Among the conditions for holding this authority, in addition to those required of prayer imams, is that he be knowledgeable about the rites and rulings of Hajj, and familiar with its appointed times and days. His authority lasts for seven days: it begins at the noon prayer on the seventh day of Dhu al-Hijjah and ends on the Second Day of Departure—the thirteenth of Dhu al-Hijjah. Before and after this period, he is merely one of the subjects, not one of the authorities.
If he is vested with unrestricted authority to administer the Hajj, he may administer it every year unless he is removed from office. If he is appointed specifically for a single year, he may not extend his authority beyond that year unless he receives a new appointment.
The matters falling specifically within his jurisdiction, and over which his oversight is confined, are five matters on which there is agreement, and a sixth over which scholars differ.
First: notifying the people of when they are to enter ihram, and setting out with them for the sacred sites, so that they may follow him and model their actions on his.
Second: arranging the rites in the order established by the Sacred Law, for he is to be followed in them. He must neither advance what is to be delayed nor delay what is to be advanced, whether the prescribed sequence is obligatory or recommended.
Third: setting the timings according to his stay at the respective sites and his departure from them, just as the prayer of those praying behind an imam follows the imam’s prayer.
Fourth: having the pilgrims follow him in the prescribed remembrances at those sites and say “Āmīn” to his supplications there, so that they follow him in speech just as they followed him in action, and so that the gathering of their supplications may be more likely to receive a response.
Fifth: leading them in the prayers for which the Hajj sermons are prescribed and at which the pilgrims gather. There are two such sermons: the sermon on the Day of Arafah and the sermon on the First Day of Departure, as we shall explain.