Answer
Wa `alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
One who goes to Madinah after doing Umrah for tamattu doesn’t break his tamattu as long as he is not a resident of the Madinah itself.
Responding to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
Although there are considerable different opinions among scholars on this issue, the view we have endorsed is held by a number of scholars from the past as well as the present.
It is the one that seems to be strong in light of the evidences as it conforms to the established principles of the Shari`ah and is more in line with the changing circumstances which call for taysir (ease) and lifting of hardship (principles deeply enshrined in the Shari`ah).
Let me explain this: When we examine sources on this issue, we are confronted with conflicting opinions:
1- Those who perform tamattu should stay in Makkah until the hajj. If they leave, their tamattu is invalidated.
2- Those who perform tamattu and go back home, their tamattu is invalidated. If they go elsewhere, it is not.
3- Those who perform tamattu and travel the distance of a qasr, their tamattu is invalidated.
4- Those who perform tamattu are still in tamattu no matter where they travel as long as they come for hajj.
The conflicting opinions are because there is nothing explicit on this issue in the sources. In the absence of specific explicit evidence, everyone is making up his own rulings based on their interpretations of the sources.
The well-established facts as we know are the following:
When the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) performed his farewell hajj, he ordered those of his Companions who did not bring with them animals for sacrifice to opt for tamattu`. Accordingly, they released themselves from ihram after performing tawaf and sa`i.
It is not stated anywhere in the sources that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered them to stay in Makkah until the day of tarwiyyah; they were ordered only to assume ihram for hajj from Makkah as the Makkans do. Therefore, this is what they did; they assumed ihram from Makkah.
Therefore, there is no evidence to introduce the restriction of staying in Makkah as an absolute requirement for those who doing are tamattu.
As for those who refer to the principle that those who intend hajj or Umrah cannot cross the miqat without ihram, undoubtedly it is applicable to those who never did tamattu. There is no reason to apply this rule to those who have already performed the Umrah of tamattu.
In light of the above, it is easy to conclude that those who travel to Madinah, Taif or anywhere after having performed Umrah do not need to assume ihram from Madinah or the miqat they cross.
The maximum one could say is this rule does not apply to those who are residents of Madinah or the cities they are travelling to-as held by Umar and Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them all).
By following this valid opinion, we ease the crowd in Makkah for those who never performed their Umrah before. It is also more convenient for those who return to Makkah after visiting Madinah.
However, this in no way rules out the possibility of those who wish to proceed to hajj directly with ihram from Madindah without going to Makkah. They are still considered as mutamatti`een as long as they have done Umrah of tamattu.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.