Q. May I ask why do we perform the tawaf in seven rounds? Does the number 7 have any particular significance in this regard?
A. Khan
A. As you probably know, tawaf is an act of worship, akin to prayer. Indeed it is described as a prayer, except that talking does not invalidate it, as it invalidates prayer. In all acts of worship, we do not ask why they are required to be offered in a certain fashion. We do them simply because God requires us to do them in that way. Thus, we pray five times a day, a total of 17 rak’ahs, and fast the month of Ramadan. Why does obligatory prayer consist of 17 rak’ahs and not a different number is not an important question. When the Prophet offered his pilgrimage, he said to his companions: “Learn your pilgrimage rituals from me.” He thus indicated that the pilgrimage, and all its duties and recommended practices, should be done as he did them at the time. He did the tawaf seven times, and this is how Muslims have been doing ever since.
The number 7 is often used in Arabic in the sense of “many”, rather than the precise number. For example, God says in the Qur’an: “Were all the trees on earth to be made into pens, and the sea ink, with seven more seas yet added to it, the words of God would not be exhausted.” (31: 27) The “seven more seas” is a figurative phrase here in the sense that God’s words would not be exhausted with any number of seas being made into ink.
