Chapter: The Mawāqīt of the Pilgrimage
The term mawāqīt (singular: mīqāt) literally means “a limit,” while in the Sharīʿa it refers to the specific place or time appointed for an act of worship.
The pilgrimage has both temporal and spatial mawāqīt:
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Temporal limits. Allah the Exalted says, “The pilgrimage is in well-known months; so whoever undertakes the pilgrimage in them must abstain from intimate relations, sin, and disputation during the pilgrimage” (2:197). These months are Shawwāl, Dhū al-Qaʿdah, and the first ten days of Dhū al-Ḥijjah. Whoever enters the state of iḥrām for Hajj during this period must avoid every word or action that would undermine the pilgrimage, occupy himself with deeds of righteousness, and remain mindful of Allah.
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Spatial limits. These are the boundaries beyond which a person may not pass toward Mecca without first donning iḥrām.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ defined them, as related by Ibn ʿAbbās (d. — AH): “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ appointed Dhū al-Ḥulayfa for the people of Madinah, al-Juhfa for the people of Syria, Qarn al-Manāzil for those coming from there, and Yalamlam for the people of Yemen. They are for those regions and for anyone who passes by them from elsewhere intending Hajj…”