aaa

What Is the Ruling on Making Umrah While in Debt?

24 November, 2019
Q Can I make Umrah while in bebt?

Answer

Dr. Jasser Auda
24 November, 2019

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. 

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

In this fatwa:

If the person’s circumstances confirm that he or she is able to accumulate the amount by which he can pay the debt, he can make Umrah before paying back the debt.

Answering your question, Dr. Jasser Auda, Professor and Al-Shatibi Chair of Maqasid Studies at the International Peace College South Africa, states:

 Making Umrah while in debt is a matter of priorities. And it is a matter of personal circumstances.

Paying back the debt is an obligation. And making Umrah is a recommendation and an optional deed.

It is more important in Islam to pay back the loan because this is an obligation vs. making the Umrah which is a recommendation.

However, if the person’s circumstances confirm that he or she is able to accumulate the amount by which he can pay the debt, he can make Umrah before paying back the debt.

Also, if the person who gave the loan is lenient with the loan and is not pushing for the loan to be paid back, then one can make Umrah before paying back the debt.

So, there is no single rule for the issue of making Umrah while in debt. But if the person is not capable of making Umrah and paying back the debt at the same time, then he/she has to make a choice to pay back the loan first as it is an obligation.

This is the requirement and Allah the Almighty will provide him or her with His bounties so that he/she can make Umrah later.

Almighty Allah knows best.

Umrah while in debt umrah in installments conditions of umrha essentials of umrah
About Dr. Jasser Auda
Jasser Auda is a Professor and Al-Shatibi Chair of Maqasid Studies at the International Peace College South Africa, the Executive Director of the Maqasid Institute, a global think tank based in London, and a Visiting Professor of Islamic Law at Carleton University in Canada. He is a Founding and Board Member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, Fellow of the Islamic Fiqh Academy of India, and General Secretary of Yaqazat Feker, a popular youth organization in Egypt. He has a PhD in the philosophy of Islamic law from University of Wales in the UK, and a PhD in systems analysis from University of Waterloo in Canada. Early in his life, he memorized the Quran and studied Fiqh, Usul and Hadith in the halaqas of Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo. He previously worked as: Founding Director of the Maqasid Center in the Philosophy of Islamic Law in London; Founding Deputy Director of the Center for Islamic Ethics in Doha; professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada, Alexandria University in Egypt, Islamic University of Novi Pazar in Sanjaq, Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, and the American University of Sharjah. He lectured and trained on Islam, its law, spirituality and ethics in dozens of other universities and organizations around the world. He wrote 25 books in Arabic and English, some of which were translated to 25 languages.