Question Summary:
Hajj or conceiving a child?

Question Detail:

My wife and I were planning to go for Hajj next year. But next year we have another plan, which is to have children. My wife is insisting on that, and we cannot delay it any longer, because it has already been nearly two years since we got married. She is now very eager to have children and is worried that it may become more difficult to conceive as we get older. 
 To sum up: we can either focus on doing Hajj or focus on having children. I am trying to convince her to wait another year until we have done Hajj, because it is obligatory, but she thinks that having children is also an obligation, and that is something on which I agree with her, undoubtedly. Which of the two obligations should be given precedence?

Answer :

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
If a person has the financial means and ability to perform Hajj, Hajj becomes Fardh immediately.[i] If Haj becomes Fardh upon an individual and he delays in performing his fardh Hajj without a justifiable excuse in Shari’ah, he will be sinful. However if he performs Hajj later on, then the sin will fall away.[ii]
There are severe warnings for a person who does not perform Hajj after having the ability to do so. Consider the following hadith:
عن علي قال : قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم من ملك زادا وراحلة تبلغه إلى بيت الله ولم يحج فلا عليه أن يموت يهوديا أو نصرانيا
It has been narrated by Ali رضي الله عنه that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "Whoever has the provisions and the means to convey him to Allah's House and he does not perform Hajj, then it does not matter if he dies as a Jew or a Christian." [iii]
The obligation of performing Hajj can be understood from the fact that if one passes away after Hajj has become fardh on him and he delayed in performing Hajj, he has to make a wasiyyah(bequest) in his will to make qadhaa of his Hajj. [iv]
It is not permissible to delay Hajj with the hope and plan of having children.[v]
 
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Aboobakr Siddeeq bin Mufti Amjad Mohammad
Student Darul Iftaa 
Azaadville, JHB, South Africa 
Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.