Ihram & Tawaf — Rules and Common Questions

🧕 Men and women in ihram

For men: two clean, unsewn cloths — an izar wrapped around the lower body and a rida over the upper body, most commonly white. The head is left bare. A man in ihram wears nothing sewn or fitted to the shape of the body: no shirt, no trousers, no underwear, no turban, no hooded cloak. When a man asked the Prophet ﷺ what a muhrim may wear, he answered by naming what he may not wear.

For women: there is no special garment. A woman's ihram is her ordinary modest clothing; she may wear sewn clothes, and any colour, so long as it covers properly and does not draw attention. What is specific to her ihram is that the face and hands are left uncovered — the niqab and gloves are not worn in ihram. If strangers pass, she may drape a cover down over her face without it being pinned tight against it, then lift it again.

Refs: Sahih al-Bukhari 1542; Sahih al-Bukhari 1838

🩴 Yes — footwear is allowed

This is one of the most common questions, and the answer is yes. The prohibition in ihram is on sewn garments for the body — it was never about the feet. Sandals, slippers, and open footwear are all fine. In the same narration where the Prophet ﷺ listed the forbidden garments, he added that whoever cannot find sandals may wear leather socks (khuff) — and in one wording, that he should cut them so they come below the ankles.

Some later scholars held that with sandals now easy to find, cutting the khuff is no longer needed and the general permission stands; either way, ordinary sandals or flip-flops raise no issue at all. There is no need to walk barefoot on the hot marble.

Refs: Sahih al-Bukhari 5804; Sahih Muslim — site reader no. 2677

☂️ Shade yes, wrapping no

A man in ihram must not cover his head with anything that touches it directly — no cap, turban, or cloth wound around it. When a muhrim was thrown from his camel and died, the Prophet ﷺ instructed that his head not be covered, "for Allah will raise him on the Day of Resurrection Pronouncing Talbiya" (Sahih Muslim — site reader no. 2775, Kitāb al-Ḥajj). The bare head is part of a man's ihram.

But shade that does not rest on the head is a different matter. Standing under an umbrella, sitting in a tent, or travelling under the roof of a car or bus is allowed — this is the position of the majority of scholars, and it is what the pilgrim needs in Makkah's heat. So the rule is simple: shade yourself freely, but do not wrap or drape cloth onto your head. A woman, whose head is covered in ihram anyway, is not affected by this at all.

Refs: Sahih al-Bukhari 1265; Sahih Muslim — site reader no. 2775

🚫 What to refrain from

Once in ihram, and until leaving it, a pilgrim refrains from:

• Hunting or helping to hunt land game.
• Cutting or plucking hair, and clipping nails.
• Applying perfume to the body or clothes after entering ihram (scenting oneself before the intention is a Sunnah).
• Contracting a marriage — neither marrying nor giving in marriage.
• Intimacy and its preliminaries.

If a person is forced to break one of these out of genuine need — the classic case being a man who must shave his head because of an ailment — there is a fidyah (compensation): fasting three days, feeding six needy people, or sacrificing a sheep. This was taught when Ka'b ibn Ujra, unwell with lice in his hair, was told by the Prophet ﷺ to shave and offer the compensation.

Refs: Quran 2:196; Sahih al-Bukhari 1814

💪 Idtiba — baring the right shoulder

Idtiba is passing the middle of the rida under the right armpit and letting its ends fall over the left shoulder, so the right shoulder is left bare. A man does this only during the tawaf of arrival (the Umrah tawaf, or the first tawaf on reaching Makkah for Hajj). Once the tawaf is finished, before praying the two rakah, he returns the rida to cover both shoulders — one does not pray with a shoulder bared. Idtiba is not done in the other tawafs, and it does not apply to women.

Refs: Abu Dawud 1889 (Ibn ʿAbbas — graded sahih in the site's hadith repository; a Sunan grading, not a Ṣaḥīḥayn one); Tirmidhi 859 and Ibn Majah 2954 (Yaʿla, naming iḍṭibāʿ by name, hasan). It is not in Bukhari or Muslim.

🏃 Ramal — the brisk walk

Ramal is walking quickly with short, vigorous steps — a light jog of the shoulders, not a run. A man does it in the first three circuits of the arrival tawaf only, then walks normally for the last four. Its origin is telling: in the year the Muslims returned to Makkah, the pagans had claimed the fever of Madinah had weakened them. The Prophet ﷺ told his companions to move briskly through the circuits the Makkans could see, to show their strength — and though the reason later passed, he kept the practice, and it remains a Sunnah of the arrival tawaf.

Like idtiba, ramal is for men, in the arrival tawaf only — not in every tawaf, and not for women. If the crowd is too dense to move, one is not asked to force it.

Refs: Sahih al-Bukhari 1602; Sahih Muslim — site reader no. 2836

✅ How to circle the Kaaba

1. Be in wudu. Tawaf is prayer in this respect; keep your ablution.
2. Begin and end at the Black Stone. Seven complete circuits, each starting and finishing in line with it.
3. Keep the Kaaba on your left — you move anti-clockwise around it.
4. At the Black Stone: if you can reach it without harming anyone, kiss it, or touch it and kiss your hand. If you cannot, simply point to it and say "Allahu akbar." Do not fight the crowd for it — Umar himself addressed the Stone as a mere stone that neither harms nor benefits, kissed only because the Prophet ﷺ did.
5. At the Yemeni corner (the one before the Black Stone): touch it with your hand if you can reach it easily — but do not kiss it and do not point to it if you cannot reach it. Only the Black Stone is kissed or pointed to.
6. Between the Yemeni corner and the Black Stone, say the du'a the Prophet ﷺ used to say there: "Rabbana atina fid-dunya hasanah wa fil-akhirati hasanah wa qina adhab an-nar."
7. After the seven circuits, cover both shoulders and pray two rakah, ideally behind Maqam Ibrahim if there is room, otherwise anywhere in the mosque.

Refs: Sahih al-Bukhari 1597; Sahih Muslim — site reader no. 2943; du'a between the two corners reported by Abu Dawud from Ibn as-Sa'ib, graded hasan; Quran 2:201

⛔ Common mistakes to avoid

• Do not cut through the Hijr Ismail — the low curved wall beside the Kaaba. It is part of the House itself, so tawaf must go around the outside of it. Aisha asked the Prophet ﷺ about that wall, and he told her it is part of the Kaaba. Walking inside it means your circuit did not go around the whole Kaaba, and does not count.
• Do not wipe or kiss the other two corners (the two Shami corners, on the far side). The Prophet ﷺ touched only the Black Stone and the Yemeni corner.
• Do not follow a leader in loud group chants. There is no fixed collective dhikr prescribed for tawaf. Each person supplicates on their own, quietly, in whatever words they wish. Reciting set phrases in unison behind a guide is a later custom, not from the Sunnah, and it disturbs others trying to concentrate.
• Do not neglect wudu or skip a corner of a circuit to save distance.

Refs: Sahih Muslim — site reader no. 3127; Sahih Muslim — site reader no. 2943