Chapter on Ihrām (Ritual Consecration)

Shaykh al-Islām was asked:

“The scholars of our school—may Allah have mercy on them—have reported differing views concerning whether ihrām is an essential pillar of Hajj. Elsewhere, however, they state that ihrām means the intention to perform Hajj. How, then, can there be disagreement concerning intention, when a legally valid Hajj is inconceivable without it? Please clarify this for us; may you be richly rewarded.”

He replied:

“All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. This question can be answered in two ways: generally and in detail.

“As for the general answer, we say: Regarding the intention to perform Hajj or ʿumrah, there is no disagreement among the scholars of our school or the rest of the Muslims that Hajj is valid only with intention, whether that of the pilgrim himself or of the person taking him on Hajj, as when a guardian takes a child on Hajj. If a man were to perform the rites of Hajj without intending it, his Hajj would not be valid, just as prayer and fasting are not valid without intention. This holds whether one maintains that Hajj is initiated by intention alone, or that it requires both intention and some further utterance or action, such as reciting the pilgrim’s invocation or garlanding a sacrificial animal—a matter of disagreement