I often receive queries about the performance of the pilgrimage and the Umrah indicating some unforeseen problems. In their eagerness to perform these highly spiritual and richly rewarding duties, some people try to evade official regulations. What happens if a person who has started his journey intending to do the Umrah and entered into the state of consecration is stopped at the checkpoint and discovered to be in breach of the regulations? He may be told that he cannot continue his journey and must return without performing his religious duty. He will then find himself in a difficult position, not knowing how to release himself from consecration.
The first point to make in this connection is that God has made the performance of the pilgrimage and Umrah duties conditional on being able to undertake them. This condition of ability is all important. If a person does not meet it, then the duty is not applicable to him. Scholars of old times, when there was no restriction on travel, specified that ability covers both the physical and financial aspects. A person who wanted to do either duty should be able to physically withstand the strain of travel and should have the financial means to pay his own expenses and those of his family’s living during the entire period of his trip. They also spoke of safety along the road, making clear that if one’s route is unsafe, then the duty does not apply.
In our own times we must add compliance with official regulations concerning travel and other relevant issues. Certain governments impose a ceiling on the number of pilgrims allowed each year, and require people to apply for permits early. Suppose a rich person who is in good health applies for a permit year after year without success. If that person dies without offering the pilgrimage, he will not be considered to have failed in performing this religious duty. For more than 70 years Muslims in the former Soviet Union were not allowed to travel for pilgrimage. Hence, they did not meet the condition of ability that makes the pilgrimage duty applicable to them. Islam does not require them to expose themselves to endless trouble by trying to cross the borders into another country from where to travel.
Unfortunately some people take a careless attitude to official restrictions, particularly when it comes to offering the Umrah and the pilgrimage. They forget that it is the responsibility of the Saudi authorities to issue the necessary regulations to organize the process of offering the Umrah and the pilgrimage in order to ensure the safety of the worshippers and their ability to fulfill their duties. It is also the responsibility of every individual who wishes to offer the pilgrimage and the Umrah to ensure compliance with these regulations. If he violates such regulations, he is also in breach of Islamic teachings, because Islam requires its followers to obey the orders of an Islamic government, provided always that these orders remain within what is permissible from the Islamic point of view and are intended to serve the interests of the Muslim community. All regulations concerning travel for performing the Umrah and the pilgrimage fall within this category. Therefore, they must be observed by prospective pilgrims.
The Umrah After Ramadan
A different area of restrictions is that of religious rules concerning the Umrah and the pilgrimage. Here we find people keen to comply. However, they may often be confused, which could result in their observance of imaginary rules. One of the most commonly held of these imaginary rules is that a person who offers the Umrah after Ramadan must offer the pilgrimage in the same year. This is totally mistaken, as there is no such rule. The Prophet (peace be upon him) offered the Umrah four times, all of which were in the month of Dul Qaada, which is one of the pilgrimage months. Yet the Prophet offered the pilgrimage only once, combining it with one of these four Umrahs. Therefore, it is wrong to suggest that the Umrah cannot be offered in these months unless it is accompanied by offering the pilgrimage.
The confusion arises from the fact that one of the methods of pilgrimage, the tamattu’ method, requires the pilgrim to slaughter a sheep in expression of gratitude to God for enabling him to offer both duties in the same season. This method means that when a pilgrim arrives in Makkah at any time from the first day of Shawwal to the 8th of Dul Hijjah, he starts with offering the Umrah and releases himself from the state of ihraam, or consecration, immediately after he finishes it. None of the restrictions of ihraam applies to him after that until the 8th of Dul Hijjah when he is required to enter into the state of consecration again in order to offer the pilgrimage.
Therefore, if one offers the Umrah in Shawwal or Dul Qaada or the early days of Dul Hijjah, without intending to do the pilgrimage in the same year, he is perfectly entitled to do that. He receives God’s reward for his action and he is required to do nothing by way of compensation, since he has done no mistake. If it so happens that when the time of pilgrimage approaches, he also offers the pilgrimage, he is deemed to have opted for the tamattu’ method which requires that a sheep must be slaughtered. This is the case even if he mistakenly declares his pilgrimage to be in the ifraad method, which does not involve offering the Umrah.
Thus we see that the commonly held notion that the Umrah cannot be offered after Ramadan unless combined with the pilgrimage is mistaken. In fact, the reverse is true. Hence, we need to recap: Offering the Umrah in the intervening period between Ramadan and the time when the pilgrimage is due is perfectly valid and in order. If the pilgrimage is then offered in the same year, that Umrah counts as one completed requirement and the pilgrimage is deemed to be offered in the tamattu’ method. No second Umrah is required. A Sheep needs to be sacrificed in gratitude to God. The pilgrim and his family may partake of the meat of that sacrifice because it is a sacrifice of gratitude.
The Umrah in the Pilgrimage Days
On a totally different point, people say that the Umrah cannot be offered on the 9th 10th or 11th of Dul Hijjah. If they mean that a person who is offering the pilgrimage cannot do the Umrah on these days, they are correct, except in the case of one arriving in Makkah early on 9th Dul Hijjah, starting with the Umrah and then beginning his pilgrimage on the same day. But then such a pilgrim is better advised to do his pilgrimage and Umrah in the qiran method. The restriction on doing the Umrah in these days applies particularly to pilgrims opting for the ifraad method of pilgrimage. These pilgrims should wait until the 14th of Dul Hijjah when they should go out to Al-Taneem or any point at the boundaries of the Haram area where they enter into the state of consecration, making their intention to do the Umrah and come back to Makkah to fulfill its duties.
However, a person who is not doing the pilgrimage may offer the Umrah at any time, even on the Day of Arafat, or on the Day of Sacrifice. Take, for example, the case of a person traveling from Europe or Africa to Pakistan, India or any eastern destination. He makes a stopover at Jeddah for one day or a few hours, during which he wishes to perform the Umrah. There is nothing to prevent him from doing so, if he has the appropriate visa or transit permit. If such a traveler arrives in Jeddah on the Day of Arafat, he may go ahead and do the Umrah. There is nothing to prevent him from doing so.