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 sunset?

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

The Shaykh : Please, take a rest. What I understand from the many hadiths that came as answers from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to various questions about bringing forward and delaying is that he (peace and blessings be upon him) would say: ; shave before you stone, he said . Did you hear the hadith of Usamah ibn Sharik just now, where he walked between al-Safa and al-Marwah before he circumambulated, and he said ? He repeated this phrase over and over again, until the narrator said that we thought he was not asked about anything being brought forward and delayed except that he said, "There is no harm." What I understand from his (peace be upon him) answer to these questions is not that Hajj becomes chaos with no order, where a person performs Hajj however he wishes and however it happens. No, the original principle is the Hajj of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in which he said what I mentioned of his (peace and blessings be upon him) words just now: . So the original 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 non-pregnant woman, and so on—these matters differ for individuals, and with that difference, the hardship differs. There may be a hardship for one person that does not exist for another. So the criterion and rule for the permissibility of bringing forward and delaying is observing the hardship. If there is hardship, such as what came in the question, to stone 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, did I not stone until I had reached the evening?" He said: .
So we must observe here the rule and what justifies or allows 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 allows or permits us to depart from this original principle is escaping from hardship. As for one who does not find hardship in himself, he must adhere to placing every rite in its place, executing the command of his Prophet: . And I want to bring this issue closer to you with another issue in which hardship is mentioned, which 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, which 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 Dhuhr 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, which is 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 burden his Ummah." So his (may Allah be pleased with him) statement 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 Dhuhr and 'Asr on one hand, and the Maghrib and 'Isha' on the other hand? His answer was: "He intended not to burden his Ummah." So the meaning of this combining is not, as some scholars have said, both ancient and modern, that it is permissible for the resident to combine the two prayers as a dispensation. No, not by this hadith. It could have been taken from the hadith if the question directed to Ibn Abbas and his answer had not been there. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) combined the Dhuhr 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 of dispensation, as is the case in the situation of travel. But Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) answered regarding the cause and said: "He intended not to burden his Ummah." At that time, the meaning or purpose of the Messenger's (peace and blessings be upon him) combining, while he was resident, was to open the way for one who is resident and finds in a certain circumstance hardship in maintaining each of the prayers in its time. So at that time, to escape from hardship, 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 hardship, it is permissible to take a dispensation in combining the two prayers. Likewise, where there is hardship in the rites of Hajj, it is permissible to bring forward and delay. As for making the matter chaos, where the rites of Hajj revert according to desires, and the order is thereby disrupted: ; this is not permissible to be inferred from the answer of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to those various questions with his saying: ; because the meaning of that is that what you did was only to remove hardship, ?and .

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: I mentioned just now in the hadith; a questioner said: "Did I not stone until I had reached the evening?" He said: . So I say: It is permissible to delay the stoning for one who finds hardship in maintaining the time of stoning. It is not absolutely permissible, otherwise the issue might be reversed. For example, the crowd is after the sun rises on the Day of Sacrifice, so if all the people say, "We are delaying until the evening," then the time of stoning would become the evening. No, it is obligatory to maintain this time. Then whoever finds hardship—and as we said just now, this varies from person to person—he is the one who delays. He may delay until after Dhuhr, he may delay until after 'Asr, he may delay until after Maghrib. "Did I not stone until I had reached the evening?" He said: . The important thing is that the rule for taking a dispensation in bringing forward and delaying is observing the removal of hardship 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.