How to Perform Umrah, Step by Step

What Umrah actually consists of

Strip away the logistics and Umrah is four acts: entering the state of ihram before you cross the miqat, circling the Kaaba seven times (tawaf), walking between the hills of Safa and Marwah seven times (sa’i), and shaving or trimming your hair. A fit person can do all of it in under three hours. Most first-timers take longer, and that is fine — nothing about it is a race.

Before you fly: ihram and the miqat

The miqat is a boundary, not a building. The Prophet ﷺ fixed several points around Makkah, tens of kilometres out, and anyone travelling to perform Umrah must be in ihram before crossing the one on their route. If you fly into Jeddah, your plane crosses the miqat in the air — the crew usually announces it twenty to thirty minutes before it happens, and you do not want to be wrestling with two sheets of cloth in an aircraft toilet at that moment. Change at your departure airport or during your stopover, then simply make the intention when the announcement comes.

Ihram itself is a state, not an outfit. For men the dress is two plain unstitched cloths, one around the waist and one over the torso, with nothing underneath and no head covering — sandals that leave the ankle bare are the usual footwear. Women wear ordinary modest clothing in any colour; the only dress rules specific to ihram are no face veil and no gloves. Before putting it on, do ghusl if you can, and men may apply perfume to the body (not the garments).

The intention is a sentence, said once: “Labbayk Allahumma ʻumrah” — here I am, O Allah, for Umrah. From that point the restrictions apply: no perfume, no cutting hair or nails, no hunting, no marital relations, and for men nothing stitched to fit the body and nothing on the head. Showering is allowed. Unscented soap is allowed. Changing your ihram cloths for clean ones is allowed. People invent far more rules for themselves than the sharia ever did.

لَبَّيْكَ اللَّهُمَّ لَبَّيْكَ، لَبَّيْكَ لَا شَرِيكَ لَكَ لَبَّيْكَ، إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ وَالنِّعْمَةَ لَكَ وَالْمُلْكَ، لَا شَرِيكَ لَكَ

“Here I am, O Allah, here I am. Here I am — You have no partner — here I am. All praise, favour and sovereignty are Yours. You have no partner.”

Men say the talbiyah out loud, women quietly. Keep it going in the bus, in the hotel lift, walking to the mosque. It stops when you reach the Kaaba and begin tawaf.

Tawaf: seven circuits

Enter the mosque with your right foot and the usual dua for entering a mosque — there is no special Umrah entrance or required gate. When you first see the Kaaba, stop somewhere out of the stream of people and ask Allah for whatever you want; many scholars encourage making dua at that first sight before anything else.

Tawaf begins at the corner holding the Black Stone. You will not miss it: every person in the mataf raises their right hand toward that corner as they pass, saying “Bismillah, Allahu akbar.” That gesture is all that is required. Kissing the Stone is a sunnah when it can be done without hurting anyone — in practice that means it is almost never the right choice in a crowd. Do not shove. Point, say the takbir, and move.

You circle counter-clockwise, Kaaba on your left, seven times. For this arrival tawaf, men uncover the right shoulder by passing the top cloth under the arm (idtiba), and walk briskly with short steps for the first three circuits (raml) if the crowd allows — both are for men only, and only in this tawaf. There is no fixed dua for each circuit. The booklets that assign one supplication per round have no basis in the sunnah; recite Quran, make dua in your own language, or simply remember Allah. The one supplication with a specific place is between the Yamani corner and the Black Stone: “Rabbana atina fid-dunya hasanah, wa fil-akhirati hasanah, wa qina ʻadhab an-nar.”

After the seventh circuit, cover the shoulder again and pray two short rakats — behind Maqam Ibrahim if there is space, anywhere in the mosque if there is not. Reciting al-Kafirun in the first rakat and al-Ikhlas in the second follows the Prophet’s ﷺ practice. Then drink Zamzam; the coolers stand in rows along the mataf edges and throughout the mosque, and there is no shortage.

Sa’i: Safa to Marwah, seven lengths

The masʻa — the sa’i gallery — runs along one side of the mosque. One length, Safa to Marwah, is about 450 metres; seven lengths come to a little over three kilometres, so pace yourself. You start on Safa. Climbing the rock is not required — walking up the ramp until you can see the Kaaba direction is enough. Face the qiblah, praise Allah, and make dua; the Prophet ﷺ stood here long enough to repeat his supplications three times.

Walk to Marwah. That is one. Marwah back to Safa is two. First-timers regularly get this wrong and do fourteen lengths — seven round trips — out of caution. Seven lengths, ending at Marwah. Between the two pairs of green lights in the gallery, men jog lightly; women walk. There is no required dua during sa’i either. If your legs are done, wheelchairs and electric carts run on the upper levels, and using one takes nothing away from the reward.

Cutting the hair

At Marwah, after the seventh length, all that remains is the hair. Men either shave the head (halq) or trim hair from all around it (taqsir) — shaving is better, and the Prophet ﷺ prayed for mercy on those who shave three times before including those who trim once. Barbershops cluster around the Marwah exits and know exactly why you have walked in. Women gather their hair and cut about a fingertip’s length from the end — done privately, or by a mahram, never by a stranger in public.

With the cut, your Umrah is complete and every ihram restriction lifts. Shower, put on perfume, wear your ordinary clothes, and pray the next prayer in the mosque without a cloth slipping off your shoulder.

The mistakes almost everyone makes

• Fighting toward the Black Stone. Pointing from a distance is a complete sunnah; injuring people to kiss it is not.
• Reciting circuit-by-circuit duas from a booklet, in Arabic they don’t understand, instead of asking Allah for what they actually need in their own language.
• Continuing the talbiyah through tawaf. It ends when tawaf begins.
• Counting sa’i in round trips instead of lengths, and doing double.
• Men covering their heads against the sun. Umbrellas are fine; caps and hoods are not, while in ihram.
• Treating ihram like a state of ritual fragility — afraid to shower, scratch, or change cloths. All of that is permitted.