are among them, and both must be gone between.

“Whoever performs pilgrimage to the House or undertakes Umrah incurs no sin by going between them.” Hajj, linguistically, means intending a destination, while Umrah means visiting; the prescribed Hajj and Umrah involve both intention and visitation. “He incurs no sin” means that he bears no sin. Its root is janaha, meaning to incline away from what is right. “By going between them” means by passing back and forth between them. The word originally takes the form yatatawwafu, with the t assimilated into the following ṭ.

The reason for the revelation of this verse was that there were two idols upon al-Safa and al-Marwah: Asaf and Na'ilah. Asaf stood on al-Safa, and Na'ilah on al-Marwah. In the time of ignorance, people would go between al-Safa and al-Marwah in veneration of the two idols, touching them. When Islam came and the idols were destroyed, the Muslims felt reluctant to perform the sa'i between al-Safa and al-Marwah because of the two idols. So Allah permitted it and declared that it was among the sacred rites of Allah. (1)

The scholars differed concerning the legal import of this verse and whether the sa'i between al-Safa and al-Marwah is obligatory in Hajj and Umrah. A group held that it is obligatory. This was the view of Ibn Umar, Jabir, and Aishah; it was also held by al-Hasan, and adopted by Malik and al-Shafi'i. Others held that it is voluntary. This was the view of Ibn Abbas, and was also held by Ibn Sirin and Mujahid; it was adopted by Sufyan al-Thawri and the proponents of legal reasoning. Al-Thawri and the proponents of legal reasoning said that whoever omits it must offer a sacrificial animal. (2)

Those who held it to be obligatory cited what Abd al-Wahhab ibn Muhammad al-Kisa'i, the preacher, informed us: Abd al-Aziz ibn Ahmad al-Khallal informed us; Abu al-Abbas Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Asamm informed us; al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman informed us; al-Shafi'i informed us; Abd Allah ibn Mu'ammal al-A'idhi informed us, from Amr ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhaysin, from Ata' ibn Abi Rabah, from Safiyyah bint Shaybah, who said: The daughter of Abu Tijarah—whose name was Habibah, one of the women of Banu Abd al-Dar—told me, saying: “I entered with a group of women…”