You have stated that ablution is obligatory for doing the tawaf around the Ka’abah. I have recently come across a ruling issued by the Deobandi School in India, stating that ablution is highly recommended for tawaf, but not obligatory. Please clarify.
The overwhelming majority of scholars consider ablution, an essential condition for tawaf, not merely obligatory. When we speak of a condition we mean that the action itself will not be valid if the condition is not met. There are several Hadiths supporting this. In one of them, Ibn Abbas quotes the Prophet, peace be upon him, as saying: “Tawaf is a prayer. However, God has allowed speaking during tawaf. Whoever speaks while doing it should only say something good.” (Related by Al-Tirmithi, Al-Hakim, Ibn Khuzaimah, Al-Daraqutni and others). Another highly authentic Hadith quotes Ayesha as saying: “The first thing the Prophet, peace be upon him, did on arriving in Makkah was to do the ablution and perform tawaf.” (Related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim).
If a person doing the tawaf experiences doubt as to whether he has performed the ablution before he started, his tawaf is not valid. He must leave and perform the ablution and come back for his tawaf. If he has done the tawaf of the Umrah and then realized, after completing it, that he had not done the ablution first, he remains in Ihram until he has done a new tawaf after doing the ablution.
However, the Hanafi school of Thought does not consider the ablution a condition for the validity of tawaf, but makes it a duty. This means that if a person doing the Umrah or the pilgrimage performs the tawaf without having done the ablution, his tawaf is valid but he must compensate for omitting the duty of purification by slaughtering a sheep and giving the sacrifice to the poor in the Haram area. If a pilgrim does the tawaf when he is in the state of ceremonial impurity, i.e. Janabah, or when a woman is in her period, the tawaf is valid but the compensation is a sacrifice of a cow or a camel, and they must repeat the tawaf while they are in Makkah.
As you see, the matter is serious indeed. I cannot find a basis for the ruling by the Deobandi School, which I certainly respect.
An account by Adil Salahi in his book entitled “Muhammad — Man & Prophet” presenting a Complete Study of the Life of the Prophet of Islam.
It is not our intention to give a detailed account of how the Prophet, peace be upon him, offered every duty of pilgrimage. That is more of a specialized study. The task of the biographer is to relate every major event in the life of the person whose biography he is writing to the main line of his life and the goals he sets out to achieve. He needs only to concentrate on these details which influence his decisions in major events.
In the case of the Prophet, peace be upon him, however, every detail is important. Since pilgrimage is a main act of worship, the way of the Prophet, peace be upon him, did and every detail in it forms part of his guidance and should, therefore, be recorded and studied. The place of such study, however, is not his biography. It should be pursued in the works, which document the Prophet’s actions and sayings, relate them to one another and deduce whether a certain action is obligatory, recommended, permissible, discouraged or prohibited.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, stayed in Makkah until the eighth day of Thul-Hijjah. When it was midday, he mounted his she-camel and went to Mina, where he spent the night. In the morning, he prayed Fajr in Mina, before leaving for Arafat after sunrise. At Arafat he delivered his major speech, still mounting his she-camel. A man with a loud voice called Rabee’ah ibn Ummayyah ibn Khalaf, stood next to the Prophet’s camel, repeating every sentence the Prophet, peace be upon him, said so that all those who were with the Prophet, peace be upon him, heard everything. The Prophet’s speech that day was the highlight of his pilgrimage, outlining the nature of Islamic society. As usual, his speech began with the praise and glorification of God. The Prophet, peace be upon him then went on to say: “People, listen to me as I explain to you, for I do not know whether I will ever meet you again in this place after this year. People, do you know in what month, day and city you are?”
They said: “We are on a sacred day, in a sacred month.” He said: “Know, then, that your blood, property and honor are forbidden to you till you meet your Lord in the same way as the sanctity of this day of yours, in this month of yours, in this city of yours. You will certainly meet your Lord and He will certainly question you about what you do. Have I delivered my message?”
They answered “Yes”. He said:
“My Lord, bear witness. He who holds something belonging to another for safekeeping must give it back to the person to whom it belongs. All usury transactions, which have been made in the past days of ignorance, are hereby abrogated. You may claim only your capital, neither inflicting nor suffering any injustice. God has decreed that no usury is permissible. The first usury transactions I abrogate are those of my uncle, Al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib. All cases of vengeance killings are hereby waived. The first case of killing I thus waive is that of Amir ibn Rabee’ah ibn Al Harith. Have I delivered my message?”
They said: “You have.” He said:
“My Lord, bear witness. People, the postponement of sacred months is an excess of disbelief, a means by which those who disbelieve are led astray. They declare this postponement to be permissible one year and forbidden in another, in order to conform outwardly to the number of months, which God has made sacred, and thus they make allowable what God has forbidden. The time has now been set back in its original fashion, which it had been when God created the heavens and the earth. The number of months, in the sight of God, is twelve, out of which four are sacred, three consecutive ones and one single one: Thul-Qa’adah, Thul-Hijjah, Muharram, and Rajab, which falls between Jumada and Sh’aban. This is the ever-true law of God. Do not, then, sin against yourselves with regard to these months. When I am gone, do not revert to disbelief, killing one another. Have I delivered my message?
They answered: “You certainly have.” He said:
My Lord, be my witness. People, you have an obligation towards your womenfolk and they have an obligation towards you. It is their duty not to allow into your homes anyone whom you dislike, without your permission. Should they do that, God has permitted you to desert them in bed, then to beat them without any severity. Should they desist, they have the right to be provided with food and clothing, in fairness. Your womenfolk are in your custody; they are helpless. You have taken them on the basis of a pledge to God, and they are lawful to you with God’s word. Fear God, then, in your treatment of women, and be kind to them. Have I delivered my message?”
They answered: "Yes, you most certainly have.” He said:
“My Lord, be my witness. People, Satan has given up any hope of being worshipped in this land of yours. He is satisfied, however, to be obeyed in matters, which you consider trivial. Guard yourselves against him, lest he corrupts your faith. I have left with you what should keep you safe from going astray should you hold fast to it. It is something clear and simple: God’s Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet. You will be questioned about me. What will you say?”
They said: “We bear witness that you have delivered your message complete and you have discharged your mission and given good counsel.”
The Prophet, peace be upon him, pointed his forefinger at the sky and lowered it to point to the people, saying all the time: “My Lord, bear witness. My Lord bear witness.” The Prophet, peace be upon him, then said:
“Let those who are present communicate what I have said to those who are not with us today. It may happen that those who come to know of it in this way may understand it better than some of those who have listened to it.”
Thus the Prophet, peace be upon him, concluded his major speech.
This memorable speech outlines five basic principles of the Islamic program of action. Two of these, work on the level of the individual and three relate to the structure of Islamic society. Islam molds the character of the Muslims on the basis of two fundamental principles. First, Islam severs all ties which a Muslim has with ignorance, its idols, practices, financial dealings, usury transactions and so on, because the adoption of the religion of Islam means a start of a new life for a Muslim, which is completely divorced from the erroneous ways of the past.
The second principle is to guard against all forms of sin. The effects of sin are far more serious than the danger presented by any enemy in battle. All catastrophes in this life are caused by our sin, which also lead us to suffer in the Hereafter. The Prophet, peace be upon him, also made it clear that he did not mean by sin the sinking back into idolatrous worship. Any intelligent person who comes to know of the faith based on the Oneness of God will never degrade himself to the extent of willingly accepting and claiming that God has partners. Yet the Evil One does not give up his attempts to seduce people into committing sins in order to lead them further astray.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, outlined three basic principles on which Islamic society is founded. The first ties the tie of Islamic brotherhood, which molds the proper relationship between all Muslims. It is this brotherhood which makes every Muslim a patron of every other Muslim, giving him whatever help he can.
The second principle is the co-operation between Islamic government and the members of Islamic society to achieve the proper implementation of Islamic law which works for the removal of all evil from society and its replacement with what is good.
The total sum of these five principles is to translate the Qur'an, and the Sunnah into practice. Hence, the Prophet, peace be upon him, did not forget to enjoin his companions to hold fast to them, and implement them in their lives. Short as it was, the Prophet’s speech included all the principles, which are needed for the molding of the perfect believer in Islam and the perfect Muslim society. Hence, the Prophet, peace be upon him, was keen to impress on his followers that he had delivered his message and discharged his mission. He repeatedly prayed to them to be his witness.
The Prophet’s pilgrimage was the only performance of this religious duty since God decreed it. When he completed that pilgrimage, the Muslims were able to follow his practical guidance in all aspects of Islam. There were several indications that suggested that the Prophet’s mission was approaching its end. So far, the Muslims were used to the fact that God’s messenger lived among them as one of them, receiving guidance directly from God, explaining to them the right course to follow in any problem they might have. To them, the prospect of continuing an Islamic life without the Prophet, peace be upon him, was something they could not contemplate. Yet the Prophet, peace be upon him, realized that that was inevitable. He, therefore, painstakingly tried to prepare them for that eventuality.
When he delivered his very important speech on the grand day of pilgrimage at Arafat, he started by saying to his companions: ‘Listen to me, for I do not know whether I will ever meet you again in this place after this year.’
That speech of the Prophet, peace be upon him, which highlighted the main principles of Islam and the foundation of Islamic society, was a farewell speech stressing the values in violation of which no Islamic society can retain its Islamic character. After every point the Prophet, peace be upon him, made in his speech, he asked his companions: ‘have I delivered my message?’ This was the attitude of a man, a Prophet, who understood well the value of his message and was keen to deliver it complete to the people so that they might implement it in practical life. When they declared that he certainly had delivered his message, the Prophet, peace be upon him, repeatedly asked God to be his witness to that.
If the message was duly delivered, and if the message, or the faith it represented, was complete, then the mission of the Prophet, peace be upon him, was over. Hence, when the Prophet, peace be upon him, recited to his companions during his pilgrimage the verse which was revealed to him: “This day I have completed your religion for you, and perfected My grace to you and approved Islam as your religion” — the significance was absolutely clear. Omar ibn Al-Khattab, the companion of the Prophet, peace be upon him, who was perhaps endowed with the keenest perception, was in tears when he listened to the Prophet, peace be upon him, reciting the verse. Asked by his colleagues why he was crying, he answered: “Nothing comes after perfection but imperfection.” One can imagine that he sensed that the Prophet’s life was drawing to a close.
Indeed, several statements of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and relevant incidents suggested to those who had keen insight that a great and noble life was approaching its end. When the Prophet, peace be upon him, went for stoning at Aqabah, he said to the great crowd of pilgrims surrounding him: “Learn from me your rites, for I may never offer the pilgrimage again after this year.”
Moreover, the Surah entitled “Al-Nasr” [or Victory] was revealed to the Prophet, peace be upon him, on the second day of his stay at Mina. It may be rendered in English as follows: “When God’s help and victory come, and you see people embracing God’s faith in groups, glorify your Lord and praise Him and ask His forgiveness, for He is much forgiving.” Two of the most learned companions of the Prophet, Omar ibn Al-Khattab and Abdullah ibn Abbas, the Prophet’s cousin, realized that the revelation of the Surah was an announcement to the Prophet, peace be upon him, that his time on earth would soon be over. ~
If a person is required to slaughter 7 sheep for mistakes done during the pilgrimage, is it sufficient for him to slaughter a cow or a camel?
No, it is not permissible to combine atonement in this way, even though it is permissible for seven people to share in the sacrifice of one cow or one camel instead of sacrificing seven sheep. In the latter case, the sacrifice is made to express gratitude to God for enabling us to do the pilgrimage (Hajj) and the Umrah in the same season. In compensatory sacrifice, this is made in atonement for mistakes or omissions. Hence, it cannot be combined.