Arafat

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A view of Arafat

Arafa or Arafāt (Arabic: عرفات) is a land with an area of eighteen square kilometers on the east of Mecca. The stay or sojourn in Arafat is a rukn (essential part) of Hajj al-Tamattu'. Pilgrims must stay in the desert of Arafat on Dhu l-Hijja 9. According to a hadith from the Prophet (s), there are sins that are only forgiven after the sojourn in Arafat. Imam al-Husayn (a) recited his well-known Supplication of Arafa in the land of Arafat.

General Information

Arafat is a plain on the east of Mecca with an area of eighteen square kilometers. Today, it is twenty one kilometers away from Mecca.[1]

Jabal al-Rahma or Mount al-Rahma is located on the northeast of Arafat,[2] and thus, it is also called "Jabal al-Arafat" or Mount Arafat.[3]

In jurisprudential terms, the land of Arafat does not count as part of the Haram.[4] However, in different historical periods, signs have always been installed in the area to carefully specify its limits and borders.[5]

According to folk narrations, people of Jurhum lived in Arafat when Abraham (a) and his wife, Hajar, migrated to Mecca.[6] According to some earlier geographers, Arafat was a small village.

Reasons for Appellation

According to Muhammad b. Abd al-Rahman al-Sakhawi, a historian of the tenth/sixteenth century, the word, "Arafat", is like the word, "Qasabat" (plural of "qasaba" meaning village). Thus, each part of Arafat is known as one arafa, and "Arafat" refers to the whole area.[7]

According to some hadiths, when Gabriel taught the rituals of Hajj to the Prophet Abraham (a), he told him in the land of Arafat, "Did you learn your rituals?" and Abraham (a) replied,"yes." Thus, because of the word, "a 'arafta" in Gabriel's question, the area came to be known as Arafat or Arafa.[8] "Arafat" also means acquaintance; thus, some people believe that it was called so because it was the place where Adam (a) and Eve were acquainted with one another.[9] "Arafat" also means confession, and thus, it is also said to be called so because it is the place where Muslim confess their sins to God and ask Him for forgiveness.[10]

In the verse 198 of the Qur'an 2, "Arafat" is mentioned in statements about the rulings of hajj.[11]

Significance

Arafat is associated with the obligation of hajj.[12] It is a sacred place in Islam.[13] The stay in Arafat is a rukn or essential component of Hajj al-Tamattu', without which hajj is not valid. Thus, pilgrims of hajj should stay in Arafat on Dhu l-Hijja 9 from the Shar'i noon until the Shar'i evening.[14]

Before the emergence of Islam, people of Mecca did not perform some hajj rituals, including the stay in Arafat, because they thought of themselves as people of Haram and as selected people.[15] According to hadiths in Sunni collections of hadiths, the Prophet (s) stayed in Arafat in his hajj practices before Islam.[16]

According to a hadith from the Prophet (s), on the evening of the day of Arafa, God tells angels that He is proud of people who stay in Arafat and forgives all their sins.[17] The stay of pilgrims in Arafat is said to lead to the forgiveness of their sins. There is a hadith from the Prophet (s) according to which there are sins that are only forgiven in Arafat.[18] According to a hadith from Imam al-Sadiq (a), the most sinful person is one who returns from Arafat and thinks that he has not been forgiven.[19]

In hadiths concerning Dahw al-Ard (the spreading of the Earth), Arafat, the Ka'ba, and Mina are referred to as places from which the Earth was spread.[20] Imam al-Husayn (a) recited the Supplication of Arafa when he went out of his camp in the land of Arafat to the left side of the Mount Arafat or Jabal al-Rahma.[21]

See Also

Notes

  1. ↑ Pūramīnī, Nigarishī bar ʿArafāt, p. 164.
  2. ↑ Burūsawī, Awḍaḥ al-masālik, p. 468; Jaʿfariyān, Āthār-i islāmi-yi Makka wa Madīna, p. 131.
  3. ↑ Kurdī, al-Tārīkh al-qawīm li Makka wa bayt Allāh al-karīm, vol. 1, p. 492.
  4. ↑ Ṣadūq, Man lā yaḥḍuruh al-faqīh, vol. 2, p. 464; Hirawī, al-Ishārāt ilā maʿrifat al-zīyārāt, p. 74.
  5. ↑ Jaʿfariyān, Āthār-i Islāmi-yi Makka wa Madīna, p. 129-130; Ibn Faqīh, al-Buldān, p. 78; Burūsawī, Awḍaḥ al-masālik, p. 468; Ṣadūq, Man lā yaḥḍuruh al-faqīh, vol. 2, p. 463.
  6. ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 1, p. 288-289, 294.
  7. ↑ Sakhāwī, al-Buldānīyāt, p. 225.
  8. ↑ Azraqī, Akhbār Makka, vol. 1, p. 67; Fākihī, Akhbār Makka, vol. 5, p. 9.
  9. ↑ Sakhāwī, al-Buldānīyāt, p. 225; Bīāzār-i Shīrāzī, Bāstanshināsī wa jughrāphīyā-yi tārīkhī-yi qiṣaṣ-i Qurʾān, p. 240.
  10. ↑ Sakhāwī, al-Buldānīyāt, p. 225.
  11. ↑ There is no sin upon you in seeking your Lord’s bounty [during the hajj season]. Then when you stream out of ‘Arafat remember Allah at the Holy Mash‘ar, and remember Him as He has guided you, and earlier you were indeed among the astray.
  12. ↑ Farhang-i fiqh, vol. 5, p. 376.
  13. ↑ Farhang-i fiqh, vol. 5, p. 375.
  14. ↑ Mūsawī Shāhrūdī, Jāmiʿ al-fatāwā; manāsik Ḥajj, p. 173, 174.
  15. ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 2, p. 80.
  16. ↑ Mudīr Shānachī, Ḥajj-i Payāmbar (s), p. 83.
  17. ↑ Nūrī, Mustadrak al-wasāʾil, vol. 8, p. 36.
  18. ↑ Nūrī, Mustadrak al-wasāʾil, vol. 10, p. 30.
  19. ↑ Ṣadūq, Man lā yaḥḍuruh al-faqīh, vol. 2, p. 211; Nūrī, Mustadrak al-wasāʾil, vol. 10, p. 30.
  20. ↑ Ṣadūq, Man lā yaḥḍuruh al-faqīh, vol. 2, p. 241.
  21. ↑ ʿImrānī, Barrasī sanad wa dhiyl-i duʿā-yi ʿArafa-yi Imām Ḥusayn (a), p. 65.

References

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  • Bīāzār-i Shīrāzī, Bāstanshināsī wa jughrāphīyā-yi tārīkhī-yi qiṣaṣ-i Qur'ān, Tehran: Daftar-i Nashr-i Farhang, 1380 Sh.
  • Burūsawī, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. Awḍaḥ al-masālik ilā maʿrifat al-buldān wa l-mamālik. Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1427 AH.
  • Fākihī, Muḥammad b. Isḥāq. Akhbār Makka fī qadīm al-dahr wa ḥadīthih. Makka: Maktabat al-Asadī, 1424 AH.
  • Hirawī, ʿAlī b. Abūbakr. Al-Ishārāt ilā maʿrifat al-zīyārāt. Edited by ʿAlī ʿUmar. Cairo: Maktabat al-Thiqāfa al-Dīnīyya, 1423 AH.
  • Ibn Faqīh Hamadānī, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad. Al-Buldān. Edited by Yusuf al-Hādī. Beirut: Ālam al-Kutub, 1416 AH.
  • ʿImrānī, Masʿūd. Barrasī sanad wa dhiyl-i duʿā-yi ʿArafa-yi Imām Ḥusayn (a). Mishkāt Journal, No. 110, Spring 1390 Sh.
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  • Sakhāwī, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Al-Buldānīyāt. Edited by Ḥisām b. Muḥammad Quṭṭān. Riyadh: Dār al-ʿAṭā, 1422 AH.
  • Shāhrūdī, Sayyid Maḥmūd. Farhang-i fiqh muṭābiq bā madhhab-i Ahl al-Bayt. Qom: Muʾassisat Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-Fiqh al-Islāmī, 1392 Sh.
  • Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Mūhammad Ḥusayn al-. Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Second edition. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Aʿlamī li-l-Maṭbūʿāt, 1973.
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