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Why did the order of the five pillars of Islam in the Hadith "Islam has been built upon five" come differently from the usual order (the Two Testimonies of Faith, then Prayer, then Zakat, then Fasting, then Hajj)?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

In conclusion, the preference for Hajj over fasting in the hadith "Islam is built upon five" is the more probable narration, based on the agreement of most of Ibn Omar's companions on this narration, and its selection by Imams Al-Bukhari and An-Nasa'i, as well as the existence of supporting evidence from the hadith of Jarir bin Abdullah Al-Bajali. As for the preference for fasting over Hajj, although there are narrations supporting it, they are less probable in terms of their chain of transmission. The choice of many scholars to prefer fasting over Hajj in their books of jurisprudence and hadith may be based on juristic reasoning and theoretical justifications, and not necessarily on the greater probability of the narration.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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