Did not spend the night in Mina during the Days of Tashreeq
14-5-2013 | IslamWeb
Question:
I performed Hajj this year with the pilgrims coming from KSA. Our residence was in Al-‘Azeeziyyah region, Makkah. We could not spend the night in Mina during the Days of Tashreeq because we did not find an appropriate accommodation there. I was accompanied by my wife and my children, the oldest of whom was under the age of ten. What is the ruling on that? Is there any sort of expiation? Would it be due on my children as well?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
Spending the night in Mina during the days of At-Tashreeq is obligatory according to the sound opinion of scholars, and the pilgrim who could not find a place in Mina due to its overcrowding should find himself a place to stay therein after the tents region. By doing so, he is liable to nothing since he did his best. Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen 
said:
It is obligatory for the pilgrim to look for a place in Mina before he decides to stay in Muzdalifah. If he cannot find a place (in Mina) then he may go to Muzdalifah and stay there. He does not have to go to Mina and spend most of the night driving around, or looking for a spot on the roadside among the vehicles, because that may put him in danger. We say: If you cannot find a place in Mina, then stay in Muzdalifah, where the tents end, and you do not have to do anything so long as you looked for a place but did not find any, because Allaah Does not Charge a soul except with that within its capacity.
He also added:
There is no harm that the pilgrim stays outside Mina on condition that his lodge is connected with the lodges of the pilgrims. Allaah The Almighty Says (what means):
· {So fear Allaah as much as you are able.} [Quran 64:16]
· {He Has not Placed upon you in the religion any difficulty.} [Quran 22:78]
· {Allaah Intends for you ease and Does not Intend for you hardship.} [Quran 2:185]
His lodge should be connected with the lodges of the pilgrims, exactly as in the congregational prayer, when the Masjid is full of people with no space therein for other people, in which people create rows where the rows end and all of them take the reward of performing prayer inside the Masjid.
It seems that you neglected the ritual of spending the night in Mina since you said, “we could not find an appropriate accommodation there.” This implies that you could spend the night there with a sort of hardship and difficulty which are inherent part of the rituals. The pilgrim should train himself in bearing such difficulties and hardships. Moreover, you did not lodge where the tents end. Thus, you ignored spending the night in Mina all the nights without a valid excuse, hence, each of you is required to slaughter a sacrificial animal according to the majority of scholars who considered spending the night in Mina obligatory. Ibn ‘Abbaas 
said, “Whoever left or forgot a ritual of his Hajj is required to slaughter an animal.”
An animal is to be slaughtered for each one of your children from your money because you are the one who caused them to ignore this obligation. Nevertheless, if you had a valid excuse for ignoring spending the night in Mina, there would be no sort of compensation on you or those in your company as previously mentioned.
Allaah Knows best.