There are two legal opinions on the matter. The one judged sounder is the first; yet, if she were nevertheless to perform the pilgrimage, it would discharge the obligation for her, even though the act itself remains unlawful according to the four Imams, because her personal capacity for ḥajj is complete and the sin lies in a factor external to the rite.

4 – The bar on her undertaking ḥajj except in the company of a maḥram embodies exalted wisdom: the safeguarding of noble morals, protection, and chastity. A woman is the object of covetous desires, and she is delicate in body and spirit; no one guards her honor or is more protective of her than her own male relatives who are her maḥrams.

5 – Reflect on the condition of many Muslim women today—wanton display, nakedness, mingling with men, illicit seclusion with them, accompanying them on long journeys, and other customs that make the forehead blush with shame—and you will recognize how distant Muslims have become from their religion and how little regard they show for its sanctities.

6 – Verses such as these, together with the lofty manners they enjoin, aim at preserving dignity, protecting honor and reputation, and safeguarding lineage and ancestry. This is a noble manifestation, an honoring of woman, and a purification for her from defilement. Licentiousness, debauchery, and libertinism, by contrast, are a relapse into an age of savagery and brutishness that recognizes neither system nor law, neither modesty nor chastity.

7 – An individual obligation takes precedence over a communal one. The man had been enrolled for jihād, which is a communal duty, while guarding his wife is an individual duty; the Prophet ﷺ therefore gave it priority. This is evidence that pressing personal excuses override communal obligations.

8 – A woman’s maḥram is her husband, or anyone perpetually forbidden to marry her—whether by blood, such as a brother, or by a lawful cause, such as a milk-brother.

9 – A valid maḥram must be a Muslim who is of sound mind and has reached puberty, for a non-Muslim cannot serve as a maḥram, and neither a child nor one who is insane provides the requisite protection and sufficiency.

10 – Some scholars have used this ḥadith to argue that fulfilling the obligatory pilgrimage may be deferred