I am an elderly woman; I have no mahram available to go with me. Can I perform Umrah or Hajj without a mahram, in a women's group or under the supervision of an Umrah company? The Saudi government has now permitted a woman to perform Umrah and Hajj without a mahram, so has this journey now become permissible?

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “No woman should travel without a mahram, and no man should enter upon a woman unless her mahram is with her.” A man said: O Messenger of Allah! I wish to go out with such-and-such an army, and my wife wants to perform Hajj. He ﷺ said: “Go and perform Hajj with her” (Sahih al-Bukhari: 1862; Sahih Muslim: 1341). Consider: here the purpose was a great act of worship like Hajj, and the duty of jihad was also before him, yet he ﷺ did not permit sending the woman alone; rather, he ordered the husband to go with her. Likewise, he said: “It is not lawful for a woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day to travel the distance of a day and a night without a mahram” (Sahih Muslim: 1339).

A change in a country's visa and administrative law does not change the Shariah ruling. The Saudi government's permission is an administrative facility; it does not abrogate this hadith. The Shariah ruling is that which is established by the Book and the Sunnah, and it is this: a woman cannot travel — even if it be for Hajj and Umrah — without a mahram. A women's group or a company's supervision is not a substitute for a mahram: a mahram is that relative with whom marriage is permanently forbidden (father, son, brother, etc.); company in which unrelated men are present does not fulfil this condition.

This issue has been disputed since ancient times. The view attributed to Imam Malik and Imam Shafi'i, may Allah have mercy on them, is that for the obligatory Hajj a woman may go with trustworthy companions (rifqah ma'munah), and they take the Hajj of the Mothers of the Believers, may Allah be pleased with them, as evidence — although in the narration of Sahih al-Bukhari (1860) there are also explicit statements of their mahrams being with them. Whereas the view of the Hanafis, the Hanbalis and the Ahl al-Hadith is precisely that a mahram is a condition, and the fatwa of Al-Lajnah Ad-Da'imah is also this: that Hajj is not even obligatory upon a woman who has no mahram, because the presence of a mahram is part of capability (istita'ah), and Allah Almighty has made Hajj obligatory only upon one who possesses capability (Surah Aal-e-Imran: 97). Moreover, even the proponents of the group view do not permit travel without a mahram for a voluntary Hajj and Umrah — so Umrah, which is a voluntary journey, is excluded from this concession as well.

The preponderant view is precisely that a woman should not set out on the journey of Hajj or Umrah without a mahram — whether there is a group or a company's supervision. The questioner should remain content: if a mahram is not available, Hajj is not obligatory upon you at all, and there is no sin in postponing Umrah; Allah certainly gives the reward of the intention. The effort should be that some mahram (son, brother, nephew, etc.) goes along, or that the journey is arranged with a married daughter and son-in-law (a son-in-law is a mahram). If a woman has already gone despite this ruling, then by the performance of the rites of Hajj, the Hajj becomes valid; however, the sin of the disobedience of undertaking the journey remains separately, for which repentance is obligatory — but this case cannot become an evidence for the future.

A Maqasid-based caution: The condition of a mahram is not an obstacle in a woman's worship; it is the fortress of her honour and protection; the Shariah has made protection from the trials of travel a part of the completion of worship. Whoever abandons this protective enclosure has taken a step against the purpose of the Shariah — despite the outward facility.

Translated from the original Urdu fatwa.