• Prophetic supplications that have been transmitted are superior to simply reciting the Qur’an during the ṭawāf, and Qur’an recitation is in turn better than non-transmitted supplications.

• In the first three circuits he performs raml—walking briskly with short, quick steps—and walks normally in the remaining four. Raml is confined to a ṭawāf that is followed immediately by the saʿy; another opinion restricts it to the arrival ṭawāf alone. While doing so he should say: “O Allah, make this a ḥajj that is accepted, a sin that is forgiven, and a saʿy that is appreciated.”

• He performs idtibāʿ in every ṭawāf in which he performs raml, and—according to the sound view—also during the saʿy. Idtibāʿ is to place the middle of one’s upper garment beneath the right armpit and drape both ends over the left shoulder.

• A woman neither performs raml nor observes idtibāʿ.

• He should keep as close as possible to the House. If crowding prevents him from combining nearness with raml, it is better to perform raml from farther away—unless he fears colliding with women, in which case nearness without raml takes precedence.

• He should perform the circuits consecutively and, when finished, pray two rakʿahs behind the Station of Abraham. In the first he recites “Say: O disbelievers” (sūrah 109) and in the second “Sincerity” (sūrah 112), making his recitation audible at night. According to one opinion, maintaining this succession and praying the two rakʿahs are obligatory.

• If a person who is not in iḥrām carries a pilgrim in iḥrām and performs the ṭawāf with him, the ṭawāf counts for the one being carried; the same applies if the carrier is himself in iḥrām but has already performed his own ṭawāf. Otherwise, the sounder view is that if the carrier intends the ṭawāf for the person being carried, it is valid for that person, but if he intends it for himself—or for both of them—it counts only for the carrier.

Section
After completing the ṭawāf and its two-rakʿah prayer he again touches the Black Stone, then exits through the Ṣaf Gate to begin the saʿy. Its conditions are that he start at Ṣafā; that he complete seven lengths, his going from Ṣafā to Marwah counting as one and his return as another; and that the saʿy be performed after either a pillar ṭawāf (the ṭawāf al-ifāḍah) or the arrival ṭawāf, with no standing at ʿArafah occurring in between. Whoever performs the saʿy after the arrival ṭawāf need not repeat it.

It is recommended to ascend Ṣafā and Marwah to about the height of a man’s stature. Upon ascending he should say: “Allāh is Most Great, Allāh is Most Great, Allāh is Most Great.”