That is, if a man has zakah on his wealth, say two or three thousand pounds today—for example—they make a person perform Hajj. They said to the poor man, "Here are three thousand pounds, go perform Hajj on your behalf," and the zakah obligation is dropped from him. While the other imams say: "In the cause of Allah" means jihad, meaning fighting, i.e., war. Imam Ahmad says war is Hajj. And the Messenger (peace be upon him) gave a very subtle indication in a hadith narrated by al-Bukhari from the hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), when the women asked him to go out to fight with him. He (peace be upon him) said: جهادكنَّ الحج والعمرة Your jihad is Hajj and 'Umrah; meaning: because Hajj is a type of jihad in the cause of Allah. So when Allah (Mighty and Majestic) mentioned at the end of the recipients of zakah His saying: وَفِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ for the cause of Allah[At-Tawbah 9:60], Imam Ahmad included in this recipient the giving of money to the poor man to perform Hajj, so that the zakah obligation is dropped from that money. He argued for this with the hadith of Abu Talq, when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Abu Talq: أما إنك لو أحجَجْتَها على جملك أو ناضحك لَكانَ في سبيل الله But if you had made her perform Hajj on your camel or your irrigation camel, it would have been in the cause of Allah; meaning in jihad. So Hajj is part of the jihad that falls under the meaning of "in the cause of Allah." Therefore, here it is reported from Sayyid Sabiq that he reported from the Hanbalis that "Hajj is not obligatory by the giving," and so on. How is this, as long as the poor man is given what enables him to perform Hajj, then Hajj becomes obligatory upon him? This is what we see in this issue.