Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 2Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Islamic
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 2
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Arabian Peninsula -- Description and travel
The English reader will bear in
mind that the Moslem day begins at sunset. I believe that the origin of
Tarwiyat (which may mean carrying water) dates from the time of pagan
Arabs, who spent that day in providing themselves with the necessary.
Yaum Arafat derives its name from the hill, and Yaum al-Nahr from the
victims offered to the idols in the Muna valley.
[FN#31] The present generation of pilgrims, finding the delay
inconvenient, always pass on to Arafat without halting, and generally
arrive at the mountain late in the afternoon of the 8th, that is to
say, the first day of pilgrimage. Consequently, they pray the morning
prayer of the 9th at Arafat.
[FN#32] This place will be described afterwards.
[FN#33] The Shafei when engaged on a journey which takes up a night and
day, is allowed to shorten his prayers, and to join the noon with the
afternoon, and the evening with the night devotions; thus reducing the
number of times from five to three per diem. The Hanafi school allows
this on one day and on one occasion only, namely, on the ninth of Zul
Hijjah (arriving at Muzdalifah), when at the Isha hour it prays the
Magh[r]ib and the Isha prayers together.
[FN#34] If the pilgrim be too late for the sermon, his labour is
irretrievably lost.M. Caussin de Perceval (vol. iii. pp. 301-305) makes
the Prophet to have preached from his camel Al-Kaswa on a platform at
Mount Arafat before noon, and to have again addressed the people after
the post-meridian prayers at the station Al-Sakharat. Mohammeds last
pilgrimage, called by Moslems Hajjat al-Bilagh (of perfection, as
completing the faith), Hajjat al-Islam, or Hajjat al-Widaa (of farewell),
is minutely described by historians as the type and pattern of
pilgrimage to all generations.
[FN#35] Ibn Abbas relates a tradition, that whoever recites this short
chapter 11,000 times on the Arafat day, shall obtain from Allah all he
desires.
[FN#36] Most schools prefer to sleep, as the Prophet did, at
Muzdalifah, pray the night devotions there, and when the yellowness of
the next dawn appears, collect the seven pebbles and proceed to Muna.
The Shafei, however, generally leave Muzdalifah about midnight.
[FN#37] These places will be minutely described in a future chapter.
[FN#38] id al-Kurban, or the Festival of Victims (known to the Turks as
Kurban Bayram, to the Indians as Bakar-id, the Kine Fete), id al-Zuha,
of forenoon, or id al-Azha, of serene night. The day is called Yaum
al-Nahr, of throat-cutting.
[FN#39] If the ceremony of Sai has not been performed by the pilgrim
after the circuit of arrival, he generally proceeds to it on this
occasion.
[FN#40] This day is known in books as Yaum al-Karr, because the pilgrims
pass it in repose at Muna.
[FN#41] The days of drying flesh, because at this period pilgrims prepare
provisions for their return, by cutting up their victims, and exposing
to the sun large slices slung upon long lines of cord. The schools have
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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