Answer
Wa `alaykum as-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Making the intention and resuming ihram from your residency is difficult for you. So, it is better to assume ihram at the Dammam Airport.
Responding to your question, Dr. Muhammad Salama. PhD in Islamic Studies in English and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Islamic Science, Al-Madinah International University, states,
1- No, you should not make the intention of ihram from your residency in India; that is a long journey and you would make it difficult for yourself. According to the Prophetic tradition, a pilgrim should enter the state of ihram and make the intention when he/she comes to the miqat.
If your flight stops at the airport of Dammam, you can get ready for ihram in the airport, preferably without making the intention, and wait until the plane is over the miqat (you can know this through asking the flight attendants) and then make the intention. If it is difficult to know the miqat while on board, you may make the intention in the airport.
2- It is preferable and recommendable to make ablution (wudu) to enter the state of ihram, but this is not necessary or obligatory.
3- It is obligatory upon a Muslim pilgrim to take care of other fellow pilgrims and not to cause harm for them. Jogging in Tawaf and Sa`i is only recommendable if possible. If not possible due to over crowdedness, one has to refrain from causing harm to others.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.