Mountains & Heights · The Hajj itself · Rehearsal of the Standing
عرفات
The Plain of Arafat
One afternoon a year, one plain, and more emancipations from the Fire than any other day grants.
The account
"The Hajj is Arafah" (Tirmidhi 889, sahih): the Prophet ﷺ reduced the entire pilgrimage to one afternoon of standing on this plain east of Makkah. Here he delivered the Farewell Sermon from al-Qaswa's back, here the verse of completion descended on a Friday, and here he taught that the finest thing he and the prophets before him ever said was said on this ground: la ilaha illallah.
The day's gift is mercy beyond measure: "there is no day on which Allah frees more servants from the Fire than the day of Arafah; He draws near and boasts of them to the angels: what do these want?" (Muslim 1348). Fasting the day, for the non-pilgrim, expiates two years (Muslim 1162). And the plain is a rehearsal with the props of the real performance: multitudes in two unstitched cloths, standing exposed under one sun, asking. The Mawqif of the Last Day will feel familiar to whoever stood here well; the Codex maps Arafat as the only place on earth where the Hereafter holds a yearly rehearsal.
The facts
- Rule“The Hajj is Arafah”
- MercyMost freed from the Fire
- Sermon & 5:3Delivered here, 10 AH
- Fast (non-pilgrim)Expiates two years
The narrations
There is no day on which Allah frees more servants from the Fire than the day of Arafah.
Muslim 1348
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