Pilgrimage: Fulfillment of duty &
reward are two separate things
Q430 :In my last pilgrimage, I met a person who came
from Asia to perform the pilgrimage, sponsored by a non-Muslim film
actor. How far is this acceptable from the Islamic point of
view?
A430 : We have a couple of points to consider it.
The first is that if a person earns his money in an illegitimate way,
such as accepting bribes or selling forbidden things like wines, drugs,
etc., and he offers the pilgrimage, using for his expenses money that
he has earned in this way, his pilgrimage is not accepted and he
receives no reward for it, but he is deemed to have fulfilled his duty.
The two things are separate, because pilgrimage is a personal and
financial duty. Since, he has gone to pilgrimage in person and
fulfilled its duties, he has discharged that requirement, but because
his money is foul, he receives no reward for his pilgrimage. From
another point of view, if a person is invited by another to offer the
pilgrimage at the latter’s expense, he may accept that invitation. He
will be rewarded for his pilgrimage and his duty will be deemed to have
been discharged. However, he is under no obligation to accept that
invitation. If he declines it, he does no wrong. It is permissible for
a Muslim to accept a gift from a non-Muslim, as long as he is certain
that the non-Muslim does not have any ulterior motives which may be
detrimental to Islam. Such a gift is considered a legitimately earned
money. If one uses it for his expenses in pilgrimage, he does no wrong.
In the light of the foregoing, when this man has done the pilgrimage at
the expenses of the actor, his pilgrimage duty is fulfilled. He
certainly need not have accepted that gift. Whether he should have
declined it or not is something else. He should have asked himself why
the actor is offering such a sponsorship? Definitely not as a service
to Islam, because he is a non-Muslim. Most probably, the actor is after
increasing his own popularity and to win favor with Muslims. He may
also want to give his own people an image of tolerance. In the
circumstances, I would say that Muslims should not help such people
achieve their purposes. That man should have declined to do his
pilgrimage at the expense of a non-Muslim actor.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )