The Sunnah reports only that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, would be asked about this and would reply:

“Do it; there is no harm.”

This was because they had performed the rites out of order without knowing; they had not deliberately contravened the Sunnah. The Quran, however, does prescribe an order, in His words:

“Do not shave your heads until the sacrificial offering reaches its place of slaughter.”

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, also said:

“I have garlanded my sacrificial animal and matted my hair, so I shall neither leave the state of ihrām nor shave my head until I have slaughtered it.”

And His words,

“Then let them complete their prescribed rites, fulfil their vows, and circumambulate the Ancient House,”

provide stronger evidence for a prescribed order than His words:

“Indeed, Safā and Marwah are among the symbols of Allah.”

It may, however, be said that they distinguished between the two on the grounds that the former is a single act of worship whose parts are interconnected, whereas the latter are separate acts of worship, like Hajj, ʿumrah, prayer, and zakat. This is how Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz distinguished between ablution and other acts of worship.

He said: All of that belongs to Hajj: the sacrificial offerings, slaughtering, shaving the head, and circumambulation. Hajj is a single act of worship. Thus, according to the majority of scholars, whenever someone has intercourse before the first release from ihrām, his Hajj is invalidated. Is this release attained as with sacrifice alone, or as with sacrifice and shaving? There are two reported positions.

Another example is someone who forgets some verses of a surah during the Ramadan night prayers. He need not repeat them or what follows them, even though, were he deliberately to reverse the order of a surah’s verses