entered iḥrām for ḥajj. This division makes it clear that his entry into iḥrām was for ḥajj alone. Ibn al-Qayyim then set out a series of reports in the two Ṣaḥīḥs and elsewhere, all of which indicate that he performed an ifrād pilgrimage, that he entered iḥrām for ḥajj, and that his pilgrimage was not an ʿumrah.

A number of scholars, however, held that he performed a tamattuʿ pilgrimage. Their proof is the statement they heard that the Prophet ﷺ “performed tamattuʿ.” In their terminology a mutamattiʿ is someone who, during the months of ḥajj, enters iḥrām for a standalone ʿumrah, intending—once it is finished—to enter iḥrām again for ḥajj.

They also cite the report from Muʿāwiyah that he shortened the Prophet’s hair with a mashqas (a small blade) during the ten days (1).

Another group maintained that the Prophet ﷺ performed qirān, and this is the correct view to which the authentic evidence can most readily be referred. Ibn al-Qayyim presented more than twenty sound, explicit hadiths supporting it, many of them found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs or in one of them.

Among these is Muslim’s narration from Ibn ʿUmar: he combined ḥajj with ʿumrah, performed one ṭawāf for both, and then said, “This is what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did.” Another is the report that both Ṣaḥīḥs transmit from Ḥafṣah: I asked the Prophet ﷺ, “Why have the people come out of iḥrām while you have not disengaged from your ʿumrah?” He replied, “I have garlanded my sacrificial animals and treated my hair with gum; I will not come out of iḥrām until I complete my ḥajj.” This shows that he was performing an ʿumrah that was joined to ḥajj.

He ﷺ also said, “Had I known beforehand what I know now, I would not have driven the sacrificial animals, and I would have come out of iḥrām with you.” This is an explicit indication that he remained in his ḥajj and did not exit iḥrām until the Day of Sacrifice. He ﷺ further declared, “I have driven the sacrificial animals and performed qirān.”

Imam Aḥmad said, “There is no doubt that the Prophet ﷺ was a qārin.”

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) is likewise among those who hold that he performed qirān, and he reconciles the apparently divergent narrations, saying:

“The correct view is that the hadiths on this question are in agreement, with only slight differences of the kind found elsewhere. For the Companions, it is firmly reported that ‘he practiced tamattuʿ,’ and in their usage tamattuʿ includes qirān. Those from whom it is narrated that ‘he performed ifrād’ also relate that he practiced tamattuʿ; by this they mean that he performed the actions of ḥajj in one journey—he did not travel twice for the two rites, nor perform two separate circumambulations, nor two separate saʿys.”

(1)