[Explanation]

The author—may Allah have mercy on him—states, transmitting the words of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both): “While the Prophet ﷺ was still alive we used to say, ‘What is the Farewell Pilgrimage? We do not know what the Farewell Pilgrimage is.’”

The Farewell Pilgrimage is the pilgrimage the Prophet ﷺ performed in the tenth year after the Hijrah. On that occasion he bade the people farewell, saying, “Perhaps I shall not meet you again after this year of mine.”

After the Hijrah the Prophet ﷺ performed no Hajj except this one. It is reported that he undertook Hajj twice before the Hijrah, yet what seems more probable—and Allah knows best—is that he performed it more often. He was living in Mecca and would go out during the pilgrimage season to invite the tribes to Allah’s religion, and it is unlikely that he would set out without performing Hajj. In any case, what concerns us here is that he ﷺ performed Hajj only once after the Hijrah, at the end of his life in the tenth year.

He had not performed Hajj earlier because Mecca remained under the control of the idolaters until the eighth year. In that year he set out for al-Ṭāʾif, fought against Thaqīf, and the well-known Expedition of al-Ṭāʾif took place. He then returned, halted at al-Jiʿrānah, was brought the animals for an ʿumrah (lesser pilgrimage) at night—something most people did not witness—and thereafter went back to Madinah. All of this occurred in the eighth year.

In the ninth year delegations from every direction began arriving to see the Prophet ﷺ, so he remained in Madinah to receive them, sparing them the hardship of seeking him out. When the