Ruling on Repeating 'Umrah

The Shaykh : For example, take this case: a person performed 'Umrah. Does he repeat it? We were out yesterday for the first time after my illness, and we went to a farm, and we were asked about repeating 'Umrah. I told him there are three cases. In three cases, we cannot provide a practical proof from the righteous Salaf for every single one of them, but these are matters that occur, so they must have an answer. Each case, as will be explained, has a jurisprudential perspective, but one is stronger than the other. Why? Because the stronger one gives us assurance that the Salaf did not do this, whereas the one that is rare in occurrence—we cannot say whether the Salaf did it or did not do it—so we give an answer that may differ from the first. For example, I said that for the one who has performed 'Umrah, there are three forms in which he can perform a second 'Umrah or not. First, we said that the one who performed 'Umrah, whether it was 'Umrah al-Hajj, 'Umrah in Ramadan, or an independent 'Umrah, is not permitted to perform 'Umrah from al-Tan'im, or as they say today, from the Mosque of 'A'ishah, because this is what we call the 'Umrah of the menstruating woman, and you have an idea of that, of course.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : We deny this because we know that thousands upon thousands of the Salaf were with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and none of them performed the 'Umrah of 'A'ishah. Here we have a very clear basis from the actions of the Salaf, so saying this is not prescribed leads to the second stage. Here lies the precision in the matter: a man performed 'Umrah, but he wants to perform 'Umrah on behalf of someone for whom it is permissible for him to perform it, such as his father or mother. Is he permitted to perform a second 'Umrah? We say yes, but not from al-Tan'im, rather from Dhu al-Hijrah. Where do we get this from? We cannot derive it, neither negatively nor positively, from the actions of the Salaf because it is rare in occurrence. And for this rare case, we should derive the ruling from the general principles of the Shari'ah and the general evidences. We come to the example, or the third and final type: the one who has performed 'Umrah, is he permitted to repeat 'Umrah during the year? We said recently, yes, but from his home. From his home means he initiates a specific journey for this 'Umrah. And I take these details from what has settled in my mind, or... The last type: you must have read or heard that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), despite his knowledge of the saying of Allah the Exalted: , prohibited tamattu' with 'Umrah for Hajj... And the prohibition, how was it? It was reported from him that he explained the reason for it by saying that he wanted to increase the number of people walking to visit the Sacred House of Allah. So in his mind was a noble goal, which was to increase travel to the Sacred Mosque. This goal that settled in his chest (may Allah be pleased with him) led him to change the legal ruling for a benefit he saw, as he did in some other rulings, such as, for example, advancing the prayer before its time... and so on. He was right and he was wrong; that is another discussion, because the answer is easy: As for us, we do not agree with him in this or that. We do not say that 'Umrah is prohibited after Hajj, after he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: But the intention is to benefit from this error: the goal is correct, which he pursued, and it led him to suspend this legal ruling, saying, "No, you must separate them, so that after 'Umrah there is a journey..." So I say that if a person, for example, is wealthy in means and wealthy in spirit, and wants to repeat 'Umrah during the year, if he is from his home... this third type is permissible. These three types are... whether in terms of scholarly weight or in terms of divine reward. These are matters of ijtihad; we do not obligate anyone with them, but we say this is what we have. So whoever has a deeper understanding, let him bring it to us.