Chapter on the Miqats

The miqat for the people of Madinah is Dhu al-Hulayfah; for the people of Syria, Egypt, and the Maghrib, al-Juhfah; for the people of Yemen, Yalamlam; for the people of Najd, Qarn; and for the people of the East, Dhat ‘Irq. These are for their respective inhabitants and for anyone else who passes through them.

His statement, “the miqats”: this is the plural of miqat, derived from waqt (time). A miqat may be temporal or geographical; that is, it may refer to a specified time, or it may refer to a specified place. Here, it refers to both time and place.

His statement, “The miqat for the people of Madinah is Dhu al-Hulayfah”: “miqat” is the subject, and “Dhu” is its predicate. Al-Hulayfah is the diminutive form of al-Halfa’, a well-known wild tree. This place was given that name because of the abundance of this tree there. It is six or seven miles from Madinah and ten days’ journey from Makkah. Thus, it is the miqat furthest from Makkah.

His statement, “For the people of Syria, Egypt, and the Maghrib, al-Juhfah”: the people of Syria include the inhabitants of Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the neighboring regions. Egypt and the Maghrib are mentioned here because the Suez Canal did not exist at that time; the African and Asian continents could be crossed from one to the other by land. Thus, the people of Egypt would come by land, as would the people of the Maghrib, passing through al-Juhfah.

Al-Juhfah was an ancient village that was swept away and carried off by floods until it disappeared. An epidemic also struck it—the one concerning which the Prophet, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, supplicated that Allah transfer it from Madinah to al-Juhfah, saying: “O Allah, transfer its fever—that is, the fever of Madinah—”