and they also agree that neither the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, nor any of the Companions except ʿĀ’ishah performed ʿumrah after Hajj. All this is agreed upon: the transmitted reports do not differ concerning it, nor has any scholar disputed it.

They did, however, disagree over whether he performed tamattuʿ, Hajj alone, or Hajj combined with ʿumrah—or whether he entered ihrām without specifying the form of pilgrimage. They found the hadiths concerning this confusing, although, praise be to Allah, these reports do not contradict one another for anyone who understands what the Companions meant by them.

Imam Ahmad’s explicitly recorded position is that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, combined ʿumrah and Hajj. Indeed, he said: “I have no doubt that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, combined them.” This is also the position of the leading hadith scholars, such as Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh and others. It is undoubtedly correct. Abū Muhammad ibn Hazm wrote a work on the Farewell Hajj in which he collected the transmitted reports and established this conclusion.

Ahmad preferred tamattuʿ only because the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, commanded his Companions to perform it—not because he believed that the Prophet himself performed tamattuʿ in its specific sense. Thus, in the report transmitted by al-Marwadhī, he said: “If one brings the sacrificial animals, combining Hajj and ʿumrah is preferable.” Unless Ahmad believed that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had combined Hajj and ʿumrah and brought the sacrificial animals, this position would have no basis. For had he believed that the Prophet performed tamattuʿ, then the Prophet would have both practised it and commanded it; there would then be no basis for preferring the combination of Hajj and ʿumrah for someone who brings the sacrificial animals.