When he reaches the Black Stone the first circuit is finished. He then touches the Stone—if he can—or else merely points toward it and begins the second circuit, continuing in this way until he has completed seven circuits in all.

For tawaf to be valid, thirteen conditions must be met: being Muslim; soundness of mind; the intention; covering the private parts; ritual purity; completing the full seven circuits; keeping the Kaʿbah on one’s left; circling the entire House—so he must neither pass inside the Hijr nor walk along its wall; walking during tawaf when able; performing the circuits consecutively—except if the congregational prayer is called or a funeral is brought forward, in which case he prays and then resumes, restarting the circuit interrupted by the prayer; performing tawaf within the bounds of the mosque; and beginning and ending at the Black Stone.

After completing the tawaf he prays two rakʿahs. It is best to offer them behind the Station of Abraham, but they may be prayed anywhere in the mosque or elsewhere within the Sacred Precinct. These two rakʿahs are an emphatic sunnah: in the first, after al-Fātiḥah, he recites “Say, O disbelievers” (Q. 109); in the second, “Say, He is Allah, the One” (Q. 112).

He then goes out to Ṣafā to perform the saʿy between it and Marwah. He ascends Ṣafā, pronounces the takbīr three times, and says: “La ilaha illa Allah wahdahu la sharika lahu, lahu’l-mulk wa lahu’l-ḥamd, yuḥyī wa yumīt, wa huwa ḥayy la yamūt, biyadihi’l-khayr, wa huwa ʿalā kulli shay’in qadīr” (There is no god but Allah alone, without partner; His is the dominion and His is the praise; He gives life and causes death; He is the Living who never dies; in His hand is all good, and He has power over everything).