How to Perform Umrah?

If one is intending to go for Umrah but has not studied the rulings properly and her Mahram does not know much about the Deen, will her Umrah be accepted? Also could you briefly tell me of its rulings?

May Allah accept your Umrah and Insha’Allah you remember us there and pray for us.

Umrah is very easy, it’s not that difficult. I would recommend that you download the book of Sheik Nasirud-din Al-Albani book “The Rights of Hajj or Umrah”, it’s there on the net.

The Umrah is very easy, first of all one has to repent and ask people to forgive him. You are flying by air so you take Wudu' from your house. Before reaching the Miqat, you will make what we call the Talbiyah; you say: “Labbaikal-Lahumma Umrah” “Oh Allah, I am intending the Umrah”, and you will start making your Talbiyah “Labbaikal-Lahumma Labbaik, Labbaika La Sharika Laka Labbaik, Innal-Hamda Wan-Ni’mata Laka Wal-Mulk, La Sharika Lak” and you will carry on making Talbiyah until you see the dwellings of Mecca.

Of course when you are making the Talbiyah, if you fear that you might fall sick or something you can say, “Allahumma Mahalli Haythu Habastani” “Oh Allah, if something happens to me then I will be exempted and I will be released”. So if you say this that means that you are just making a condition, this will help you to come out of the Ihram without offering sacrifice or expiation.

Then you go to the hotel, you put your belongings, and may be you need to refresh, to take Wudu' and then you go to the Haram.

The Haram, you enter from any door, preferably from Bab Al-Umrah or Bab As-Salam which will take you to the black stone (Al-Hajar Al-Aswad), and you start the Tawaf.

When you enter the Masjid, it is just like any Masjid, you enter with your right foot and say “Bismillah Was-Salatu Was-Salamu ‘Ala Rasulillah, Allahumma Ighfirli Dthunubi Waf-Tah Li Abwaba Rahmatik” or any other Du’a, and then you start the Tawaf.

If it happened that you entered the Masjid and the Salah is going on, you perform the Salah first. Then you start the Tawaf, you start from the black stone (Al-Hajar Al-Aswad), and the black stone will be on your left side and you will start the Tawaf.

There is no special Du’a, there is nothing for the Tawaf at all, it is just whatever you want to say, say. You find people buying some booklets about the Tawaf, for every round you have to say this Du’a and that... no, no, nothing like that, all these things are Bid’ahs, so there is nothing special about it. So you carry on saying whatever you want to say, supplicate to Allah, pour out your heart... etc.

As you know that the Ka’bah has four corners. The one that you started with is called the black stone. The corner before it is called the Ar-Rukn Al-Yamani, or the Yamani corner. So now you start from the black stone and the black stone will be on your left side and you will perform the first round or circumambulation and that is going anti-clockwise.

The corner before the black stone that I just mentioned; the Yamani corner or Ar-Rukn Al-Yamani, you can try to touch it. As for the black stone, if you can touch it, do so, and kiss it, if you can only touch it, touch with your hand and kiss your hand, and if you can not then you just wave with your hand.

And as for Ar-Rukn Al-Yamani, you try to touch it with your hand because the prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) said, when you touch Ar-Rukn Al-Yamani, all your sins fall apart, here there is a special Du’a' you say between Ar-Rukn Al-Yamani and the black stone, you say: “Rabbana Atina Fid-Dunya Hasanah Wa Fil Akhirati Hasanah Wa Qina 'Adthab An-Nar”, until you reach the black stone again. Then you start the second round and the third until you finish the seven rounds.

For the men, it is recommended when you start the Tawaf to show your right shoulder and do Ramal (Speeding up one's pace with small steps) for three rounds -for men- if possible that the Haram is not congested.

After finishing the Tawaf, you pray two Rak’ahs behind Maqam Ibrahim (The station of Abraham), were Ibrahim (Peace be upon him) used to stand to build the Ka’bah, you pray two Rak’ahs, you read in the first Rak’ah “Qul Ya Ayyuhal-Kafirun”, and in the second “Qul Huwal-Lahu Ahad”.

Then you drink Zamzam after that and drink Zamzam water as much as you can, and the prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Zamzam Lima Shuriba Lah”, Zamzam is for whatever intention you have, if you are sick and you drink Zamzam, “Oh Allah cure me from this sickness I have”, you will be cured.

There was a Tunisian sister who had breast cancer and was living in France, the doctors there decided to amputate the breast and she refused and told her husband “Take me, I want to make 'Umrah”. And when they reached Mecca, she told her husband I will stay in the Haram, you go to the hotel, I will be sleeping in the Haram, I will make I'tikaf and she was making Tawaf and praying and crying and washing her breast with Zamzam and asking the sisters there to pray for her. After few days that growth disappeared completely. She went to her husband and told him, “See? It is not there”, She then did some tests and they were negative. The doctor said “What happened?”

Allah says: “Wa Idtha Maridtu Fahuwa Yashfin”, “..and when I fall sick, He cures me” that is Allah. So Zamzam is a cure, you want a husband? Drink Zamzam and ask Allah to give you a husband. Whatever you want or whatever you have in mind, so drink Zamzam.

After drinking Zamzam, you head to As-Safa; to make Sa’i between As-Safa and Al-Marwah. Before you go to As-Safa and Al-Marwah, you go back to the black stone, either touch it or just wave with your hand and then you go to As-Safa and Al-Marwah and when you climb As-Safa, these were two mountains before, you say, “Innas-Safa Wal-Marwata Min Sha'a'iril-Lah Faman Hajjal-Baita Aw I'tamara Fala Junaha 'Alayhi An Yattawwafa Bihima Wa Man Tatawwa'a Khayran Fa’innal-Laha Shakirun 'Alim”.

And you try on As-Safa to see the Ka’bah and you can still see the Ka’bah between the pillars and then you raise your hands and supplicate, “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, La Ilaha Illal-Lahu Wahdahu La Sharika Lahu, Lahul-Mulku Wa Lahul-Hamdu Yuhyi Wa Yumitu Wa Huwa 'Ala Kulli Shay'in Qadir, La Ilaha Illal-Lahu Wahdahu, Anjaza Wa'dahu Wa Nasara 'Abdahu Wa Hazamal-Ahzaba Wahdah”, then after this you make Du’a' and ask whatever you want and you repeat this three times.

Then you descend from the As-Safa towards Al-Marwah and there you will find a zone which is lit by green florescent light, the men run there and women don't run, and you say, “Rabbi-Ghfir War-Ham Wa Tajawaz Amma Ta'lam Innka Antal-A’azzul-Akram”.

Until you reach Al-Marwah and you do on Al-Marwah as you did on As-Safa. So now from As-Safa to Al-Marwah is one round, and from Al-Marwah to As-Safa is two, that is how. So you start on As-Safa and you will end up in the seventh on Al-Marwah. And when you finish the seventh round on Al-Marwah, that is the end of your 'Umrah

Only one thing is needed, for the man he needs to shave his hair or cut it, and as for the woman she has to cut from the tips of her hair what is equivalent to the size of one cm, and she should not do this on Al-Marwah, you find many ignorant women on Al-Marwah cutting their hair, no, you go to the hotel and then you cut the hair in the hotel.

And that is the end of the 'Umrah and may Allah accept your 'Umrah. Ameen.

Sheikh Salem Al-Amry