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They add that ʿUmar would proclaim after the pilgrimage seasons: “People of Syria, to your Syria; people of Yemen, to your Yemen; people of Iraq, to your Iraq.”1
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Moreover, anyone who resides there forfeits the fully-meritorious Hajj and the fully-meritorious ʿumrah, for the scholars unanimously hold that initiating the journey for ʿumrah from one’s own hometown is the finest form of both Hajj and ʿumrah.
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They are likewise unanimous that this exceeds in excellence the rites of tamattuʿ, qirān, and ifrād in which a pilgrim performs ʿumrah immediately after Hajj.
Correcting a Misconception about ʿUmrah
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As for the idea some people entertain—that escorting the residents of Mecca in Ramadan or at other times to the nearby mountain passes for ʿumrah is what the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, intended by his statement, “An ʿumrah during Ramadan is equivalent to performing Hajj with me,”2—this has led the locals and others to make a point of performing ʿumrah from the nearest or farthest boundary of the sanctuary, such as the ʿumrah from Tanʿīm, where the mosques called “ʿĀʾishah’s Mosques” stand, or from al-Hudaybiyah, or the ʿumrah of al-Jiʿirrānah. All of that is a serious error, contrary to the prophetic sunnah and to the consensus of the Companions.
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Indeed, the Prophet himself, along with Abu Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, and their peers, never once performed ʿumrah from Mecca—neither before the Hijrah nor after it.