Muharram began; then she would leave for al-Juhfah and enter into ihram there for an umrah, as stated in Ibn Taymiyyah’s Majmuʿ al-Fatawa (26/92). Al-Bayhaqi also related its meaning in al-Sunan al-Kubra (4/344), from Saʿid ibn al-Musayyib: ʿAʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, would perform umrah from al-Juhfah at the end of Dhu al-Hijjah. Its chain of transmission is authentic.

As for what Muslim narrated (4/36) through Matar, who said: Abu al-Zubayr said, “Whenever ʿAʾishah performed Hajj, she would do as she had done with the Prophet of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him”—there is reason to question its soundness. This Matar was al-Warraq, who was weak in his retention, especially since both al-Layth ibn Saʿd and Ibn Jurayj contradicted him in their narrations from Abu al-Zubayr, from Jabir, concerning the account of ʿAʾishah: neither of them mentioned what Matar narrated. Thus, it is anomalous or rejected. Even if it is authentic, it should be understood in light of what Saʿid ibn al-Musayyib narrated.

For this reason, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said in al-Ikhtiyarat al-ʿIlmiyyah (p. 119): “Leaving Mecca for a voluntary umrah is disliked. It is an innovation which neither the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, nor his Companions did during his lifetime, whether in Ramadan or at any other time. Nor did he instruct ʿAʾishah to do it; rather, after she repeatedly requested it, he permitted her in order to put her heart at ease. Circumambulating the House is, by consensus, better than leaving Mecca; and those who do not regard it as disliked permit leaving only as a matter of permissibility.”

This is the substance of what appears in some of his responses cited in Majmuʿ al-Fatawa (26/252–263). He then said (26/264): “For this reason, the early generations and the imams used to forbid it. Saʿid ibn Mansur narrated in his Sunan from Tawus—the foremost of Ibn ʿAbbas’s companions—who said: ‘Those who perform umrah from”