I would like to do the Umrah on behalf of my grandparents who died a long time ago. How do I proceed about this?
Of course you may do the Umrah on behalf of your deceased grandparents. You should, however, do it separately on behalf of each one of them. You cannot do one Umrah and intend it on behalf of both your grandparents. That is not possible.
When you wish to do the Umrah on behalf of your grandfather, you proceed with your preparations normally. At the point of Meeqat, you enter into the state of consecration and declare your intention of doing the Umrah on behalf of the person you choose. Then you proceed to Makkah and when you get to the Haram, you do the other three duties of Umrah, namely, the tawaf, sa'ie and the shaving of your head or the cutting of your hair. That would complete the Umrah. You then release yourself from the state of consecration.
If you wish to make use of your presence in Makkah to do the Umrah on behalf of your other grandparent, then you may go to the nearest point of the 'hill' area, which is a place called At-Taneem, about six kilometers away, and re-enter into the state of consecration and declare your intention of doing the Umrah on behalf of the person you wish. You then proceed to the Haram and carry on with the duties of the Umrah. If you have shaved your head the first time, then you go over it with the razor again before you release yourself from consecration. If you have cut or trimmed your hair, you cut part of it again [or shave it.]
• Umrah: Shaving or shortening the hair after Umrah
Many people do not shave their heads at the conclusion of Umrah. Is this permissible? If one wants to offer more than one Umrah, how could he shave?
It is sufficient to shorten one's hair, or even to shorten a few hairs in order to fulfill the requirement of Umrah. It is certainly more preferable to shave one's head, since the Prophet prayed three times for those who shaved before including [a prayer] those who shortened their hair. However, if one prefers to keep his hair for any reason, he violates no rule or regulation of Umrah. If you have shaved your hair after completing one Umrah, and then you performed another, you can fulfill the requirement of going over your head with a razor.
• Umrah: Tawaf of ziyarat and wid’a
I have done the Umrah several times but on no occasion did I do either the tawaf of ziyarat or wid’a. How necessary are these? What if a person goes to Makkah and does the tawaf only?
If I understand you correctly, you seem to have been told that these two types of tawaf should be performed with Umrah. If so, then you have been given wrong information.
The Umrah has four duties to be performed: Ihraam or consecration, tawaf which is to walk round the Ka'aba 7 times in an anti-clockwise movement, sa'ie which is a brisk walk between the two hills of Al-Safa and Al-Marwah 7 times, and shaving one's head or trimming one's hair. This means that there is only one tawaf required with Umrah.
The two Tawaf which you have mentioned are required with pilgrimage, not Umrah. The first one, ziyarat, which is also called Ifadah, is one of the essentials of the pilgrimage, in the sense that if it is not done then the pilgrimage is not done.
The other, wid’a, is meant as farewell to the Ka'aba. This is also done in pilgrimage and it is a duty. It is indeed the last item a pilgrim does before he leaves Makkah. Its omission requires a compensation by slaughtering a sheep and giving all its meat to the poor in the Haram area.
If one goes to Makkah without any intention to do either the Umrah or the pilgrimage, he does not need to be in consecration. For a resident in Jeddah like yourself, you may go there anytime without doing the Umrah. You may do the tawaf at any time.
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