Rabat – On the second day of the annual Hajj, nearly 2 million make the trip outside of Mecca to Arafat.
The day is spent fasting. praying the noonprayer here and staying until after the sunset is obligatory for all Hajjis. It is said that prayer here on this 9th day of the month of Dhul-Hijjah is unequaled.
“Hajj is Arafat,” said the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). It is a profane and concise statement of the importance of leaving Mecca for the plains which surround Mount Arafat.
It is in a cave on Mount Arafat where the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) received his first revelation from Allah through the archangel Gabriel.
“Read!!” the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was commanded.
“I am not literate,” said the Prophet (PBUH).
Again he was commanded,
“Read.” Again, he said “I am not literate.”
“Read in the name of your Lord who has created. Who created Mankind from a clot.”
These are the first words of the revelation of the Quran found in Surat al Alaq, the 96th chapter.
From this moment, the revelation of the Quran came until the last days of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Thousands will climb the rocky exterior of Mount Arafat and sit and contemplate their past and future.
Buses and a yellow and green train make a long line to carry the throngs of hajjis to this place. If there are delay, people will journey by foot on the wide roads closed for this sacred day.
Khadija Bashir, 23, from Mali was in Arafat draped in traditional dress covering her body and her hair said that “everything is very well organized.”
“It feels comfortable and takes full advantage of our pilgrimage,” added her friend Soumaya, 30, also draped in an orange fabric, reported AFP.
