Our teacher Shaykh Muḥammad al-Amīn al-Shanqītī, may Allah have mercy on him, said in his exegesis Adwāʾ al-Bayān (5/252): “Know that the majority of scholars hold that saʿy is only valid after a ṭawāf; if one performs saʿy before ṭawāf, the majority—including the four Imams—rule it invalid. Al-Māwardī and others even reported consensus on this point. After citing the statement of al-Nawawī mentioned a short while ago, along with his answer to the ḥadīth of Ibn Shurayk, he added: ‘His words, “before I performed ṭawāf,” refer to the ṭawāf of ifāḍah, which is a pillar of the pilgrimage. This does not preclude his having made saʿy after the arrival ṭawāf, which is not a pillar.’ End quote.

Al-Mughnī (5/245, Hajr edition) states: “Saʿy is subordinate to ṭawāf and is not valid unless preceded by a ṭawāf; if it is done beforehand it is invalid. This is also the view of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī and the scholars of the Ḥanafī school. ʿAṭāʾ held that it suffices, and from Aḥmad there are two reports: it suffices if the person forgot, but if he did it deliberately his saʿy does not suffice, because when the Prophet ﷺ was asked about doing rites earlier or later out of ignorance or forgetfulness he said, ‘No blame.’ The evidence for the first position is that the Prophet ﷺ performed saʿy only after his ṭawāf and said, ‘Learn your rites from me.’” End quote.

From the foregoing it is clear that the ḥadīth invoked by those who allow saʿy before ṭawāf affords them no support, for it must be understood in one of two ways: either it describes someone who made saʿy before the ṭawāf of ifāḍah after already having performed saʿy for arrival—so his saʿy still followed a ṭawāf—or it applies to a person acting out of ignorance or forgetfulness, not to one who does so intentionally.