Hadith 2
ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“The people of Madinah enter the state of iḥrām at Dhū al-Ḥulayfah; the people of Greater Syria at al-Juhfah; and the people of Najd at Qarn al-Manāzil.”
ʿAbd Allah added, “I have also been informed that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘And the people of Yemen enter iḥrām at Yalamlam.’”
Spatial Miqats
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Dhū al-Ḥulayfah: The ḥāʾ is pronounced with a ḍammah and the lām with a fatḥah; the name is the diminutive of ḥalfāʾ, a plant that grows in that area. The spot is now called Ābār ʿAlī, and the urban expansion of Madinah has almost reached it. The distance from the bank of Wādī al-Ḥulayfah to the Prophet’s Mosque is 13 kilometers, and from that same bank to Mecca via Wādī al-Jamūm is 428 kilometers. Dhū al-Ḥulayfah is the miqat for the people of Madinah and for anyone who travels by their route.
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Al-Juhfah: Pronounced with a ḍammah on the jīm, a sukūn on the ḥāʾ, and a fatḥah on the fāʾ, it is a village situated 10 kilometers from the Red Sea. The site is now in ruins, so pilgrims assume iḥrām instead at
Rābigh: a large town with administrative offices, utilities, and government schools. It lies 186 kilometers from Mecca by way of Wādī al-Jamūm. From Rābigh begin the pilgrims coming from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, the four Maghreb states, other African countries, and parts of the northern region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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Yalamlam: Pronounced with a fatḥah on the initial yāʾ, followed by lām, mīm, another lām, and a second mīm; it is also called Alamlam, while the local residents today say Lalmam. When our government paved the highway that runs from the southern coast of the Kingdom to Mecca and passes through Wādī Yalamlam—bypassing the old iḥrām site known as al-Saʿdiyyah—I served on a committee formed to identify the proper place for iḥrām along the new route. We travelled there with specialists and those familiar with the pathways, met with the notables and elders of the district, and asked them whether Yalamlam was the name of a mountain or a valley. They replied, “Yalamlam is this very valley before you; we know of no mountain by that name. The name applies exclusively to this valley. Its torrents descend from the mountains of al-Sadah, tributary valleys feed into it on both sides, and it has grown into the mighty wadi you now behold. Its course runs from east to west until it empties into the Red Sea at a coastal location called al-Mujayrimah.”