Duty of the Hajj: immediate or deferrable

Jurists differ about the time at which the hajj becomes obligatory for one who is able: is it immediate, or may it be postponed? Muhammad Rashid Rida reports both views, and notes that the proponents of the first view relied on reports, which the hadith scholars weakened. ¹

Rida notes that the verse is in the form of a command, and that Muhammad Abduh held that the obligation is first directed to this act, and that God has shown mercy to whoever cannot find a way to it. Rida mentions elsewhere that this form occurs in the context of magnifying the House. ²

Rida reports that the scholars differed on the meaning of ability (istita'a). It was said to be physical health and the capacity to walk, and it was said to be the capacity for provision and a mount. They required safety of the road, but did not require it in the land of the Haram, because it was safe. Rida holds that safety within the Haram was no longer guaranteed to everyone in his time, especially those accused of politics. He notes that ability differs according to people and their distance from the House. ²

Rida reports that many people of jurisprudence and transmitted reports said that the hajj is obligatory immediately, and they relied on reports from the Prophet ﷺ, from Ali and from Umar. Rida mentions reports about one who died without performing the hajj, that he dies as a Jew or a Christian, and that the best of its chains is what was related from Ali with a wording that mentions provision and a mount; al-Tirmidhi said it is gharib, with weakness in its chain. He notes that Ibn al-Jawzi counted some reports among the fabricated, and that al-'Uqayli and al-Daraqutni said nothing sound is established on the subject. Rida mentions a report from Umar, in Sa'id ibn Mansur, about one who has means and did not perform the hajj. ¹

Others say that the hajj is obligatory with latitude, without Rida naming them. Rida then presents the precaution of the able person not delaying the hajj without a valid excuse. This is Rida's own view. ¹

The jurisprudential books that attribute each view to its proponents have not yet been added, nor the evidence from books of hadith for the wording of the reports. The proponents of each view remain unnamed until a jurisprudential source is read.