Commentary: The Council of Senior Scholars issued Resolution (142) dated 9/11/1407 AH, which states: “Anyone coming from the east or the west who intends to take the expressway toward Mecca does not actually pass a miqat; rather, his miqat is the point that aligns with al-Juhfah, for it is the nearest of the mawāqīt to him—208 km away. If his hometown lies inside the boundary of Dhū al-Ḥulayfah on the side nearer to Mecca, then his miqat is his own place of residence.”

• Rābigh: a large, thriving town with government offices and public amenities, 186 km from Mecca. Pilgrims from the northern regions of Saudi Arabia and its northern coastline up to al-ʿAqabah assume ihrām there, as do travelers from North and West Africa, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine.

• Qarn al-Manāzil (with an open qāf and a silent rā), also called “al-Sayl al-Kabīr.” The distance from the valley floor to Mecca is 78 km.

• Wādī Muḥarram: the upper section of Qarn al-Manāzil. It is an inhabited village with a school, lying on the Ṭāʾif–Mecca road that descends from Jabal al-Karr. A large mosque equipped with all the facilities needed by those intending ihrām has been built there. It is 75 km from Mecca. This is not an independent miqat; it is simply the higher route leading to Qarn al-Manāzil. From these two points (Qarn al-Manāzil and Wādī Muḥarram) pilgrims from the Sarāt mountains in southern Saudi Arabia—and beyond into Yemen—assume ihrām, as do the people of Najd, the Gulf states, Iraq, Iran, and the entire East.

• Yalamlam (initial yā, followed by lām, mīm, lām, then another mīm; also pronounced Alamlam, though locals now say “Yalamlam”): the site contains a well called al-Saʿdiyyah, named after the woman who dug it, Fāṭimah al-Saʿdiyyah. Yalamlam is a vast valley that descends from the Sarāt Mountains into Tihāmah and then empties into the Red Sea at the coast.