The 9th day of Dhul-Hijjah is the day of Arafat. It is this day when the pilgrims gather on the mountain plain of Arafat, praying and supplicating to their Lord.
The day of Arafat holds great importance in Islam since this is the Day
when Allâh completed his revelation on His Messenger (sAllâhu alaihe
wa-sallam). It is reported in the Sahîhayn (i.e. Sahîh
al-Bukharî and Sahîh Muslim), from Umar Ibn al-Khattab (radhi Allâhu
anhu) that a Jewish man said to him:
|
“O Amîr al-Muminîn (O head of the Muslims)!
There is a verse in the Qur’ân, which if was revealed on us, the Jews,
we would have taken that day as an Eid (festival). Umar asked: ‘Which
verse?’ He said:“This day I
have perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and
have chosen for you Islam as your religion.” [Sûrah al-Maidah (5): 3]Umar (radhi Allâhu anhu) said: ‘We know on which day and in which place was this verse revealed to Allâh’s Messenger (sAllâhu alaihe wa-sallam). It was when he was standing in Arafat on a Friday.’ |
Arafat is the day on which Allâh took the covenant from the
progeny of Adam (alaihis-salâm), it was reported that Ibn Abbas (radhi
Allâhu anhu) narrated: The Messenger of Allâh (sallAllâhu alaihi
wa-sallam) related:
|
“(When Allâh
created Adam (alaihis-salâm) Allâh took covenant from him in a place
Na’mân on the day of Arafat, then He extracted from him all the
descendants who would be born until the end of the world, generation
after generation, and spread them out in front of Him in order to take a
covenant from them also. He spoke to them face to face saying:“Am I not
your Lord?”and they all replied: ‘Yes, we testify to it’. Allâh then
explained why He had all of mankind bear witness that He was their
Creator and only true God worthy of worship. He said:
“That was in case you (mankind) should say on the Day of
Resurrection, ‘Surely, we were unaware of this. We had no idea that You,
Allâh, were our Lord. No one told us that we were only supposed to
worship You.”
[(Sahîh by Shaikh al-Albanî in Silsilah al-Ahâdîth as-Sahîhah vol: 4, no: 1623] |
Indeed, the day of Arafat is a blessed day and there is no other covenant greater than this covenant!
Arafat
is a day of Forgiveness from sins, freedom from the Hell-Fire for the
people who are present in the plain of Arafat. A’ishah (radhi Allâhu
anha) narrated the Messenger of Allâh (sallAllâhu alaihi wa-sallam)
saying:
|
“There is no day on
which Allâh frees more people from the Fire than the day of Arafat. He
comes close and expresses His pride to the angels saying, ’What do these
people (the Hajis) want?’” [Sahîh Muslim] |
This Hâdîth mentions forgiveness for the pilgrims.
In addition to this, fasting on the day of Arafat is a Sunnah and an
expiation of sins for the residents. Hunaydah ibn Khâlid reported from
his wife that some of the wives of the Prophet (sallAllâhu alaihi
wa-sallam) said:
|
“The Messenger of
Allâh (sallAllâhu alaihi wa-sallam) used to fast on the ninth of
Dhul-Hijjah, on the day of Ashûrah, on three days of each month, and on
the first two Mondays and Thursdays of each month.” [(Sahîh) by Shaikh
al-Albanî in Sahîh Abi Dawûd vol: 2, no: 462] |
It is reported in Sahîh Muslim
that when the Messenger of Allâh (sallAllâhu alaihi wa-sallam) was asked
about the fasting on the day of Arafat, he said:
|
“It expiates the sins of the previous year and that of the following year.” [Sahîh Muslim] |
This fasting is Mustahabb only for the non-pilgrims and not
for the Hajis (the pilgrims) because it was not the practice of Allâh’s
Messenger (sallAllâhu alaihi wa-sallam) to fast on the day of
Arafat during pilgrimage and in a narration he also forbade doing so.
Imâm at-Tirmidhî (rahimahullah) (d. 275H) said:
|
“The People of
Knowledge consider it recommended (Mustahabb) to fast on the day of
Arafat, except for those at Arafat.” [Jâmi'ut-Tirmidhî (3/377)]
|
No comments:
Post a Comment