completing ʿumrah. It is clear, then, that entering ihrām for Hajj earlier is preferable to delaying it. Thus, qirān is preferable for someone who has brought sacrificial animals.

The second difference is that, according to Ahmad, someone performing qirān performs saʿy—the ritual walking between Safā and Marwah—only once, just like someone performing Hajj alone. For someone performing tamattuʿ, however, he prefers that saʿy be performed twice, although he explicitly states that performing it once suffices, just as it does for someone performing Hajj alone or qirān. On this basis, tamattuʿ would be distinguished by an additional, recommended saʿy. Yet he also recommends that someone performing tamattuʿ first perform the arrival circumambulation after returning from ʿArafah. Thus, someone performing tamattuʿ would circumambulate twice after ʿArafah and perform saʿy a second time.

Someone performing qirān, by contrast, performs the same rites as someone performing Hajj alone. All of this, however, is disputed. Another position within Ahmad’s school holds that a second saʿy is obligatory for someone performing tamattuʿ.

Another position holds that someone performing qirān must circumambulate twice and perform saʿy twice, as in the school of Abū Hanīfah.

Yet another position holds that the arrival circumambulation is not recommended for someone performing tamattuʿ. This is the correct view. Indeed, a second saʿy is not recommended for him either, for the Companions who performed Hajj with the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—performed saʿy only once. This makes clear why performing qirān while bringing sacrificial animals is preferable to performing tamattuʿ without bringing them. If, however, the rites of someone performing tamattuʿ include an additional obligatory or recommended saʿy