and likewise between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah on a camel, so that the people could see him, that he might stand above the crowd and they could put their questions to him, for they were thronging around him. The Prophet ﷺ and his Companions performed no more than a single saʿy between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah.

Muslim also transmitted this report through Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah from ʿAlī ibn Mushir, through ʿAlī ibn Khashram from ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus, and through Muḥammad ibn Ḥātim from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd—all of them from Ibn Jurayj—though some of these versions omit the words “and between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah.”

Al-Ṭabarānī, in his Muʿjam, records via the chain of Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Awfā, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would often pronounce the takbīr on al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah—three sets, amounting to twenty-one takbīrs.

Abū Dāwūd likewise relates—through Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: Abū al-Zubayr informed me that he heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh say, “During the Farewell Pilgrimage the Prophet ﷺ circumambulated the House on his mount and (did the same) between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah.”

Al-Nasāʾī also narrates it from al-Fallās through Yaḥyā, and from ʿImrān ibn Yazīd through Shuʿayb ibn Isḥāq, both of them from Ibn Jurayj with this wording.

This wording is soundly preserved from Ibn Jurayj, yet it is highly problematic, for the rest of the reports from Jābir and others indicate that he ﷺ walked between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah. It is possible that Abū al-Zubayr’s version from Jābir contains an extra phrase—“and between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah”—that was inadvertently inserted or interpolated by someone after the Companion; Allah knows best. Another possibility is that he ﷺ traversed some of the circuits between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah on foot, as was observed, but when the crowd became dense he mounted—exactly as the forthcoming report of Ibn ʿAbbās will indicate.

Ibn Ḥazm himself concedes that the Prophet’s first ṭawāf around the House was on foot, and he understands the reports of riding during ṭawāf to refer to what occurred afterward; he then claims that the Prophet ﷺ was mounted during the saʿy between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah. His rationale is that the Prophet made only one saʿy between them, and he interprets Jābir’s words, “When his feet reached the bottom of the valley he jogged,” as applicable even if he were mounted, arguing that when the camel descends, the whole of his body—including his feet—descends with it.