—greatly.

Disputation is excused only when its aim is to establish the truth and demolish falsehood; in that case it is obligatory. If an innovator comes and starts arguing while one is in a state of iḥrām, one must not leave him unanswered; rather, one engages him and clarifies the truth, for Allah has commanded: “Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good admonition, and argue with them in the manner that is best” (16:125).

By contrast, argument without a valid reason—quarrelling about who should go first, jostling at the stoning of the jamarāt, at the airport, and similar situations—only diminishes the reward of the pilgrimage. One must therefore avoid such disputes, for an accepted Hajj has no reward but Paradise.

Whoever performs Hajj and refrains from rafath (sexual conduct) and from sin returns as on the day his mother bore him—that is, he comes back free of every sin, pure as a newborn.

In the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah, when she asked the Prophet ﷺ whether jihad is the most virtuous of deeds, he replied, “Rather, the most virtuous deed is an accepted Hajj”—and this concerns women.

Thus a woman’s jihad is her pilgrimage, whereas for men striving in the path of Allah is superior to Hajj, except for the obligatory pilgrimage, which outweighs jihad because it is a pillar of Islam.

Taken together, these ḥadīths show that deeds vary in merit according to the person performing them. In the report of Abū Hurayrah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The best deeds are faith in Allah, then striving in His path, then pilgrimage,” and in the report of Ibn Masʿūd he asked the Prophet