held by a number of the Companions, the Followers, and the great majority of Muslim jurists. Ibn al-Qāsim himself issued a legal ruling to that effect—his son ʿAbd al-Ṣamad asked him about it, and he told him that it was also the opinion of al-Layth ibn Saʿd. The well-known report from Ibn al-Qāsim, however, is that in his view no expiation attaches to an oath to walk to Mecca other than the walking itself for anyone who is able, and this is likewise Mālik’s position.
Whoever vows to perform Hajj or ʿUmrah must carry out that vow. If the Hajj of Islam is still due, he begins with it and then fulfils his vows; should he start with the vowed rite, it is still valid, though the preferred order is to discharge the obligatory Hajj first. If he vows to perform Hajj on foot, he must walk from the moment he enters iḥrām until he completes the ṭawāf and saʿy, unless he intended to walk for both Hajj and ʿUmrah starting from his own town—in which case it is according to his intention. During the Days of Minā he may ride while stoning the jamrah, but if he has deferred the ṭawāf al-ifāḍah he is not to ride when casting the pebbles. He may nonetheless ride in Minā for his personal needs just as he would in any other town or watering-place, and for any necessity to which he must return on the road.
If someone vows to perform Hajj in a particular year and misses it, he must make it up; another view holds that no make-up is required when the vow is tied to a specific year, unless he deliberately neglects it while able. Whoever vows to walk to the Kaʿbah and finds it necessary may walk while performing an ʿUmrah, then assume iḥrām for Hajj from within Mecca, thereby discharging both his vow and his obligation as a mutamattiʿ, provided his ʿUmrah falls in the months of Hajj. If he walks for his vow while intending thereby to fulfil his obligatory Hajj, Mālik and his associates report three opinions:
- His walking counts only for the vow, and the obligatory Hajj still stands.
- It suffices for the obligatory Hajj, but he must then make up the vow; this was the view of al-Mughīrah and ʿAbd al-Malik.
- It fulfils neither of them.
Whoever vows—or breaks an oath—to walk to a place other than Mecca, such as Egypt, Kūfah, Ṣanʿāʾ, or Aden, incurs nothing. But whoever says, “It is incumbent upon me to walk to the Kaʿbah,” or “to the House of God,” meaning the Kaʿbah, or “to Mecca,” “the Sacred Mosque,” “Zamzam,” “the Stone,” “the Corner,” or “the Station,” is held to that commitment.