AsSalaamo Alaikum!
Lets talk Hajj. Is it allowed to perform Hajj if you have various recurring debts common to most households these days such as Car Loan, Mortgage, and/or Credit Card debt? The assumption being that you are current on your payments, and going to Hajj will not result in any of the ongoing payments being missed or delayed without prearranged terms with the creditor(s).
If it is better to perform Hajj when there are none of these recurring conditions existing; i.e. you are completely free of existing debt and living on revolving capital to pay bills on time with no outstanding loans/mortgage. Is it then preferred to perform an Umrah for the time-being? Cost of the two types of Pilgrimages has a big gap (a few thousand dollars).
The reason for these questions is because I have read somewhere that it is better to perform Hajj first, and then if Allah gives taufeeq an Umrah because you can peform many Umrahs in a lifetime (if Allah wills), but Hajj is fard on the able persons so it should be given priority. But some of us from the ummah yearn to visit Baitullah so much that we take whatever avenue possible to visit it.
Please share your thoughts on this, and/or any other related points which you feel expand on this topic and would benefit other readers/contributors, inshaAllah.