Al-Ṭabarī said: The Prophet ﷺ only lifted the blame after the deed had already fulfilled the requirement, for had it not done so he would have ordered the person to repeat it; ignorance and forgetfulness do not exempt the accountable believer from the ruling that binds him in ḥajj. By the same token, if someone omits the stoning or a similar rite, he is not sinful when the omission was out of ignorance or forgetfulness, yet he must still go back and perform it.

The position espoused by the two Imams, al-Shāfiʿī and Aḥmad, is likewise the view of the majority of the Successors, the early scholars, and the jurists of ḥadith, as indicated by the previously cited proofs and others.

Some scholars, however, held that the removal of sin is confined to cases of forgetfulness or ignorance, because the questioner in the ḥadith said, “I was unaware.” Accordingly, they restrict the concession to that circumstance, while the deliberate offender remains bound by the original obligation to follow the Prophet ﷺ in the rites, in view of his statement, “Take your rites from me.” This, as noted earlier, is the crux of the disagreement over sin or its absence.

Regarding validity, Shaykh Ibn Qudāmah says in al-Mughnī: “We know of no disagreement among them that departing from the prescribed order does not invalidate these acts nor prevent them from counting.”

They did, however, differ over whether a compensatory sacrifice is required from the person who performs any of these four rites out of sequence. The majority of the early scholars and the jurists of ḥadith—including Imams al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, ʿAṭāʾ, and Isḥāq—maintained that no such sacrifice is due, whether the act was deliberate or not. Their evidence is the permissibility of the act, the removal of sin, and the Prophet’s ﷺ word to the questioner, “There is no sin,” which they understand to lift both liability for sin and for a sacrifice, since the term ḥaraj (constraint) covers them both. Imposing a sacrifice requires explicit proof; had it been obligatory, the Prophet ﷺ would have clarified it at the moment of need, and postponing that clarification is untenable.

Another group of scholars—including Saʿīd ibn Jubayr and Qatādah—ruled that a sacrifice is obligatory when the act is deliberate, citing the verse, “And do not shave your heads until the sacrificial animal has reached its place of slaughter” (Quran 2:196), as well as the Prophet’s ﷺ ordering of the rites and his saying, “Take your rites from me.” This opinion is also narrated from Imam Aḥmad.

Al-Athram reports: “I heard Abū ʿAbd Allah (Imam Aḥmad) being asked about a man who shaved before slaughtering. He said, ‘If he was ignorant, no sacrifice is due; but if he did it deliberately, then one is due, because the man who questioned the Prophet ﷺ said, “I was unaware.”’”

After citing Imam Aḥmad’s words, Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd commented: “This view—that no sacrifice is required of the ignorant or the forgetful, whereas it is required of the deliberate offender—is strong, for the evidence indicates the obligation of following the Prophet’s ﷺ actions in ḥajj by virtue of his statement, ‘Take your rites from me.’”