You mentioned that the best form of Hajj is tamattu' and that 'Umrah is not prescribed for the people of Makkah, so how can they perform tamattu'?

The questioner : He said: You mentioned, O honorable Shaykh, that the best form of Hajj is tamattu', and you said that 'Umrah is not prescribed for the people of Makkah, so how can they perform tamattu' when 'Umrah is not prescribed for them?

The Shaykh : The scholars, or the majority of the scholars, held that the people of Makkah do not perform tamattu'; rather, tamattu' is for the one who comes to Makkah, even if he is from the people of Makkah. Accordingly, if a man is from the people of Makkah but works in Riyadh and comes from Riyadh to Makkah, he may perform 'Umrah from the miqat and be in the state of tamattu', but he owes no sacrificial animal, based on the saying of Allah the Exalted: However, if he moves from Makkah to another country and settles there, then when he returns in the state of ihram for 'Umrah, it is obligatory for him to offer the sacrificial animal of tamattu'. But the people of Makkah can combine Hajj and 'Umrah, meaning that a person enters the state of ihram from his place, from his home, for both Hajj and 'Umrah, and he becomes one who combines them, and the one who combines them owes the sacrificial animal of tamattu'.