The jurist who likened him to the pilgrim performing tamattuʿ or qirān reasoned as follows: the qārin completes in a single journey what would normally be done in two, whereas this man has spread over two journeys what is usually accomplished in one. Therefore, he said, the pilgrim must offer the same sacrificial animal (hady) required of the qārin or the mutamattiʿ.

Another group compared him to the other rites of ḥajj for which the shedding of blood serves as a substitute, and ruled: “A blood-sacrifice is due.”

Those who relied on the transmitted reports specific to this question maintained: “If he becomes unable to continue, nothing further is required of him.”

Abū ʿUmar said: “The sound Sunnah texts that have reached us in this matter prove that hardship is to be removed,” and that is indeed the case. Among those texts is the ḥadīth of ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir al-Juhanī who reported:
“My sister vowed to walk to the House of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. She asked me to seek a ruling for her from the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him. I consulted the Prophet on her behalf and he said, ‘Let her walk, and let her ride.’” Muslim transmits it.

Another is the ḥadīth of Anas ibn Mālik:
“The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—saw a man being supported between his two daughters. When he asked about him, they said, ‘He vowed to walk.’ The Prophet—peace be upon him—said, ‘Allah has no need for this man to torture himself,’ and he commanded him to mount.” This report too is authentic.

Third Issue

After agreeing that a vow to walk in the course of ḥajj or ʿumrah is binding, the jurists differed about a person who vows to walk to the Prophet’s Mosque—peace and blessings be upon him—or to Jerusalem for the purpose of praying there.

• Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī held that walking is obligatory.
• Abū Ḥanīfah said that nothing is incumbent; wherever he prays suffices. The same applies, according to him, if one vows to pray in the Sacred Mosque. Walking to the Sacred Mosque becomes obligatory only when the vow is tied to ḥajj or ʿumrah.
• Abū Yūsuf, Abū Ḥanīfah’s associate, maintained that whoever vows to pray in Jerusalem or in the Prophet’s Mosque must do so, but if he instead prays in the Sacred Mosque, that discharges the vow.

Most scholars hold that a vow concerning any mosque other than these three is not binding, citing the Prophet’s—peace and blessings be upon him—statement: “Mounts are not saddled for a journey except to three: the Sacred Mosque, my mosque, and Jerusalem.”

Some, however, regarded a vow to any mosque that promises extra merit as obligatory, arguing from the fatwa of Ibn ʿAbbās for the son of the woman who had vowed to walk to Qubāʾ Mosque and then died: he ruled that the son should walk on her behalf.

The basis of their disagreement over vows to places other than the Sacred Mosque lies in their differing understandings of why journeys are undertaken to these three mosques. Is it because obligatory prayer is offered there—apart from the Sacred House—or because of the supererogatory prayer performed in them?

Whoever said it is for obligatory prayer, and who also holds that what is already obligatory by Sharīʿah cannot be the object of a vow, concluded that a vow to walk to those two mosques is not binding. By contrast, whoever holds that a vow may relate even to something already obligatory