performing ifrad, qiran, or tamattuʿ, he may exit his state of consecration; this is the Sunnah that admits neither refutation nor dispute.

31 – It is recommended to proceed to Mina for the Hajj on the Day of Tarwiyah—the eighth of Dhu’l-Hijjah—pray there Dhuhr, ʿAsr, Maghrib, ʿIshaʾ, and the Fajr of the ninth day, then remain there until sunrise. The desirability of this practice is unanimously affirmed by the scholars.

32 – When the sun rises he sets out for Namirah and stays there until the sun passes its zenith.

33 – The wording, “Then he came to ʿArafah and found that a tent had been pitched for him at Namirah,” might suggest that Namirah is part of ʿArafah, yet it is not. Namirah is a ravine between two mountains marking the south-eastern boundary of the Haram. Beside it stand the boundary stones of the Sanctuary erected along the route of al-Maʾzimayn, and between ʿArafah and the Haram lies Wadi ʿUrnah, which belongs neither to the Sanctuary nor to ʿArafah.

Accordingly, the phrase “until he came to ʿArafah” resembles the Qur’anic expression, “The command of Allah has come” (16:1), meaning that he drew near to ʿArafah. What we record here rests on on-site observation, careful investigation, and discussion with the local inhabitants, together with a comparison of the textual evidence and the actual location.

In the pre-Islamic period Quraysh used to say, “We are the people of the Sanctuary,” and they would not go beyond Muzdalifah to ʿArafah, because Muzdalifah is inside the Haram while ʿArafah is outside it. The rest of the pilgrims, however, would go to ʿArafah and stand there. When the Prophet ﷺ performed Hajj, Quraysh assumed he would follow their custom and not pass beyond Muzdalifah, but Allah commanded him: “Then stream down from where the people stream down” (2:199).

34 – The Shaykh said: The imam should lead the prayer, and all the pilgrims behind him—whether residents of Mecca or others—are to pray shortened and combined, as the reports from the Prophet ﷺ establish. He never instructed the Meccan residents to complete the full prayer, and anyone who has claimed otherwise is mistaken by consensus of the hadith scholars. The only time he told them to perform the prayer in full was during the Conquest, when he led them in Mecca.