Answer
Wa `alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
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:
Rajab is one of the four sacred months in all of which good deeds are generally recommended. However, there is no clearly authentic hadith stating a special virtue for doing Umrah in Rajab in particular.
In responding to your question about Umrah in Rajab, Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid, the prominent Saudi Islamic lecturer and author, states:
There is no report from Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) – as far as I know – to suggest that there is any particular virtue in performing Umrah in Rajab, or that it is encouraged.
Rather it is proven that there is a particular virtue in performing Umrah in the month of Ramadan, and in the months of Hajj, which are Shawwal, Dhul-Qidah and Dhul-Hijjah.
There is no report to prove that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) performed Umrah in Rajab, rather that was denied by `A’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her), who said, “Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) never performed Umrah in Rajab.” (Al-Bukhaari and Muslim)
Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his Fatawa (6/131),
“With regard to singling out some days of Rajab for any kinds of ziyarah (visiting holy places) etc., there is no basis for that in Shariah. Imam Abu Shamah stated in his book Al-Bida wal-Hawadith that performing acts of worship at specific times which were not prescribed by Islam is not right, because no time is better than any other, except times when it is prescribed to perform a certain kind of worship, or a time when all kinds of good deeds are better than at other times. Hence the scholars denounced the singling out of the month of Rajab for performing Umrah a great deal.”
But if a person goes for Umrah in Rajab without believing that there is any special virtue in that, but it just so happens that it is easy for him to travel at that time, there is nothing wrong with that.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.
Source: www.islamqa.info/en