One Night Ibrahim Saw, In A Vision, A Speaker, Who Said To Him, “Allah Orders Thee To Draw Near Him With A Victim!” He Awoke, And Not Comprehending The Scope Of The Dream, Took Especial Notice Of It ([Arabic]); Hence The First Day Of Pilgrimage Is Called Yaum Al-Tarwiyah.

The same speaker visited him on the next night, saying, “Sacrifice what is dearest to thee!” From the Patriarch’s knowing ([Arabic]) what the first vision meant, the second day is called Yaum Arafat.

On the third night he was ordered to sacrifice Ismail; hence that day is called Yaum Nahr (of “throat-cutting”). 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 Shafe’i 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 Zu’l 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. Mohammed’s last pilgrimage, called by Moslems Hajjat al-Bilagh (“of perfection,” as completing the faith), Hajjat al-Islam, or Hajjat al-Wida’a (“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 Shafe’i, 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.

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