He Drinks The Waters Of Zemzem, Kisses
The Ka’Abah Threshold, And Stands For Some Time With His Face And Body
Pressed Against The Multazem.
There, on clinging to the curtain of the
Ka’abah, he performs Takbir, Tahlil, Tahmid, and blesses the Prophet,
weeping, if possible, but certainly groaning.
He then leaves the
Mosque, backing out of it with tears and lamentations, till he reaches
the “Bab al-Wida’a,” whence, with a parting glance at the Bayt Ullah, he
wends his way home.
[FN#14] See chapter v.
[FN#15] Many pronounce this Niyat. If intending to perform pilgrimage,
the devotee, standing, before prayer says, “I vow this intention of Hajj
to Allah the most High.”
[FN#16] In spite of this interdiction, pilgrims generally, for
convenience, knot their shoulder-clothes under the right arm.
[FN#17] Hunting, killing, or maiming beasts in Sanctuary land and
cutting down trees, are acts equally forbidden to the Muhrim and the
Muhill (the Moslem in his normal state). For a large tree a camel, for
a small one a sheep, must be sacrificed.
[FN#18] See chapter v. After the “Talbiyat” the pilgrim should bless the
Prophet, and beg from Allah paradise and protection from hell, saying, “O
Allah, by thy mercy spare us from the pains of hell-fire!”
[FN#19] Most of these injunctions are “meritorious,” and may therefore [be]
omitted without prejudice to the ceremony.
[FN#20] Namely, the victim sacrificed on the great festival day at Muna.
[FN#21] So the commentators explain “Badanah.”
[FN#22] A man’s “Aurat” is from the navel to the knee; in the case of a free
woman the whole of her face and person are “shame.”
[FN#23] If the pilgrim place but his hand upon the Shazarwan, or on the
Hijr, the Tawaf is nullified.
[FN#24] This is a purely Shafe’i practice; the Hanafi school rejects it
on the grounds that the Word of God should not be repeated when walking
or running.
[FN#25] The reader will observe (chapter v.), that the Mutawwif made me
reverse this order of things.
[FN#26] It is better to recite these prayers mentally; but as few
pilgrims know them by heart, they are obliged to repeat the words of
the cicerone.
[FN#27] This portion is to be recited twice.
[FN#28] A woman, or a hermaphrodite, is enjoined to stand below the
steps and in the street.
[FN#29] Women and hermaphrodites should not run here, but walk the
whole way. I have frequently, however, seen the former imitating the
men.
[FN#30] The Arab legend is, that the angels asking the Almighty why
Ibrahim was called Al-Khalil (or God’s friend); they were told that all
his thoughts were fixed on heaven; and when they called to mind that he
had a wife and child, Allah convinced them of the Patriarch’s sanctity by
a trial. One night Ibrahim saw, in a vision, a speaker, who said to
him, “Allah orders thee to draw near him with a victim!” He awoke, and not
comprehending the scope of the dream, took especial notice of it
([Arabic]); hence the first day of pilgrimage is called Yaum
al-Tarwiyah. The same speaker visited him on the next night, saying,
“Sacrifice what is dearest to thee!” From the Patriarch’s knowing ([Arabic])
what the first vision meant, the second day is called Yaum Arafat. On
the third night he was ordered to sacrifice Ismail; hence that day is
called Yaum Nahr (of “throat-cutting”). The English reader will bear in
mind that the Moslem day begins at sunset. I believe that the origin of
“Tarwiyat” (which may mean “carrying water”) dates from the time of pagan
Arabs, who spent that day in providing themselves with the necessary.
Yaum Arafat derives its name from the hill, and Yaum al-Nahr from the
victims offered to the idols in the Muna valley.
[FN#31] The present generation of pilgrims, finding the delay
inconvenient, always pass on to Arafat without halting, and generally
arrive at the mountain late in the afternoon of the 8th, that is to
say, the first day of pilgrimage. Consequently, they pray the morning
prayer of the 9th at Arafat.
[FN#32] This place will be described afterwards.
[FN#33] The Shafe’i when engaged on a journey which takes up a night and
day, is allowed to shorten his prayers, and to “join” the noon with the
afternoon, and the evening with the night devotions; thus reducing the
number of times from five to three per diem. The Hanafi school allows
this on one day and on one occasion only, namely, on the ninth of Zu’l
Hijjah (arriving at Muzdalifah), when at the “Isha” hour it prays the
Magh[r]ib and the Isha prayers together.
[FN#34] If the pilgrim be too late for the sermon, his labour is
irretrievably lost.—M. Caussin de Perceval (vol. iii. pp. 301-305) makes
the Prophet to have preached from his camel Al-Kaswa on a platform at
Mount Arafat before noon, and to have again addressed the people after
the post-meridian prayers at the station Al-Sakharat. Mohammed’s last
pilgrimage, called by Moslems Hajjat al-Bilagh (“of perfection,” as
completing the faith), Hajjat al-Islam, or Hajjat al-Wida’a (“of farewell”),
is minutely described by historians as the type and pattern of
pilgrimage to all generations.
[FN#35] Ibn Abbas relates a tradition, that whoever recites this short
chapter 11,000 times on the Arafat day, shall obtain from Allah all he
desires.
[FN#36] Most schools prefer to sleep, as the Prophet did, at
Muzdalifah, pray the night devotions there, and when the yellowness of
the next dawn appears, collect the seven pebbles and proceed to Muna.
The Shafe’i, however, generally leave Muzdalifah about midnight.
[FN#37] These places will be minutely described in a future chapter.
[FN#38] id al-Kurban, or the Festival of Victims (known to the Turks as
Kurban Bayram, to the Indians as Bakar-id, the Kine Fete), id al-Zuha,
“of forenoon,” or id al-Azha, “of serene night.” The day is called Yaum
al-Nahr, “of throat-cutting.”
[FN#39] If the ceremony of “Sai” has not been performed by the pilgrim
after the circuit of arrival, he generally proceeds to it on this
occasion.
[FN#40] This day is known in books as “Yaum al-Karr,” because the pilgrims
pass it in repose at Muna.
[FN#41] “The days of drying flesh,” because at this period pilgrims prepare
provisions for their return, by cutting up their victims, and exposing
to the sun large slices slung upon long lines of cord.
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