Question: I heard a hadith from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, in which he says: “None should sail the sea except a pilgrim for Hajj, or Umrah, or a warrior in the cause of Allah, for beneath the sea there is fire, and beneath the fire there is a sea.” Does this hadith mean that sea voyages that last for days and visit multiple countries (cruise) are forbidden?
Answer: All Praises and Thanks be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, and his companions. Amma Ba’ad:
The mentioned hadith is weak (Da’if). Al-Bukhari said that this hadith is not authentic, and Abu Dawud said its narrators are unknown (Majhulun), and Al-Khattabi said they weakened its chain of narration. Ibn Abdul Barr said in Al-Tamheed: “It is a weak Hadith with an obscure chain of narration, and the scholars of Hadith did not call it authentic because its narrators are unknown.” The hadith was narrated by Abu Dawud, Al-Bazzar, and Al-Tabarani from Ibn Umar, and Al-Albani said the scholars unanimously agreed on its weakness.
As for sailing the sea, it is permissible according to the general opinion of scholars due to the weakness of the previous hadith.
Ibn Abdul Barr said: “Most scholars permit sailing the sea in pursuit of permissible matters when land travel is not feasible, and sailing the sea when it is predominantly calm and in all that Allah has permitted… except that they dislike sailing it for excessive pursuit of worldly matters and excessive accumulation of wealth.” End quote from islamweb.net.
Saheehus-Seerah 