of the Age of Ignorance. When the Day of Sacrifice came, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib stood up and proclaimed to the people what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had commanded him. He granted everyone a respite of four months from the moment of his proclamation so that every tribe might return safely to its homeland; after that, no treaty or covenant would remain in force for any polytheist save one who already possessed a pact with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—his agreement would be honored until its appointed term. Hence, no idolater performed the Hajj after that year, and no one circumambulated the House naked. The two of them then returned to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. (Through this chain the report is mursal.)

Al-Bukhārī said (1) under the heading “The Hajj led by Abū Bakr, Allah be pleased with him, in the ninth year”: Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd Abū al-Rabīʿ related to us; Falīḥ narrated from al-Zuhrī, from Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Abū Hurayrah, that Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, Allah be pleased with him, sent him during the pilgrimage over which the Prophet had placed him—prior to the Farewell Pilgrimage—together with a group charged with proclaiming to the people that no polytheist would perform the Hajj after that year and that no one would circumambulate the House naked.

Al-Bukhārī also said (2) elsewhere: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf narrated to us; al-Layth narrated to us; ʿUqayl informed me from Ibn Shihāb, who said that Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān reported that Abū Hurayrah said: “Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq dispatched me that year as one of the heralds; on the Day of Sacrifice we proclaimed at Minā that no polytheist would perform the Hajj after that year and that no one would circumambulate the House naked.”

Ḥumayd added, “The Prophet ﷺ then sent ʿAlī after him and ordered him to recite Barāʾah.”

Abū Hurayrah said, “ʿAlī proclaimed with us to the people of Minā on the Day of Sacrifice, reciting Barāʾah: ‘No polytheist shall perform the Hajj after this year, and no one shall circumambulate the House naked.’ ”

Al-Bukhārī further relates (3) in the Book of Jihād: Abū al-Yamān narrated to us; Shuʿayb reported to us, from al-Zuhrī; Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān informed me that Abū Hurayrah said: “Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq sent me among those who proclaimed on the Day of Sacrifice at Minā that no polytheist would perform the Hajj after that year and that no one would circumambulate the House naked. The Day of the Greater Pilgrimage is the Day of Sacrifice; it is called ‘greater’ only because the people refer to ʿUmrah as the ‘lesser pilgrimage.’ Abū Bakr publicly renounced (their treaties) to the people that year, and in the Farewell Pilgrimage—the Hajj in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself participated—no idolater performed the pilgrimage.”

Muslim (4) records a similar report through al-Zuhrī.

Imām Aḥmad said (5): Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us; Shuʿbah narrated to us, from Mughīrah, from al-Shaʿbī, from Muḥarrar ibn Abī Hurayrah, from his father, who said: “I was with ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent him.”

He said, “What were you proclaiming?”

He replied, “We were proclaiming that none shall enter Paradise except a believer; that no one may circumambulate the House naked; and that whoever has a covenant with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—its term, or its appointed end, is four months. When the four months have elapsed, Allah is free of…"