Safa and Marwah were two idols worshipped besides Allah. The Muslims therefore felt reluctant to go between Safa and Marwah, since there had been two idols upon them before Islam. So Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, negated that blame in order to remove the unease from their hearts, so that no anxiety would remain therein. Thus, the purpose of negating blame was to dispel their unease.

These are the four pillars.

Issue: Some scholars added spending the night at Muzdalifah, citing Allah’s saying: “Then depart from where the people depart” [al-Baqarah 2:198, 199]. They also cited the Prophet’s ﷺ statement in the hadith of Urwah ibn Mudarris, may Allah be pleased with him: “Whoever attends this prayer of ours”—meaning Fajr—“and stands with us until we depart, having stood at Arafah beforehand, by night or by day, has completed his Hajj and fulfilled his rites.” (1) They understood from this that whoever does not stand at Muzdalifah has not completed his Hajj. This was the view of some of the early and later scholars; undoubtedly, it is a strong view, and Ibn al-Qayyim inclined towards it.

However, those who held that it is not a pillar said that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Hajj is Arafah. Whoever arrives before dawn breaks has caught it.” (2)

They answered the hadith of Urwah, may Allah be pleased with him, by saying that completion may take different forms: at times, it is a completion without which the matter is not valid, and at other times,