Is the husband’s permission necessary for his wife to travel in order to perform the Hajj?

Mutual understanding, agreement, love, and mercy should be the foundations of a Muslim household. The husband and the wife should always be pleased with each other. This is the ideal to which we wish all Muslim households would adhere.

Women are responsible just like men. The Prophet said, “There is no obedience to a created being that involves disobedience to the Creator.” Neglecting to perform the Hajj when one is able, is to neglect one of the pillars of the religion. It is not permissible for her husband to order her not to go on Hajj and it is sinful for him to do so. If he does, she should not obey him and if she goes on Hajj in disobedience to him she would not be committing a sin.

To begin with a woman does not need her husband’s permission to worship her Lord. If she is going to fast in Ramadan she can do so without her husband’s permission, similarly if she wants to pray, make Hajj, or pay zakat. Her husband is not an overseer of her relationship with her Lord.
Even if she wanted to make the lesser pilgrimage, which is mandatory according to the Shafi’is and the Hanbalis, her husband’s refusal would not prevent her. But we advise that this is better done by means of mutual understanding and agreement or else marital life would be about hardship, strife, and conflict.

Ibn Qudamah confirms this ruling when he says, “The entirety of it is that if a women gets into the ihram for an obligatory Hajj or umrah, which is the Hajj or umrah of Islam or one based on an oath, then her husband cannot prevent her from carrying it out, and he cannot take her out of ihram in the opinion of most of the people of knowledge including Ahmad, al-Nakha’i, Ishaq, the people of reason, and al-Shafi’i in the most correct of his two opinions.”

Based on this, the husband’s discontent and his refusal to give permission has no effect on his wife’s Hajj and does not impose anything upon her. But it is better for their lives to be based on mutual contentment and agreement, as we mentioned.

And God is Most High and Knows Best.