Scholarly disagreement

The scholars have differed over the exact form of the Prophet’s ﷺ pilgrimage: did he perform qirān, tamattuʿ, or ifrād? Each group upheld one of these three positions.

Those who say he performed tamattuʿ cite as proof what appears in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (1227), reported by Ibn ʿUmar: “During the Farewell Pilgrimage the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed tamattuʿ, combining ʿUmrah with Hajj.”

Those who maintain that he performed ifrād rely on the present ḥadīth as well as the report in Muslim (1211) from ʿĀʾishah: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed Hajj alone.”

The scholars who hold that he was a qārin argue on the basis of the position preferred by leading researchers, among them Ibn al-Qayyim, who assembled more than twenty authentic reports to that effect. Imām Aḥmad said, “There is no doubt that the Prophet ﷺ performed Hajj in the state of qirān.”

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah is likewise certain that the Prophet ﷺ performed qirān. He reconciles the apparently conflicting narrations, saying: “The correct view is that the ḥadīths in this matter agree with one another; the only variations are minor and of the sort found elsewhere.”

Authentic reports from the Companions state that “he performed tamattuʿ,” and in their usage the term tamattuʿ includes qirān. Those who speak of ifrād are also transmitted from them under the heading of tamattuʿ; by ifrād they meant that the Prophet ﷺ carried out only the ritual acts of Hajj—he did not make two separate journeys for the two rites, nor perform two separate circuits around the Kaʿbah, nor two separate saʿys. Thus one may say: tamattuʿ meaning qirān, performing only the acts of Hajj, and combining the two rites in a single pilgrimage.

They also disagreed over which of the three forms is superior. Imām Aḥmad judged tamattuʿ to be the best, saying, “There is no doubt that the Prophet ﷺ was a qārin, yet tamattuʿ is dearer to me because it was the last of the two instructions from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He said, ‘Had I known beforehand what I came to know later, I would not have brought the sacrificial animals; I would have come out of iḥrām along with you.’” The Prophet ﷺ thus regretted missing that option and commanded his Companions to adopt it.