The ruling on one who passes the miqat without entering ihram, then enters ihram after passing it

The questioner : Yes. He must return to the miqat. If he has passed it without entering ihram, then he has committed a serious error.

The Shaykh : No. If one passes the miqat without entering ihram and then enters ihram after passing it, the obligation of the sacrificial animal becomes established upon him, but we do not obligate him to return. We obligate him to return to the miqat before he enters ihram. This is a matter that students of knowledge should be alert to. Some of the common people think that a person has a choice between performing the obligatory act and the prohibited act, and this is a grave error.
For example, if someone says, "I have now taken half the distance between the miqat and Makkah. Do I have a choice to enter ihram from my current location and not go to the miqat, even though it is easy to reach, or is it obligatory for me to slaughter a sacrificial animal, or is it obligatory for me to go back to the miqat?" We say the latter: you must return to the miqat. You do not have a choice. You will find some people saying, "I will go, for example, to Jeddah, stay for two or three days, then enter ihram from Jeddah and slaughter a sacrificial animal." We say this is not permissible.