Islamic Fiqh > Hajj and umra > What invalidates hajj and the compensations (fidya)
Grave faults during pilgrimage, what imposes compensation or annulment, and the fidya regime set out by the verse.
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Updated on 31 August 2026 at 3:55 AM
Ibn Hubayra reports the agreement: whoever has voluntary intercourse before standing at Arafa has invalidated his hajj, whether he ejaculated or not; he carries on the acts of his invalidated hajj, must redo it the following year with an offering, and this holds for the obligatory as for the voluntary hajj, suffered or chosen. The basis is the Prophet's answer (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to the man who had touched his wife: "You have invalidated your hajj: go with the people... and next year perform the hajj, you and your wife, with an offering; failing that, fast three days during the hajj and seven upon your return" (reported by al-Bayhaqi, sahih chain according to an-Nawawi). The 'umra is invalidated likewise before the tawaf and the sa'i: to be redone with an offering at any time.
The majority (Malikis in the madhhab, Shafi'is, Hanbalis) invalidate the hajj of intercourse committed after the standing before the first release, with a cow in reparation, for the ihram subsists so long as the remaining pillar (the tawaf of the visit) is not performed. The Hanafis and Malik in a narration judge it complete but with a cow: "The hajj is Arafa", says the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): the standing performed shields the hajj from invalidation. After the first release, intercourse no longer invalidates, and the reparation falls to the sheep according to the Hanafis, one Shafi'i opinion and the Hanbali madhhab.
The broken ihram is the fact, for the one hindered from reaching the House, of leaving his ihram by the permitted way: "If you are hindered, then an easy offering" (al-Baqara 196). The majority (Malikis, Shafi'is, Hanbalis in the madhhab) reserves this licence for blocking by an enemy: al-Shafi'i says he never heard divergence on the verse descending at al-Hudaybiyya, an enemy's blocking; Ibn Abbas says: "No lawful blocking except the enemy's; whoever falls ill or suffers, nothing upon him: Allah said 'then, when you are in safety'". The contrary way extends it to illness and similar hindrances. The release requires the intention of leaving, then, for the majority, the slaughtering of the offering; the Malikis draw it from the intention alone, the offering being a sunna.
Whoever, consecrating himself, lays the condition "I release myself wherever You hold me": the Hanafis and the Malikis judge it without effect, following Ibn Umar who disapproved: "Is not the sunna of the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) enough for you? Whoever of you finds himself hindered, let him circle the House and go between Safa and Marwa, release himself from everything, then come back to perform the hajj the following year with an offering, or fast if he finds none" (al-Bukhari 1715). The Shafi'is in the soundest view and the Hanbalis validate it: his release comes with the obstacle, without offering nor make-up, upon the Prophet's word (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to Duba'a bint al-Zubayr: "Perform the hajj and lay a condition: O Allah, I release myself wherever You hold me" (al-Bukhari 4801, Muslim 1207).
The fuqaha agree: the blocked one must make up the obligatory rite he owed; the impediment does not abolish the obligation, it only opens the exit from ihram. For the voluntary rite: the majority imposes no make-up (the Prophet ordered no one to repeat it after al-Hudaybiyya, and the 'umra called of the compensation takes its name from the treaty); the Hanafis and a narration of Ahmad impose it. Whoever corrupted his 'umra within the hajj months then performed the hajj the same year without making it up: according to the view reported from Ibn al-Qasim, his tamattu' and his hajj are complete, with the 'umra to be made up.
The hajj is invalidated above all by intercourse before Arafa: absolute vigilance on this point spares a year of redoing. The condition laid in the ihram is a lawful help for the Shafi'i and Hanbali school, without effect for the Hanafis and Malikis: choose it knowing your school.