594 – Jabir ibn ʿAbd Allah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “A Bedouin came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, ‘Messenger of Allah, inform me about ʿumrah—­is it obligatory?’ He replied, ‘No; but performing ʿumrah is better for you.’” Recorded by Ahmad and al-Tirmidhi; the stronger view is that it is mawqūf. Ibn ʿAdiyy also related it through another weak chain (1).

Jabir likewise transmitted—traced back to the Prophet—­the wording: “Hajj and ʿumrah are two obligations.” (2)

Grading of the report
The hadith is weak and mawqūf. The preferable opinion is that it stops with Jabir, for the matter about which the Bedouin asked and was answered lies within the scope of juristic reasoning. Ibn ʿAdiyy narrated it through Abū ʿIṣmah from Ibn al-Munkadir from Jabir, and Abū ʿIṣmah was declared a liar. In the chain recorded by Ahmad and al-Tirmidhi appears al-Ḥajjāj ibn Arṭaʾah, who is weak.

There are other reports on this subject, but none of them provides a decisive proof.

Al-Shāfiʿī said: “Nothing sound has been established regarding ʿumrah; it is merely voluntary.”

As for Jabir’s report, “Hajj and ʿumrah are two obligations,” the compiler here does not cite who transmitted it or what has been said about it. Al-Talkhīṣ states that Ibn ʿAdiyy (4/1468) and al-Bayhaqī (8542) transmitted it through Ibn Lahīʿah from ʿAṭāʾ from Jabir, and Ibn Lahīʿah is weak.