652 – Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them) related: “The Prophet ﷺ did not perform the ramal (brisk, shortened steps) in the seven circuits during which he departed.” The report is found with the Five except al-Tirmidhī, and al-Ḥākim authenticated it. ⦗1⦘

Degree of the hadith:
The report is sound (ṣaḥīḥ).
Al-Ḥākim said, “This hadith meets the conditions of the two Shaykhs, yet they did not include it,” and al-Dhahabī agreed with him.

ʿAṭāʾ, the transmitter from Ibn ʿAbbās, remarked: “He did not perform the ramal in the seven circuits in which he departed.”

The editor adds: This is further supported by the fact that everyone who described the Prophet’s Hajj—including Jābir in his lengthy narration—failed to mention that the Prophet ﷺ performed the ramal in any tawāf other than the arrival circumambulation. Abū Dāwūd recorded that narration and remained silent about it.

The rationale behind legislating the ramal is apparently fulfilled by the first tawāf alone, as will be explained, Allah willing, in the discussion of the hadith’s jurisprudential implications.

Glossary of terms:
• “in the seven” (fī al-sabʿ): The word sabʿ has two pronunciations. One is with an open sīn followed by a quiescent bāʾ, meaning “seven times.” The second is with both the sīn and the bāʾ pronounced with ḍammah and the bāʾ then quiescent; here it denotes “the seventh part,” an instance of naming the whole by reference to a part, and it too signifies seven complete circuits.