the pre-Islamic period, people would never perform it during the days of Hajj. This is the purport of his—peace and blessings be upon him—statement:
“ʿUmrah has been incorporated into Hajj until the Day of Resurrection.”

Abū Ḥanīfah held that ʿUmrah is permissible throughout the entire year except on the Day of ʿArafah, the Day of Sacrifice, and the Days of Tashrīq; on those days it is merely disliked.

The jurists also disagreed about performing ʿUmrah several times within a single year. Mālik preferred one ʿUmrah per year and regarded two—or still more—within the same year as disliked, whereas al-Shāfiʿī and Abū Ḥanīfah saw no dislike in repeating it.

Such, then, is the discussion of the temporal and spatial conditions for entering iḥrām. We should now proceed to the topic of iḥrām itself, but before that we must address its prohibitions; afterwards we shall deal with the specific acts required of the pilgrim until he leaves the state of consecration—that is, all the rites of Hajj and the associated prohibitions—followed by the rulings for any shortcomings regarding either the prohibitions or the rites. Let us begin, therefore, with the prohibitions.

[What iḥrām forbids of matters otherwise permitted]

The discussion of the prohibitions

These are the things that iḥrām renders forbidden even though they are lawful for one who is not in the consecrated state. The foundation of this chapter is the report transmitted by Mālik from Nāfiʿ from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar:

“A man asked the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—what clothing a pilgrim in iḥrām may wear. The Messenger of Allah replied: ‘Do not wear shirts, turbans, trousers, hooded cloaks, or leather socks—unless someone cannot find sandals; in that case he may wear the socks, but let him cut them below the ankles. And do not wear any garment that has been touched by saffron or wars.’”

The scholars are unanimous on some of the rulings contained in this ḥadīth and differ over others. They agree that the male pilgrim may not wear a shirt or any of the items mentioned in the report, nor anything comparable that is sewn to fit, and that this prohibition applies only to men—that is, the ban on tailored clothing—whereas there is no objection to a woman’s wearing a chemise, gown, trousers, leather socks, or head-covering.

They differed regarding one who can find nothing but trousers: may he wear them? Mālik and Abū Ḥanīfah said: he may not; if he does so, he must offer a compensatory penalty (fidya). Al-Shāfiʿī, al-Thawrī, Aḥmad, Abū Thawr, and Dāwūd held that there is no liability if he cannot find a waist-wrapper (izār).

The basis of Mālik’s view is the outward sense of the aforementioned ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar; he said that had there been any concession in this matter the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—would have mentioned it, just as he made an explicit exception for leather socks.

The second group relies on the ḥadīth of ʿAmr ibn