Allah says: “Complete the Hajj and the Umrah for Allah.” [al-Baqarah: 196] Yet the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did not perform Hajj until the tenth year.

However, the correct view is that it is obligatory without delay, based on the preceding evidence.

As for the claim that a person’s entire lifetime is the time for Hajj, this is true; but who can guarantee that he will remain alive until the second year?!

Prayer, however, has a short prescribed time, which is why there is latitude regarding it.

As for citing Allah’s saying, “Complete the Hajj and the Umrah for Allah” [al-Baqarah: 196], this is not sound, because it is not a command to begin them in the first place; rather, it is a command to complete them. There is a difference between beginning and completing.

As for when Hajj was made obligatory, the correct view is that it was in the ninth year. Allah, Most High, did not make it obligatory before then, because doing so would have been contrary to wisdom. Quraysh had prevented the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, from performing Umrah, so it was possible—and indeed expected—that they would prevent him from performing Hajj. Before the Conquest, Makkah was a land of disbelief, but after the Conquest it was liberated from disbelief, and making Hajj obligatory upon the people then became consistent with wisdom.

The evidence that Hajj was made obligatory in the ninth year is that the verse establishing its obligation occurs at the beginning of Surah Al ʿImran, and the beginning of this surah was revealed in the Year of Delegations.

If it is asked: Why did the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, not perform Hajj in the ninth year, when you maintain that it must be done without delay?

The answer is that he, peace and blessings be upon him, did not perform Hajj for several reasons:

First: the large number of delegations that came to him that year; this is why that year is called the Year of