What is the ruling on one who delays the stoning from the tawaf of Ifadah after the tawaf because of the crowd? And is it permissible to delay the stoning until 'Asr or the setting of the sun?

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good, regarding the crowd of people.

The Shaykh : ...regarding?

The questioner : Regarding the crowd resulting from the large number of Muslims - if Allah wills -; is it permissible for us to bring forward the tawaf - the tawaf of Ifadah - before the stoning? And is it permissible for us to delay the stoning until sunset, for example, or 'Asr? May Allah bless you and reward you with good?

The Shaykh : Please, take a seat and rest.
What I understand from the many hadiths that came as answers from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to various questions regarding bringing forward and delaying; where he (peace and blessings be upon him) would say: , and when he shaved before he stoned, he said: , and did you hear the hadith of Usamah ibn Shariq just now, that he walked between al-Safa and al-Marwah before he circumambulated, and he said: , he repeated this word over and over again, until the narrator said: We thought that he was not asked about anything that was brought forward or delayed except that he said: . What I understand from his (peace be upon him) answer to these questions is not that Hajj becomes chaos with no system, so that a person performs Hajj however he wishes and however it happens. No, the original principle in that is the Hajj of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in which he said what I mentioned of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) just now: . So the principle is that we arrange the rites as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did. But if the pilgrim feels - and this varies from person to person, from a young man to a middle-aged man to an old man, from a man to a woman, from a sick man to a healthy man, from a pregnant woman to a pregnant woman, and so on - these matters vary for individuals, and with that variation, the difficulty varies. There may be some difficulty for a certain person that does not exist for another. So the criterion and rule for the permissibility of bringing forward and delaying is observing the difficulty. If there is difficulty in what came in the question, such as stoning at the prescribed time after the sun rises, as came in the previously mentioned hadith of Ibn Abbas, but he is a very old man or a sick, ill man who fears for himself the crowd; then he may delay, as came in some of those hadiths from the sayingThe questioner : "O Messenger of Allah, I did not stone except that I was in the evening?" He said: .
So we must observe here the rule and what justifies or permits us to depart from it to take a dispensation. The rule is that we perform every rite of the rites of Hajj in accordance with the manner of the Hajj of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). What permits us to depart from this principle is escaping from difficulty. As for one who does not find difficulty in himself; it is obligatory for him to adhere to placing every rite in its place, implementing the command of his Prophet: .
And I want to bring this issue closer to you with another issue in which difficulty is mentioned, and it relates to prayer. This is from one aspect, and from another aspect, some people do not pay attention to this point I mentioned regarding Hajj; for it also relates to prayer. I mean the hadith of Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), and the hadith is in "Sahih Muslim": "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) combined the Zuhr and 'Asr prayers, and the Maghrib and 'Isha' prayers, in Madinah, without travel or rain." And in a narration: "fear." They said - and here is the point - "What did he intend by that, O Abu al-Abbas?" - the kunya of Abdullah ibn Abbas, Abu al-Abbas - "What did the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) intend by that, O Abu al-Abbas?" He said: "He intended not to cause difficulty for his Ummah." So his saying (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) intended by combining the two prayers in Madinah without the presence of the condition for combining, which is travel, or rain, or fear. None of these causes was present. So the question came: Why did the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) combine in Madinah, while resident, the Zuhr and 'Asr on one hand, and the Maghrib and 'Isha' on the other? His answer was: "He intended not to cause difficulty for his Ummah."
So the meaning of this combining is not, as some scholars have said, both old and new, that it is permissible for the resident to combine the two prayers as a dispensation. No, that is not in the hadith. It could have been taken from the hadith if the question directed to Ibn Abbas and his answer had not been: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) combined the Zuhr and 'Asr, and the Maghrib and 'Isha' in Madinah." If the hadith had been like that, it could have been considered evidence for the permissibility of combining without any cause, a dispensation as is the case in travel. But Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) answered regarding the cause and said: "He intended not to cause difficulty for his Ummah." At that time, the meaning or the goal of the combining of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) - this combining while he was resident - was to open the way for one who is resident and finds in a certain circumstance difficulty in maintaining each of the prayers in its time. So at that time - to escape from difficulty - it is permissible for him to combine the two prayers; because among the rules of the Shari'ah is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic), as He said: . So where there is difficulty, the dispensation in combining the two prayers is permissible. Likewise, where there is difficulty in the rites of Hajj, bringing forward and delaying is permissible. As for making the matter chaos, so that the rites of Hajj return according to desires, and the system is thereby disrupted: ; this is not permissible to be inferred from the answer of the Messenger (peace be upon him) to those various questions with his saying: , because the meaning of that is that what you did was only to remove difficulty, and .

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No, I did not mention just now in the hadith, a questioner said: "I did not stone except that I was in the evening?" He said: . So I say: It is permissible to delay the stoning for one who finds difficulty in maintaining the time of stoning. It is not permissible absolutely, otherwise the issue may be reversed. For example, the crowd is after the sun rises on the Day of Sacrifice, so if all people say we are delaying to the evening; then the time of stoning becomes the evening!
No, it is obligatory to maintain this time. Then one who finds difficulty - and this, as we said just now, varies from person to person - is the one who delays. He may delay to after Zuhr, he may delay to after 'Asr, he may delay to after Maghrib. "I did not stone except that I was in the evening." He said: .
The important thing is that the rule for the dispensation in bringing forward and delaying is observing the removal of difficulty from the pilgrim. As for the rule, it is to follow him (peace and blessings be upon him), and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good, O Shaykh.