ifrād (lit., to isolate a thing). With the two differences pointed out earlier, whatever is said below concerning ḥajj applies also to ‘umrah.

Iḥrām

The state into which the pilgrim is required to put himself on the occasion of ḥajj or ‘umrah is called iḥrām (from haram meaning prevention or forbidding), or entering upon a state in which a particular dress is put on and certain acts, ordinarily lawful, are forbidden. When the Holy Prophet was asked as to what dress the muḥrim (the man entering into a state of iḥrām) should put on, he replied: “He should not put on a shirt or a turban or trousers or a cap, nor a dress coloured by wars (red) or saffron (yellow); and if he does not find shoes, let him put on leather stockings (khuffain)” (Bu. 3:53). Another ḥadīth describes his own dress in the state of iḥrām as follows: “He wore his unsewed waist-wrapper (izār) and his unsewed outer garment covering the upper part of the body (ridā’) (Bu. 25:23). The iḥrām dress, therefore, consists of two seamless sheets, a sheet reaching from the navel to below the knees and a sheet which covers the upper part of the body. Both these sheets must preferably be white. As regards women, they can wear their ordinary clothes, and ‘Ā’ishah held that there was no harm if a woman pilgrim wore cloth dyed black or red or wore boots (khuff). She further held that a woman should not cover her face or wear a veil in iḥrām (Bu. 25:23). Change of clothes during iḥrām is not forbidden, according to one authority (ibid.). But even women must dress simply. The object is to remove all distinctions of rank, and this is done, in the case of men, by making them all wear two seamless sheets, and in the case of women by requiring them to give up the veil, which was a sign of rank. Probably the iḥrām dress of two seamless sheets dates back from Abraham, and the simple patriarchal dress has been preserved in ḥajj to give men a practical lesson in simple living.

Before donning the iḥrām dress, the pilgrim must take a bath and utter talbiyah, facing the Qiblah. The practice is also to say two rak‘ahs of prayer, but all that is related of the Holy Prophet is that he entered a state of iḥrām after saying two rak‘ahs of the early afternoon prayer. During the state of iḥrām, and even before that,