performed the ritual walk between al-Safā and al-Marwah only once, on that first occasion. He did not perform it after tawāf al-ifādah (the principal Hajj circumambulation), and he certainly did not perform ‘umrah after Hajj. This, therefore, is purely an error.

It has also been said (1): This chain of transmission leading back to Mu‘āwiyah contains a mistake. Al-Hasan ibn ‘Alī erred by making it run through Ma‘mar from Ibn Tāwūs (2), whereas it actually runs through Hishām ibn Hujayr from Ibn Tāwūs, and Hishām is a weak narrator.

I say: The hadith reported by al-Bukhārī (3) from Mu‘āwiyah says only, “I shortened the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ hair with an arrowhead,” adding nothing further. The wording reported by Muslim (4) is: “I shortened the hair on the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ head at al-Marwah with an arrowhead.” There is nothing beyond this in the two authentic collections.

As for the version containing the words “during the ten days” (5), it is not in the Sahīh. It either contains a defect or reflects an error by Mu‘āwiyah. Qays ibn Sa‘d, who transmitted it from ‘Atā’, from Ibn ‘Abbās, from Mu‘āwiyah, said: “People dispute Mu‘āwiyah’s account of this.” Qays spoke the truth: we swear by Allah that this never happened during the ten days.

A similar error was made by Mu‘āwiyah, may Allah be pleased with him, in the hadith that Abū Dāwūd (6) narrated from