The Forms of the Circuit and Its Meaning

The manuals distinguish several tawaf by their place in the pilgrimage, the arrival circling on reaching Mecca, the essential circling that is a pillar of the hajj performed after standing at Arafat, and the farewell circling with which the pilgrim takes leave of the House. Ritual purity is required, and men performing the arrival tawaf traditionally bare the right shoulder and quicken their pace in the first circuits in a gesture recalling the early Muslims' show of vigour. The circling is commonly followed by prayer at the Station of Abraham and by drinking from the well of Zamzam.

Tawaf is frequently paired with the sai, the walking between the hills of Safa and Marwa, the two rites together forming the core of the umrah. Interpreters have long read the endless circling as an image of a life oriented wholly around God, the pilgrim's small orbit set against the vast one, though the tradition holds the rite to be obeyed as commanded whether or not its wisdom is grasped.