except by paying rent, then he may pay the rent, and the sin is upon the lessor. The houses and land of Minā are even more deserving of this ruling, because Minā is a defined and confined sacred site. Where are people to go if someone takes control of it and says, “I will not allow people to stay here except for rent”?!

As for Mecca, a person can stay at a distance. But Minā, Arafah, and Muzdalifah are sacred sites like mosques. It is absolutely impermissible for anyone to construct a building there and rent it out, or to claim a plot of land and rent it out. If this is done, then people are excused for paying the rent, while the sin rests upon the one who takes it.

His statement, “He threw seven pebbles,” is in imitation of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ (1), for he threw it with seven pebbles. But why were they not five, three, nine, or eleven pebbles?

The answer is that we have no right to speculate about this, just as we have no right to ask: Why are the five prayers seventeen rakʿahs? Why, for example, are the noon, afternoon, and night prayers not six rakʿahs each?

This is beyond the reach of our minds; our only role in it is devoted compliance with Allah’s command.

His statement, “successively,” means one after another. If, due to severe crowding, he were to throw all seven at once, they would count only as one. But if he threw them all at once without caring whether they were successive, then they would not count even as one, because the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever performs a deed that is not in accordance with our matter shall have it rejected” (2)—that is, it is rejected.

His statement, “He threw them,” indicates that if he merely placed the pebbles down, then it would not