But has anyone ever reported that he heard him say, “Here I am, answering Your call for Hajj alone”? There is no way to establish this. Even if such a report were found, it could not take precedence over those solid pillars of evidence we have mentioned, which cannot possibly be refuted. The narrator would necessarily have to be judged mistaken, or his report understood as referring to the beginning of the Prophet’s ihrām (ritual consecration), with him subsequently combining Hajj and ‘umrah during it. How much more so when no such report has been established!

We have already cited the report of Sufyān al-Thawrī, from Ja‘far ibn Muhammad, from his father, from Jābir, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, combined Hajj and ‘umrah in his pilgrimage. Zakariyyā al-Sājī transmitted it from ‘Abd Allāh ibn Ziyād (1) al-Qatawānī, from Zayd ibn al-Hubāb, from Sufyān. As explained above, this does not contradict Jābir’s statements that he pronounced the talbiyah for Hajj, performed Hajj alone, and recited the talbiyah for Hajj.

Section

Thus, the reports of those who narrated that he combined Hajj and ‘umrah take precedence for ten reasons (2):

First: Their narrators are more numerous, as already mentioned.

Second: The forms in which this was reported are varied, as we have explained.

Third: Some of them report hearing his explicit words; others report his own statement that he did so; still others report his Lord’s command to him to do so. Nothing of this kind has been reported concerning his performance of Hajj alone.

Fourth: The reports of those who narrated that he performed four ‘umrahs corroborate these reports.

Fifth: These reports are explicit and admit no alternative interpretation, unlike the reports that he performed Hajj alone.