Committed number of violations of Ihram; one expiation or more?

21-9-2014 | IslamWeb

Question:

When a pilgrim commits a number of violations during Hajj, should he offer only one fidyah (expiation) for all the violations or does each violation entail an independent expiation?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and messenger.

If a pilgrim commits more than one violation while in a state of ihram (i.e. ritual consecration), then there are two scenarios for that situation:

First, those violations may be of the same kind; meaning that he repeats the same violation more than once. For example, he wears form-fitting clothes more than once.

Second, the violations may be of different kinds. For example, the pilgrim wears perfume and form-fitting clothes, in addition to committing other violations of ihram.

If the violations were of the same kind, then there are two scenarios as well:

1) The pilgrim may commit the same violation before offering the expiation for the first incident of violation. In this case, it is incumbent on him to offer only one expiation according to the preponderant opinion of scholars.

2) The pilgrim re-commits the same violation after offering the expiation for committing it the first time. In this case, it is incumbent on him to offer another expiation, and so on, according to the preponderant scholarly opinion. 

On the other hand, if the violations are of different kinds, then it is incumbent on him to offer an expiation for each time he committed the violation, even if he had committed a different violation just after offering the expiation of the first one.

Allah Knows best.