It is recommended for the people of Mecca not to postpone assuming ihram until the Day of Tarwiyah. When that day arrives—its morrow is the Day of ʿArafah, and the common folk of our region call it the Day of Mina—all the pilgrims go out to Mina. They reach it in time for the noon prayer, and there they perform the noon, afternoon, sunset, night, and dawn prayers, each at its appointed time, spending the night in Mina. Spending that eve of ʿArafah in Mina is a sunnah; in Mālik’s view it is merely recommended. Whoever leaves Mecca for ʿArafah on the Day of ʿArafah itself without having passed through Mina beforehand incurs no liability according to him.
On the morning of ʿArafah, after sunrise, the pilgrims proceed to ʿArafah, each according to his ability, so that the noon prayer coincides with its earliest time there. Once the sun has passed the meridian, those in ihram cease the talbiyah, except for one who first assumed ihram for ḥajj at ʿArafah; he continues the talbiyah until he has stoned the Jamrah al-ʿAqabah.
For a person who entered ihram at the miqat, the stronger of the two opinions reported from Mālik is that he stops the talbiyah when the sun declines on the Day of ʿArafah. He is also reported to have said: “when he stands at ʿArafah,” at another time: “when he sets out for the standing,” and elsewhere: “when he goes to the mosque”—all of this once he has entered the Sacred Precinct. Anyone who begins an ʿumrah from the miqat ends the talbiyah upon entering the sanctuary.
One who begins an ʿumrah from al-Jiʿrānah ceases the talbiyah on entering the houses of Mecca; if he began it from at-Tanʿīm, he stops when he sights the House itself. This is Mālik’s ruling, while others maintain that the ʿumrah-goer does not cease the talbiyah until he enters the mosque and begins the tawāf. All these practices are sound and currently observed, yet Mālik’s preferred view is that the pilgrim ends the talbiyah at the sun’s zenith on the Day of ʿArafah. In his Muwattaʾ he said: “Such is the practice among us.”
At ʿArafah the imam joins the noon and afternoon prayers with the congregation at the very start of noon, after delivering a sermon in which he instructs them about the standing at ʿArafah and the subsequent departure to