of the sanctity of the rite, and committing a prohibition is likewise a violation of the sanctity of the rite. Thus, Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, based this ruling on independent legal reasoning; and if he based it on such reasoning, then it is a statement of a Companion and is not traced back to the Prophet.
The question then remains: is the statement of a Companion authoritative evidence?
The answer is that there is a well-known disagreement among the scholars of legal theory on this matter. According to Imam Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, it is authoritative so long as it does not contradict a textual proof or the statement of another Companion. If it contradicts a textual proof, then it carries no weight; rather, what counts is the textual proof. If it conflicts with the statement of another Companion, the stronger of the two views must be determined.
According to this analysis, then, the matter falls within the sphere of independent legal reasoning. We give people the legal verdict that a sacrificial offering is due, although there is some reservation about this, in order to maintain discipline among the people and induce them to perform the obligatory rites by holding them liable for this matter. For if you tell an ordinary person, “All you need to do is seek Allah’s forgiveness and repent to Him,” he will regard the matter as easy, even though sincere repentance is difficult.
It is understood from his words, “If returning is difficult or he does not return, then he must offer a sacrificial animal,” that a person is not free to choose between fulfilling the obligation and offering an expiatory sacrifice in its place, as some ignorant people imagine. Some ignorant people say: “I stood at Arafah, then went down to Mecca, performed the Tawaf al-Ifadah and sa'i, and there remain the overnight stays at Muzdalifah and Mina, the stoning of the pillars, and the Farewell Tawaf—or I may slaughter ten sacrificial animals, rather than four.” This is not permissible, because the issue is not one of choice. Rather, if an obligation is missed and cannot be made up, then he atones by a sacrificial offering. Yet some ignorant people imagine that they have a choice; hence you find one of them saying: “It does not matter to me if I pass beyond