Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu waRahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
It is not good to give Zakah to poor persons to perform hajj especially in today’s world conditions.
Answering your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
It is not good to give Zakah for this purpose especially in today’s world conditions.
Zakah is primarily intended for the poor and the needy, and its recipients are rather restricted.
The eligible recipients of zakah as described in the Quran are the following:
{The poor, and the needy, those who are employed to collect it, those whose hearts need to be reconciled, to free the slaves, those in debt, in the way of Allah, and the wayfarer.} (At-tawbah 9:60)
Hajj is obligatory only on those who have the physical and financial ability to perform it.
Since in today’s world millions suffering starvation, it is not desirable to give zakah by depriving them. Our priority should be to help them out.
If we face no such world calamity, and there is a surplus of funds in Zakah, then there is no objection to helping out someone to perform Hajj.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.