What should be said, then, is that what Allah chose for His Prophet is the better of the two courses. As for his statement, peace and blessings be upon him:

“Had I known beforehand what I now know, I would not have done that,”

this is a judgment dependent upon a condition, and a conditional judgment does not apply when its condition is absent. He did not know beforehand what he later came to know. Allah Most High chose for him what he did, and chose that he should not know beforehand what he later came to know. Something being preferable under a particular assumption does not mean that it is preferable without qualification.

This is like his statement:

“Had I not been sent among you, Umar would have been sent among you.”

This does not indicate that Umar would have been the best of them had the Messenger not been sent, nor does it indicate that he is the best with the Messenger having been sent. Rather, Abu Bakr is better than him in the latter circumstances. But this shows that following the same practice is preferable to varying practices when such variation causes division and disunity. Such variation encompasses the choice of the better course by someone capable of the less excellent course, as well as the case of someone incapable of the less excellent course—as when someone able to bring a sacrificial offering chose the better course, alongside someone unable to bring one. This variation is preferable when there is no division, or when division is followed by harmony.

Some followers of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and others also erred concerning “the manner of his Hajj.” They thought that he performed Hajj alone, meaning that he entered ihram for Hajj alone and did not