Abar Ali

Ābār ʿAlī (Arabic: آبار علي, lit. Wells of Ali) is an area mostly covered with date palm groves, 8 kilometers south of Medina in which water wells attributed to Ali b. Abi Talib (a) are located. The place is a Miqat of Hajj. This area is referred to as Abar Ali, Dhu l-Hulayfa, and Masjid al-Shajara.

Abar 'Ali, 8 kilometers south of Medina.

Lexicology

The word "Abar" (Arabic: آبار) is the plural form of "bi'r" (Arabic: بِئر, meaning water well). "Abar Ali" refers to water wells attributed to Imam Ali (a). In Arabic, the word "al-Bu'ra", from the same root, means pit.

In Shiite and Sunni sources of fiqh, Abar Ali is also referred to as "Bi'r Ali" and "Abyar Ali."

Geographical Features

Abar Ali is located about 8 kilometers south of Medina in the area of 'Aqiq and the western hillside of Mount Ayr on the way to Mecca. The area is rife with water wells and date palm groves.

Today it is mostly known as Abar Ali. The area with water wells was originally called "Shajara" and "Dhu l-Hulayfa", but it came to be called Bi'r Ali or Abar Ali at a point in history. Some researchers have written on this. All three names appear on the board indicating the place of Abar Ali, Dhu l-Hulayfa, and Masjid al-Shajara.

Miqat of Hajj

Since Abar Ali and Masjid al-Shajara are located in the same area, both Shi'a and Sunni Muslims take it to be a Miqat of Hajj (Miqat of Medina). Since the 8th/14th and 9th/15th centuries, Sunni sources took Abar Ali, Dhu l-Hulayfa, and Masjid al-Shajara to be the same place and the Miqat of Medina.

History

Sources differ on the history of the place, and particularly its water wells and when they were dug. According to some sources, the water wells were already there before the Prophet's (s) Hijra (or immigration) to Medina, and on his command, Ali b. Abi Talib (a) fought tribes of Jinns near these wells and defeated them. Sunni sources cited this event and took it to be opinions of laypeople, emphasizing its falsity. Contemporary Shiite scholars raised objections to the contents and chains of this story's narrations.

Others believe that these wells did not exist before that, and they were dug by Imam Ali (a) himself. On this view, Imam Ali (a) dug these water wells during the periods when the first three caliphs were ruling; he endowed these wells to pilgrims of hajj.

The attribution of the wells to Imam Ali (a)

Some Sunni scholars have sought to deny the attribution of these wells to Ali b. Abi Talib (a), that is, they take "Ali" in "Abar Ali" to be someone other than Imam Ali (a), including a contemporary Sunni scholar in Egypt who attributed "Abar Ali", the pilgrims' Miqat in hajj, to Ali b. Dinar, the king of Darfur south of Sudan. According to him, in 1315/1897-8, in his hajj pilgrimage Ali b. al-Dinar dredged, restored, and restarted the water wells of Dhu l-Hulayfa, and since then, they were called "Abar Ali". However, many Sunni scholars have called these wells "Abar Ali" in works that date back to times before the period of Ali b. Dinar, including: Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1327-8), Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani (d. 852/1448-9), al-'Ayni (d. 855/1451-2), al-Samhudi (d. 911/1505-6), Ibn Najim al-Misri (d. 970/1562-3), and al-Ru'ayni (d. 954/1547-8). Moreover, other cases have been made to reject this view.

See Also

• Dhu l-Hulayfa Mosque
• Hajj
• Medina