Islamic Fiqh > Hajj and umra > Children's and incapable persons' hajj
The child's and incapable adult's pilgrimage: validity, reward credited to parents, and the obligation's status at majority.
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Updated on 06 October 2026 at 10:50 PM
The insane man is not imposed the hajj, not being in a state of worship: if he performs it, it is not valid; healed and recovered in reason, the obligatory hajj falls upon him. 'Ali reports that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "The pen is lifted from 3: the sleeper till he wakes, the child till he matures, the insane till he comes to reason" (Abu Dawud 4399, Ibn Khuzayma, sahih hadith).
No hajj is imposed upon the child, the charge not targeting him. If he performs it: his hajj is valid and counts as voluntary with the majority (Malik, al-Shafi'i, Ahmad, Dawud and most of the scholars of the early and the later), and Ibn al-Mundhir signals the agreement on this validity. The proof: a woman lifted a child and said: "O messenger of Allah, does this child perform hajj? He said: "Yes, and you will have the reward" (Muslim 1336).
And al-Sa'ib ibn Yazid said: "The messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) performed hajj with me when I was 7 years old" (reported by al-Bukhari).
Abu Hanifa, in his famous view, judges it invalid, measuring the child against the vow and the worships lifted from children; Ibn Hubayra explains the others' meaning: "valid" means recorded in his favour, not upon his charge, and
Abu Hanifa himself aimed at the ihram's expiations, out of kindness to the child.
The child grown to adulthood owes his own obligatory hajj by the Muslims' agreement, upon the hadith: "If the child performs hajj, it counts for him till his reason; having reached his reason, another hajj falls upon him" (Abu Dawud 4399, Ibn Khuzayma, sahih hadith). an-Nawawi and Ibn al-Mundhir report the agreement: the hajj of the child or the insane never replaces the obligatory hajj, and the child's faults remain attached to him. Ibn Hubayra adds the wisdom: he performed what was not imposed on him, so it does not suffice for the obligatory that comes.
Taking the child to hajj is an educational sunna whose reward returns to the parent; the obligation counts only after puberty, the day one tells the young man that the hajj opening to him is the one that engages his responsibility.