The Farewell Ḥajj, the great gathering and the tamattuʿ

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

When exactly Allāh revealed the obligation of Ḥajj is a genuinely difficult question, tied to a classic point of fiqh: may a person who is able delay his Ḥajj a few years? Those who allow it argue that Ḥajj was made obligatory some years before the Prophet ﷺ went, so he too delayed; others hold the verse came down only in the ninth year or the very beginning of the tenth, so he went the moment it was obligatory. Ibn al-Qayyim and many scholars take the stricter view, that one may not delay once able. The truth is we do not know for certain, and historically most of the Ummah has not gone the same year they became able, so the balanced verdict is that with a sincere intention to go soon, some delay is permitted, though better not to delay. The verse itself is Āli ʿImrān 3:97: وَلِلَّهِ عَلَى النَّاسِ حِجُّ الْبَيْتِ مَنِ اسْتَطَاعَ إِلَيْهِ سَبِيلًا, "to Allāh mankind owes pilgrimage to the House, whoever is able to find a way", and Āli ʿImrān was revealed around Uḥud, which is one reason the timing is debated.

❧"Take your rites from me"

Jābir tells us the Prophet ﷺ spent nine years in Medina without performing Ḥajj, then announced in the tenth that he would go, and multitudes poured into Medina, everyone eager to make Ḥajj at his side and follow his every act. He had announced it a month or more ahead, so from across the lands the people flocked, and the city swelled; and along the entire road, tens of thousands more kept joining, until the Ṣaḥābah said that as far as the eye could see, before, behind, to the right, to the left, there was nothing but humanity. Never in his whole Sīrah did he ﷺ address a larger gathering. And he began telling them, خُذُوا عَنِّي مَنَاسِكَكُمْ, "take your rites from me", for he performed only one Ḥajj, and so the entire fiqh of Ḥajj, all its controversies and all the madhāhib, descends from that single pilgrimage: what did he do, and how, and was it obligatory, sunnah, wājib, or a rukn? Our early scholars simply give a round number, a hundred thousand, but in truth no one knows how many tens of thousands came; and the bulk of the Ṣaḥābah are unknown to us by name, having become Companions merely by making this Ḥajj with him and seeing him, so that the ḥadīth books are full of "a man who heard the Prophet's ﷺ sermon at Ḥajj," and we accept him though unnamed, because to have heard the Prophet ﷺ is to be a reliable narrator.

❧Ḥajjat al-Wadāʿ

Ibn Isḥāq says he left for Ḥajj on the 25th of Dhū al-Qaʿdah of the tenth year, having prayed Dhuhr in the masjid, and made his way to Dhū al-Ḥulayfah just outside Medina, where he prayed two rakʿah and entered iḥrām, this being only months before his death on the 12th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the eleventh year. The name Ḥajjat al-Wadāʿ, the Farewell Pilgrimage, was given in his own lifetime: Ibn ʿUmar relates in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim that on the Day of Sacrifice, Yawm al-Naḥr, the tenth of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, he ﷺ said هَذَا يَوْمُ الْحَجِّ الْأَكْبَرِ, kept repeating اللَّهُمَّ فَاشْهَدْ, "O Allāh, bear witness," and was bidding the people farewell, وَوَدَّعَ النَّاسَ. So the people began calling it the Ḥajj of farewell, though, Ibn ʿUmar says, "we did not grasp what it meant": that he ﷺ was truly taking his leave, that he was about to pass away. It had not yet clicked in their minds, for he had a premonition of the end that they did not share.

❧The change to tamattuʿ

He reached Mecca on the 4th of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, exactly ten days, the average for a large caravan going at a steady pace. He arrived by night and camped outside, for it was not his sunnah to enter a city at night, and out of adab for the Kaʿbah he did not wish to come to it tired; he rested, prayed Fajr, made ghusl in iḥrām (which shows ghusl in iḥrām is allowed), and entered on the Sunday morning to make ṭawāf, the first three rounds briskly, the rest at a walk. Then he announced a change: لَوِ اسْتَقْبَلْتُ مِنْ أَمْرِي مَا اسْتَدْبَرْتُ, "had I known at the outset what I know now, I would not have made the intention to combine Ḥajj and ʿUmrah, and would not have brought my sacrificial animals; I would have made tamattuʿ." He had changed his mind but could not now act on it, for one who brings hady must remain in iḥrām until the animals are sacrificed. (He had told ʿAlī to bring a hundred camels from Yemen, which shows one need not physically drive the animal, the intention that "this is my hady" suffices.) So he ordered everyone who had not brought animals to come out of iḥrām entirely and become lawful again, and when some asked, "O Messenger of Allāh, how can we become lawful, do you mean even to our families, whom we brought with us?" he said, "Yes, everything is lawful." This was new; pre-Islam had never permitted stepping out of iḥrām between ʿUmrah and Ḥajj. ʿĀʾishah narrates in al-Bukhārī that from this some made the intention for both together, Qirān; some for ʿUmrah then Ḥajj, Tamattuʿ; and some for Ḥajj alone, Ifrād; all three valid, with only a dispute over which is best. The Prophet ﷺ himself did Qirān, staying in iḥrām throughout, but clearly told the Ṣaḥābah to do Tamattuʿ, and some, especially latecomers, did Ifrād.

❧ʿAlī returns from Yemen

ʿAlī had been sent to Yemen as a judge and arbitrator; the Prophet ﷺ now sent word for him to bring a hundred camels and meet him at Mecca. ʿAlī arrived with an entourage, in iḥrām, and went straight to Fāṭimah's tent to greet her after a long absence, only to find her in ordinary clothes, perfumed, with kuḥl in her eyes. Angered, "we are doing Ḥajj; how are you dressed like this?", he was told, "my father, the Prophet ﷺ, commanded us to leave iḥrām." This was news to ʿAlī, and he went to the Prophet ﷺ, confused about what was happening. The Prophet ﷺ confirmed it, "she has spoken the truth; I commanded them to leave iḥrām, and you may too", and asked with what intention ʿAlī had entered. ʿAlī answered that on setting out from Yemen he had said, لَبَّيْكَ عَلَى نِيَّةِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ, "at Your service, upon the intention of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ." Not knowing what to name, he had simply bound himself to whatever the Prophet ﷺ intended, which shows, the shaykh notes, the very station of ʿAlī. And so, like the Prophet ﷺ, ʿAlī remained in iḥrām throughout, doing Qirān.