of the people think that it is obligatory for the pebbles to be taken from Muzdalifah.
The apparent meaning of the author’s words is that the pebbles are not washed. Some scholars said that they should be washed, to purify them if some impurity has touched them, or simply to clean them if no impurity has touched them.
The correct view is that washing them is an innovation, for the Prophet, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, did not wash them.
His statement, “and their number is seventy,” is based on the assumption that one remains until the third day of the Days of Tashriq. If he does not remain, then he should subtract twenty-one from the seventy, leaving forty-nine.
The correct view is that he should not take seventy pebbles, nor forty-nine. Rather, each day he should take the pebbles for that day along the way as he goes to the Jamarah. For when there is no evidence for something, refraining from it—particularly in an act of worship—is itself the evidence. Indeed, if someone were to say that on the second day he should take seven pebbles for the first Jamarah, then take seven more on his way from it to the second, and another seven on his way from the second to the third, this would not be far-fetched. But gathering seventy pebbles from the outset is not from the sunnah.
His statement, “between the size of a chickpea and a hazelnut”: the author has specified their size. A chickpea is well known, while a hazelnut is a pebble of the size that one places between the thumb and middle finger, then throws with the index finger.
“When he reaches Mina—which extends from the Valley of Muhassir to Jamrat al-Aqabah—he stones it with seven consecutive pebbles, raising his hand until the whiteness of his armpit can be seen, and saying Allahu akbar with each pebble. Stoning is not valid with anything other than them, nor by using the same pebble a second time. He does not stop there, and he ceases the talbiyah before it, ............”
His statement, “When he reaches Mina, which extends from the Valley of Muhassir to Jamrat al-Aqabah”: that is, when the pilgrim reaches Mina. Mina is the name of a well-known place, and it was given this name because of the abundance of blood that is shed there, that is: