ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar related to him that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to halt at Dhī Tuwa (1). He would spend the night there until daybreak, and upon entering Mecca he would perform the dawn prayer. The Prophet’s prayer-place on that occasion was on a rugged knoll; it is not inside the mosque that was later built there but lower down, on another rough rise.

He also reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ faced the two spurs of the mountain lying between him and the Tall Mountain in the direction of the Kaʿbah. Thus the mosque erected there now lies to one’s left at the edge of the ridge, whereas the Prophet’s prayer site (2) was farther down on the black knoll. Leave about ten cubits of the ridge, more or less, and then pray facing the two mountain spurs that stand between you and the Kaʿbah.

Al-Bukhārī ﵀ transmitted this ḥadīth in full, with its complete wording and sequence; Muslim (3) narrated only part of it—from the words near the end, “ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar related to him that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to halt at Dhī Tuwa …” to the close of the report—through Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Musayyibī, from Anas ibn ʿIyāḍ, from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar.

Imām Aḥmad (4) likewise recorded the full report through Abū Qurrah Mūsā ibn Ṭāriq, from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar in a similar form.

Many—indeed most—of these places are unknown today, for the Bedouins of the area have changed the names of nearly all of them, and ignorance has become widespread among them. Al-Bukhārī ﵀ mentioned them in his book in the hope that someone might identify them through reflection, investigation, and close scrutiny, or because most of them were still known in al-Bukhārī’s own time. Allah Most High knows best.

Chapter: The Prophet’s ﷺ Entry into Mecca—may Allah ennoble and exalt it (5)

Al-Bukhārī (6) said: Musaddad narrated to us; Yaḥyā narrated to us from ʿUbayd (7) Allāh; he said: Nāfiʿ informed me, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said: