What is the ruling on the one who leaves 'Arafah before sunset and then returns?

The questioner : Those who shortened the prayer.

The Shaykh : I say that as long as these people are following some scholars and they are ignorant—meaning, I say they are ignorant and did not know that there is another opinion—there is nothing on them. Yes. What is ordinary?

The questioner : Before the sun set, and then he did not ask until after the night prayer.

The Shaykh : He returns. Yes, it is feared, because the obligatory thing is to combine the day and the night at 'Arafah, but some scholars say that even if he returns, the blood [sacrifice] remains incumbent upon him, because he abandoned the obligatory act. And his return after the sun has set does not benefit him, as you found difficult. You are now finding it difficult regarding the time, for example, at night, and what is the benefit? So some scholars hold that if the sun sets before he returns, then blood [sacrifice] is upon him, and this is what was followed in *Zad al-Mustaqni*: he stays, even if for a short time, he does not contradict [the ruling]. If he returns before sunset, then there is no blood [sacrifice] upon him, unanimously. And if he returns after sunset and before dawn, some of the scholars say that the blood [sacrifice] became incumbent upon him with the setting of the sun, and this return of his does not remove the blood [sacrifice] from him, and the school of thought is that it removes it from him. Did you take that? Yes.