RNA – Speaking at the Holy Shrine of Lady Fatimah al-Ma’sumah in Qom, Hujjat al-Islam Sayyed Ja’far Rabbani, a teacher in the Islamic Seminary of Qom, said that the Hajj pilgrimage to the city of Makkah involves special rituals and worship which the jurists have explained in their books and said, “That which is performed during the Hajj is worship, that is to say, it should be done with the intention of attaining God’s grace and all of the actions performed during the Hajj don’t have require ablution and only the circumambulation [of the Ka’bah] and the daily prayers require ablution.”
The teacher in the Islamic Seminary of Qom added, “The Hajj is an urgent obligation, that is, in the first year when a human being is financially capable and is able to provide the means to carry out the Hajj, he should perform the Hajj, or he should perform the pilgrimage as soon as possible.”
He continued, “The conditions for performing the Hajj is ability and the Hajj requires ability. Ability means ‘physical and financial ability and personal safety,’ and if these three possibilities were provided to man, he would mean that he has the ability and therefore, he must perform Hajj.”
Hujjat al-Islam Rabbani continued, “If a person has registered for Hajj and dies and hasn’t been negligent and he had registered as soon as it was possible for him, the Hajj wasn’t obligatory upon him and the money he would have spent on the Hajj belongs to his heir and should not be spent on the Hajj unless all the other heirs agree.”
He added, “If this person had the ability but delayed performing his duty and didn’t perform the Hajj, then Hajj is obligatory on him and he must use his property to hire a representative to perform Hajj on his behalf.”
The Iranian cleric pointed out that unfortunately, these days in society, it’s sad to say that instead of going to Hajj, many pay the Hajj money to the needy and poor and don’t perform the pilgrimage and added, “Hajj, like the daily prayers is obligatory and it’s an urgent imperative. Therefore, if someone is able and refuses to go to Hajj, at the time of death he will be told that he must either be a Jew or a Christian and he must be careful that helping the needy has its place and that he cannot give assistance to the needy and abandon the performance of an obligatory duty like the Hajj.”
“If someone sells his Hajj ticket for this same reason and helps the poor, he must know that the Hajj is on his hands and must perform it. There is no duty which can take the place of the Hajj,” he stressed.
Hujjat al-Islam Rabbani noted, “The Hajj is the place where the Shi’ahs can declare their truth and nature to others and with the presence of the Shi’ahs in the Hajj, the plots and doubts spread by the Wahhabis that Shi’ahs are polytheists can be put under question and the nature and legitimacy of Shi’ism can be revealed to the people of the world. This is the best way to deal with the Wahhabi and Takfiri phenomena.”
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