such as ʿUmar and ʿUthmān, prohibited entering consecration before reaching the designated geographical boundary. Mālik was asked about a man who had entered consecration before that boundary. He replied, “I fear that he may be put to trial,” and cited the words of Allah Most High:

“So let those who oppose his command beware lest a trial afflict them.”

The questioner said, “What trial could there be in that? It is merely an additional act of obedience to Allah Most High.”

He replied, “What trial could be greater than thinking that you have been singled out to perform an act that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not perform?”—or words to that effect.

He also used to say, “Nothing will set right the later generations of this community except what set right its first generations.” And: “Whenever someone comes to us who is more skilled in argument than another, are we to abandon what Gabriel brought to Muhammad because of this man’s arguments?”

The position of the scholars of Medina is that if a pilgrim has intercourse after standing at ʿArafāt but before leaving consecration, his Hajj is invalidated. Whoever has intercourse after the first stage of release from consecration must perform an ʿumrah. This is what has been transmitted from the Companions, rather than the view that intercourse after standing at ʿArafāt does not invalidate Hajj, or the view that intercourse after the first stage of release does not require entering consecration again.

In this, Mālik followed the opinion of Ibn ʿAbbās and mentioned it in his Muwattaʾ. However, he did not name the person who transmitted it from Ibn ʿAbbās, since its transmitter was ʿIkrimah, because of what had reached him concerning ʿIkrimah from Ibn ʿUmar and Saʿd—although his final assessment was that ʿIkrimah was reliable. For this reason, al-Bukhārī included narrations from him.

If it is said, “He went against the hadith of Dubāʿah bint al-Zubayr concerning her stipulation