Advice Before Setting Out for Hajj:

Here are some counsels and benefits I place before our brothers who are going on pilgrimage:

First: The pilgrim must fear his Lord and, as far as he can, avoid everything Allah has forbidden. Allah the Exalted says, “The pilgrimage is in the well-known months; whoever undertakes the pilgrimage during them must abstain from sexual intimacy, sin, and argument during the pilgrimage” (Quran 2:197). The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever performs Hajj and refrains from sexual talk and from disobedience returns from his sins as the day his mother bore him.” If he does so, his Hajj will be accepted (mabrūr), and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ also said, “An accepted Hajj has no reward but Paradise.”1

Therefore we must caution against matters into which some pilgrims fall, whether through ignorance or misguidance:

a. Associating partners with Allah. We have seen many of them engage in polytheism, such as seeking relief from other than Allah, asking the dead—prophets or righteous people—for help, invoking them instead of Allah, or swearing oaths by them out of veneration. Such acts invalidate their pilgrimage, for Allah says, “If you associate others with Him, your deeds will surely be rendered void” (Quran 39:65).

b. Some adorn themselves by shaving the beard; this is disobedience involving four distinct violations that are explained in al-Asl.

c. Men wearing gold rings. This is unlawful, especially the type now called an “engagement ring,” for it also entails imitation of the Christians.

Second: Everyone who intends to perform Hajj and is not bringing a sacrificial animal2 must form the intention