All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Dear brother in Islam, we are really impressed by your question which shows how concerned you about the affairs of your fellow Muslims and your interest to abide by theShari`ah in all details of your life. May Allah help us all lead a righteous life based on Islam!

Also, you are to be commended for your keen desire to perform Hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam, which constitutes the peak and culmination of Islamic religious experience. We pray to Allah to make it easy for you; may you return home like a new born, fully cleansed and purified of your sins, ameen.

Hajj is obligatory once in a lifetime. If a person has the means to offer Hajj, he should carry it out as soon as possible. One is not advised to delay offering Hajj under any pretext, keeping in mind the fact that Hajj is one of the pillars of Islam. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Islam is built upon five pillars: testifying that there is no true god except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, performing Prayer, paying the Zakah, making the pilgrimage to the Sacred House (Hajj), and fasting the month of Ramadan” (Al-Bukhari).

Likewise, you have to bear in mind the fact that jihad is either an individual duty or a communal duty. Jihad becomes an individual duty on all Muslims in certain cases: 1) when Muslims who are legally responsible attend the battlefield; 2) if enemies attack the country where Muslims live, all of them, male and female, must confront them; and 3) if the Muslim ruler commands someone to fight, it will be incumbent upon him to obey the order.

Therefore, the Muslim should strike a balance between religious obligations. If jihad is an individual duty, then a Muslim cannot go for Hajj, for he is required to participate in jihad.

Focusing more on the question you raised, Dr. Marawan Shahin, Professor of Hadith and Hadith Sciences, Faculty of Theology, Al-Azhar University states:

If your Hajj is for the first time (i.e. you did not perform obligatory Hajj), then performing obligatory Hajj takes precedence over giving money for jihad.

However, if you have already performed the obligatory Hajj, then there is nothing wrong in giving the money allocated for non-obligatory Hajj to jihad and fighters in the Cause of Allah.