leading the Muslims in prayer on the outskirts of Mecca. He remained (1) for four days, shortening the prayers on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Thursday morning, he set out for Minā with the Muslims accompanying him. Those who had left ihrām entered ihrām for Hajj at their lodgings. They did not enter the mosque to assume ihrām there; rather, they assumed it with Mecca behind them. When he reached Minā, he stayed (2) there, prayed Zuhr and ‘Asr, and spent the night there—the night preceding Friday.

When the sun rose, he departed for ‘Arafah, taking the road of Dabb, to the right of the road people use today. Some Companions were reciting the talbiyah (pilgrimage invocation), while others were proclaiming Allah’s greatness. He heard them and objected to neither group (3). He found that, at his command, a domed tent had been pitched for him at Namirah (4), a village east of ‘Arafāt (5), now in ruins. He stayed there until the sun passed its zenith, when he ordered that his she-camel al-Qaswā’ be saddled. He then set out (6) until he reached the valley floor in the territory of ‘Uranah.

There, while mounted, he delivered a momentous sermon to the people. In it, he affirmed the foundations of Islam and demolished the foundations of polytheism and pre-Islamic ignorance. He reaffirmed the prohibitions upon which all religious traditions agree: violations of life, property, and honour. He placed the practices of the pre-Islamic era beneath his feet (7), abolished and invalidated all its usury, and exhorted them