Is it permissible to cancel the obligations of Hajj and Umrah due to the spread of Swine Flu? And is this disease considered a plague? And are Mecca and Medina safe from epidemics, or can infection spread within them? And does Allah's saying, "And whoever enters it shall be safe," include safety from epidemics?

The prevailing epidemic of contagion is to be measured against the plague in terms of "quarantine" rulings, based on the hadith: "If you hear of it in a land, do not enter it; and if it befalls a land while you are in it, do not leave it, fleeing from it."

The security mentioned in Allah's Almighty saying: (And whoever enters it shall be secure) does not refer to security from diseases and epidemics. Rather, the intent is the obligation to secure its interior and not expose it to any harm.

The Hajj or Umrah season is not ruled to be canceled except by a decision from specialized Muslim doctors, followed by a fatwa from scholars, given that preventing entry to and exit from an infected land is legislated to avert destruction.