and they must therefore complete the month of Dhu al-Qa'dah as thirty days. Whoever does what he has been commanded to do in the manner commanded is not required to make it up, for if we were to require him to make it up, we would be obliging him to perform the act of worship twice.
But if only a small number of them stand and are mistaken, their Hajj is invalid. Rather, we say that if only a few of them stand, they are mistaken in every case, because they are obliged to follow the congregation. Thus, if some people stubbornly insist, saying, “It is impossible that the crescent appeared yesterday; the lunar phases do not support this. We do not accept that what these people regard as the ninth day is truly the ninth; rather, it is the eighth. We will stand on the tenth day”—while the day they call the tenth is, according to the people, the ninth—we say to them: their Hajj is invalid.
The author then moved on to the matter of being prevented from completing the pilgrimage rites, saying: “Whoever is prevented by an enemy from reaching the House should offer a sacrifice and then exit ihram. If he cannot find one, he should fast ten days and then exit ihram. If he is prevented from reaching Arafah, he should exit ihram by performing an umrah.”
That is, if he is prevented from reaching the House, whether during an umrah or a Hajj, he must offer a sacrificial animal—that is, slaughter the sacrifice—and then exit ihram. This is due to the words of Allah, Most High: “And complete the Hajj and umrah for Allah. But if you are prevented, then offer whatever sacrificial animal is available.” [al-Baqarah 2:196] That is, you are required to offer whatever sacrificial animal is readily available. It is also because the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, “commanded his Companions at al-Hudaybiyyah to slaughter their sacrifices and exit ihram; and he offered a sacrifice and then exited ihram.” (1)
The author’s words, “Whoever is prevented by an enemy”: the word “whoever” may be understood as a relative pronoun or as a conditional particle; in either case, it conveys generality. It therefore includes cases in which the prevention is general or specific. General prevention is when all the pilgrims are prevented—may Allah not decree it.