thing he did. He then trotted quickly through three of the seven circuits and walked the remaining four. When he had completed his circumambulation of the House, he prayed two rakʿahs at the Maqām, pronounced the salām, and departed. He next went to Ṣafā, performed Saʿy between Ṣafā and Marwah, and did not lift any of the restrictions of iḥrām until he had completed his Hajj, slaughtered his offering on the Day of Sacrifice, returned to Mecca, and circumambulated the House. In this he acted exactly as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had done, and so did everyone from the people who had brought and driven their sacrificial animals.

Imām Aḥmad said: Ḥajjāj related to us; al-Layth related to us; ʿUqayl narrated to me from Ibn Shihāb, from ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, that ʿĀʾishah informed him about the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in connection with his combining ʿUmrah with Hajj (tamattuʿ) and about the people’s performing tamattuʿ with him—exactly as Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh told me from his father ʿAbd Allāh, from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

This ḥadīth was transmitted by al-Bukhārī from Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr; by Muslim and Abū Dāwūd from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Shuʿayb ibn al-Layth, from his father; and by al-Nasā’ī from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak al-Mukhar ramī, from Ḥujayn ibn al-Mathannā. All of them relate it from al-Layth ibn Saʿd, from ʿUqayl, from al-Zuhrī—from Sālim, from his father—and the two authors of the Ṣaḥīḥayn also record it through al-Layth, ʿUqayl, and al-Zuhrī, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah, as Imām Aḥmad – may Allah have mercy on him – mentioned.

This ḥadīth poses difficulties for each of the three opinions. For the proponents of ifrād, it clearly establishes an ʿUmrah, whether before the Hajj or alongside it. For those who hold the view of the specific form of tamattuʿ, it is problematic because it states that he did not come out of iḥrām after performing Saʿy between Ṣafā and Marwah, which is not the practice of a mutamattiʿ. And for those who claim that what prevented him from releasing himself was merely his having driven the sacrificial animal—as might be inferred from Ibn ʿUmar’s report in which Ḥafṣah said, “O Messenger of Allah, why have the people come out of ihrām after ʿUmrah while you have not come out of yours?” and he replied, “I have dressed my hair with gum and garlanded my sacrificial animal; I shall not come out of iḥrām until I have slaughtered”—their assertion is far-fetched, because