Among those who preferred this option were Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn ʿAbbās, Ibn al-Zubayr, ʿĀʾishah, al-Ḥasan, ʿAṭāʾ, Ṭāwūs, and Mujāhid; it is also one of the two opinions reported from al-Shāfiʿī.

Sufyān al-Thawrī and the jurists of opinion opted for qirān, adducing the report found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from Anas: “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ pronounce the talbiyah for both of them together,” and reasoning that Allah would only choose for His Prophet the most excellent form of pilgrimage.

Mālik—and al-Shāfiʿī according to his well-known view—considered ifrād to be superior. Their evidence is the ḥadīth recorded by al-Bukhārī (1562) and Muslim (1211): “The Prophet ﷺ performed Hajj alone,” together with the ḥadīth presently under discussion.

It was noted earlier that what they called ifrād is, in fact, qirān, because the rites of ʿUmrah are subsumed under those of Hajj, even though outwardly it resembles single Hajj.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah and his student Ibn al-Qayyim held that tamattuʿ is preferable for anyone who has not brought the sacrificial animals, whereas qirān is preferable for the one who has, a position that reconciles the various proofs and is likewise reported from Imām Aḥmad. Ibn al-Qayyim said, “This is the approach that accords with Aḥmad’s principles.”

Ibn Taymiyyah stated elsewhere: “The correct ruling varies with the pilgrim’s circumstances. If he makes one journey for ʿUmrah and another for Hajj, or travels to Mecca before the months of Hajj, performs ʿUmrah, and remains there, then ifrād is best for him by consensus of the imams. But if he combines ʿUmrah and Hajj in the same journey and arrives in Mecca during the months of Hajj, then—should he have brought the sacrificial animals—qirān is better for him; if he has not, then releasing himself from iḥrām after ʿUmrah (tamattuʿ) is preferable.”

The scholars unanimously agree that the Companions who accompanied the Prophet ﷺ during the Farewell Pilgrimage dissolved their Hajj into an ʿUmrah at his command. They later differed over the legitimacy of converting Hajj into an ʿUmrah for the one who has not brought