And Muhammad’s guidance for someone whose feet are uncovered is to wash them, not deliberately to put on leather socks in order to wipe over them. For someone already wearing leather socks, his guidance is to wipe over them, not to remove them and wash his feet—even though wiping over leather socks is a substitute. The same applies to the sacrificial offering. Even if it serves as a substitute in return for the ease of being spared one of the two journeys, combining Hajj and ʿumrah is preferable, for someone who has arrived during the months of Hajj, to performing Hajj alone and following it with ʿumrah.

A substitute may even be obligatory, as with Friday prayer: although it is a substitute for the noon prayer, it is obligatory. Likewise, someone unable to use water is obliged to perform dry ablution, even though it is a substitute. If a substitute can be obligatory, then it can all the more readily be recommended. Thus, it is recommended for a traveller to refrain from fasting and make up the fast later, although making it up is a substitute for observing it at its appointed time. Likewise, a sick person who finds fasting difficult refrains from fasting and makes it up later, although making it up is a substitute.

An intervening release from ihrām does not prevent the whole from being regarded as a single act of worship. The obligatory circumambulation, for example, is part of completing Hajj by the consensus of the Muslims, yet it is performed only after the first release from ihrām. Stoning the pillars during the days at Minā is also part of completing Hajj. If a person has performed the circumambulation before that, he stones the pillars during the days at Minā after having fully left ihrām. This is the Sunnah, as practised by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. And during the month of Ramadan, fasting by day is interspersed with