al-Tanʿīm—I do not know whether they are rewarded for it or punished.” It was asked, “Why would they be punished?” He replied: “Because one of them abandons circumambulation of the House, goes out four miles, and then returns; by the time he returns from four miles away, he could have circumambulated two hundred times. Every time he circumambulates the House is better than walking for no purpose.” Imam Ahmad endorsed this.

ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib said: “We performed umrah after Hajj, and Saʿīd ibn Jubayr reproached us for doing so.” Others permitted it, though they did not do it themselves ...

Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Zād al-Maʿād (1/243): “Throughout his lifetime, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did not perform a single umrah by leaving Mecca, as many people do today. Rather, all his umrahs were performed upon entering Mecca. After the revelation began, he remained in Mecca for thirteen years, and there is absolutely no report that he performed umrah by leaving Mecca during that period. Thus, the umrah performed and legislated by the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, is the umrah of one entering Mecca, not that of one already there who goes out beyond the sacred precinct in order to perform umrah.

“No one at all did this during his time except ʿAʾishah alone, among all those who were with him. She had entered into ihram for umrah but then menstruated, so he instructed her to combine Hajj with her umrah, and she thereby became one performing Hajj and umrah together. He informed her that her circumambulation of the House and her rite between Safā and Marwah counted for both her Hajj and her umrah. Yet she felt distressed that her fellow women would return with a separate Hajj and umrah—for they had performed tamattuʿ and had neither menstruated nor combined Hajj and umrah—while she would return with an umrah subsumed within her Hajj. Therefore, he instructed her brother to take her to al-Tanʿīm for umrah, in order to comfort her. He himself did not perform umrah from al-Tanʿīm during that Hajj, nor did any of those with him.”

I say: What may cast doubt on his categorical denial at the end of his statement is what appears in a narration of al-Bukhārī (3/483–484) through Abū Nuʿaym: Aflah ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us from al-Qāsim, from ʿAʾishah; he then mentioned the account, which includes: “He called ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and said: ‘Take your sister out beyond the sacred precinct so that she may enter ihram for umrah; then both of you complete your circumambulation.’”