Mount Arafat (, or ) is a

granodiorite Granodiorite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The term banatite is sometimes used informally for various rocks ranging from gra ...

hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, and is usually applied to peaks which are above elevation compared to the relative landmass, though not as prominent as Mountain, mountains. Hills ...

about southeast of

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

, in the province of the same name in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. It is approximately in height, with its highest point sitting at an elevation of . The Prophet

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

, before becoming a Prophet, would break the tradition of his tribe, the

Quraysh The Quraysh () are an Tribes of Arabia, Arab tribe who controlled Mecca before the rise of Islam. Their members were divided into ten main clans, most notably including the Banu Hashim, into which Islam's founding prophet Muhammad was born. By ...

, by standing at Arafat with the other Arabs, much to the shock of his fellow Qurayshite Jubair bin Mut`im who highlighted that he was a part of the Hums and questioning what business he had there. According to Islamic traditions, the hill is the place where the

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

prophet

stood and delivered the

Farewell Sermon The Farewell Sermon (, ''Khuṭbatu l-Widāʿ'' ) also known as Muhammad's Final Sermon or the Last Sermon, is a religious speech, delivered by the Islamic prophet Muhammad on Friday the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, 10 AH (6 March 632) in the Uranah ...

() to his companions () who had accompanied him for the

Hajj Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

towards the end of his life. Some Muslims also believe that Mount Arafat is the place where

Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...

and

Eve Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and there ...

reunited on

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

after falling from

Heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

, believing the mountain to be the place where they were forgiven, hence giving it the name , meaning 'Mountain of Mercy'. A pillar is erected on top of the mountain to show where this event is believed to have taken place. The mountain is especially important during the Hajj, with the 9th day of the Islamic month of

Dhu al-Hijjah Dhu al-Hijjah (also Dhu al-Hijja ) is the twelfth and final month in the Islamic calendar. Being one of the four sacred months during which war is forbidden, it is the month in which the '' Ḥajj'' () takes place as well as Eid al-Adha (). T ...

, also known as the Day of 'Arafah after the mountain itself, being the day when Hajj pilgrims leave Mina for Arafat; this day is considered to be the most important day of the Hajj. The (sermon) is delivered and and prayers are prayed together in the valley. The pilgrims spend the whole day on the mountain invoking

Allah Allah ( ; , ) is an Arabic term for God, specifically the God in Abrahamic religions, God of Abraham. Outside of the Middle East, it is principally associated with God in Islam, Islam (in which it is also considered the proper name), althoug ...

to forgive their sins.

Geology and radiology

A 2012 study classified Mount Arafat as a

rock which mainly consists of

feldspar Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagiocl ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

and

muscovite Muscovite (also known as common mica, isinglass, or potash mica) is a hydrated phyllosilicate mineral of aluminium and potassium with formula KAl2(Al Si3 O10)( F,O H)2, or ( KF)2( Al2O3)3( SiO2)6( H2O). It has a highly perfect basal cleavage y ...

, among other minerals, using petrographic, fission track dating and γ-spectrometric (HPGe) techniques in order to study the geology, thermal history and the radiological hazards due to the presence of

primordial radionuclide In geochemistry, geophysics and nuclear physics, primordial nuclides, also known as primordial isotopes, are nuclides found on Earth that have existed in their current form since before Earth was formed. Primordial nuclides were present in the ...

s. The study yielded fission track age of 9.13 ± 1.05 Ma of the Mount Arafat granodiorite. In addition, the study reported that rifting, magmatism, volcanism and seafloor spreading that resulted in the formation of

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

seems to have altered the original age of the Arafat granodiorite under study to 9.13 ± 1.05 Ma. Measured radioactivity concentrations due to Ra, Th and K were found to not pose any radiological health hazard to the general public.

Hajj

Arafat rituals end at sunset and pilgrims then move to

Muzdalifah Muzdalifah () is an open and level area near Mecca in the Hejazi region of Saudi Arabia that is associated with the ("Pilgrimage"). It lies just southeast of Mina, on the route between Mina and Arafat. In Pre-Islamic times the Hums being the ...

for

Maghrib prayer Maghrib () is one of the five mandatory salah (Islamic prayers), and contains three cycles (''rak'a''). If counted from midnight, it is the fourth one. According to Shia and Sunni Muslims, the period for Maghrib prayer starts just after sun ...

and a shortened

Isha prayer Isha (), alternatively also transliterated as Isha'a, and also known as Khoftan or Khooftaan, is one of the mandatory five daily Islamic prayers, and contains four cycles. Ahadith mentioning virtues Uthman reported that he heard Muhammad say ...

and for a short rest. The level area surrounding the hill is called the Plain of Arafat. The term Mount Arafat is sometimes applied to this entire area. It is an important place in Islam because, during the Hajj, pilgrims spend the afternoon there on the ninth day of

. Failure to be present in the plain of Arafat on the required day invalidates the pilgrimage. Since late 2010, this place is served by Mecca Metro. On a normal Hajj, it would be around to walk. File:Arafat pilgrims.jpg, Pilgrims supplicating File:Masjid Namirah - panoramio.jpg, Masjid al-Namirah File:Jabal-e-Rehmat (Mount Arafat).jpg, Pilgrims supplicating during Hajj File:Jabal-e-Rehmat (Mount of Mercy) Mount Arafat.jpg, Entrance of Jabal ar-Rahmah (Mount of the Mercy) File:Jabal-e-Rehmat (Mount of Mercy).jpg, Pilgrims File:Jabal-e-Rehmat Mount of Mercy Mount Arafat.jpg, File:Jabal-e-Rehmat.jpg, File:Jabal-e-Rehmat (Mount of Mercy Mount Arafat).jpg,

In literature

The hill is referenced in

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's novel ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It was published in instalments starting in 1924, under the title "fragments from ''Work in Progress''". The final title was only revealed when the book was publishe ...

''.

References

External links

*
Muslim pilgrims gather at Mount Arafat for Hajj's key moment
(

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

)
Muslim pilgrims scale Mount Arafat for peak of hajj

Millions Of Muslim Pilgrims Gather At Mount Arafat To Mark Pinnacle Of Hajj , TIME

اكثر من 2 مليون حاج يصعدون إلى جبل عرفات 1433 هـ
(in Arabic) {{DEFAULTSORT:Arafat Mountains of Saudi Arabia Geography of Mecca Hajj

Geology and radiology

Hajj

In literature

See also

References

External links