Others maintained that he did not enter the state of ihrām until he reached the plain of al-Bayḍāʾ, while yet another group said that he did not pronounce the talbiyah until his mount had risen beneath him and he was firmly seated.

When Ibn ʿAbbās was asked about these divergent reports, he replied: “Each narrator related not the very first moment the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—pronounced the talbiyah, but rather the first utterance he himself heard, for people arrived successively.” On this basis, he concluded, there is in fact no contradiction: the talbiyah was begun straight after the prayer.

The jurists of the various regions unanimously agree that a resident of Mecca is not required to enter ihrām until he sets out for Minā, so that the rites of Hajj follow one another without interruption. Their evidence is the report transmitted by Mālik from Ibn Jurayj, who said to ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar: “I have seen you perform here four matters that no one else does.” Among them he mentioned: “When you are in Mecca the people begin the talbiyah as soon as they sight the new moon, yet you yourself do not do so until the Day of Tarwiyah.” Ibn ʿUmar answered, “As for the talbiyah, I never saw the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—start it until his mount moved off with him,” meaning, in order that the actions of Hajj should proceed continuously.

Mālik also narrated that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb would instruct the people of Mecca to pronounce the talbiyah when they sighted the crescent. There is no disagreement among the scholars that the Meccan begins his talbiyah from within Mecca itself when performing Hajj. If, however, he is performing ʿUmrah, they are unanimous that he must go out to the ḥill—outside the Sacred Precinct—then enter ihrām there, so that he combines both the ḥill and the ḥaram just as the pilgrim does; that is, because he proceeds to ʿArafah, which lies in the ḥill. In sum, they concur that this is the Sunnah for one performing ʿUmrah.

They differed, though, about the ruling if he fails to do so. Some held that his ʿUmrah is still valid but he must offer a sacrificial animal; this was the opinion of Abū Ḥanīfah and Ibn al-Qāsim. Others, such as al-Thawrī and Ashhab, maintained that it is not valid at all.

As for the point at which a pilgrim ceases the talbiyah, the scholars disagreed. Mālik reported that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib—may Allah be pleased with him—would stop the talbiyah when the sun declined on the Day of ʿArafah, and Mālik said: “This is the practice the scholars of our land have always followed.” Ibn Shihāb related that the leaders—Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī—would all cease the talbiyah at the time the sun passed its zenith on the Day of ʿArafah.

Abū ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr observed that differing reports exist concerning ʿUthmān and ʿĀʾishah on this point. The majority of the jurists of the provinces and the hadith scholars—Abū Ḥanīfah, al-Shāfiʿī, al-Thawrī, Aḥmad, Isḥāq, Abū Thawr, Dāwud, Ibn Abī Laylā, Abū ʿUbayd, al-Ṭabarī, and al-Ḥasan ibn Ḥayy—held that