Hajj Is One Of the Fundamentals Of Islam And A Basic Religious Obligation
There is a verse of the ‘Holy Quran’
“And pilgrimage to the house is a duty unto Allah for mankind, for him who can afford the journey thereunto. And whosever disbelieves (i.e. he does not come to the house despite his being able to do so) then (he does Harm only to himself) Allah stands not in need of any of his creatures.” (3 : 97)
To afford journey to that House (i.e. the Ka’ba) means that apart from one’s day-to-day necessities of life one has sufficient funds to meet all the expenses of journey to and from the house of Allah at Mecca as well as the Expenses during the period of one’s stay there. Moreover, one should be able to manage the Wajib (obligatory) maintenance of one’s dependants upto one’s return from the journey. There are severe warnings in the ‘Holy Quran’ and ‘Hadith’ for a man who does not perform the ‘Hajj’ Pilgrimage despite his being capable as mentioned above.