Importance of Arafah & Happy Eid al-Adha

Date: 10 August 2019 - 22:21

News ID: ۶۹۲۰۲

By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

Today, the 9th of the sacred month of Dhu’l-Hijjah is the Day of Arafah in Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, and most of the world with the faithful engaged in prayers and supplications to God Almighty for bestowing them "Ma’refa” or proper cognition of the dynamic teachings of Islam, the universal message of the holy Qur’an, the immortal legacy of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) and his Infallible Ahl al-Bayt, and concept of the near-sacrifice of Prophet Ishmael (AS) by his father Prophet Abraham (AS) that Divine Providence ransomed with the "Great Sacrifice” (Zibhin Azeem), and thus decreed the 10th of Dhu’l-Hijjah, the climax of the annual Hajj as the glorious Day of Eid al-Adha.
Yesterday, Saturday August 10 was marked as Day of Arafah on the plain of the same name, some 17 km from holy Mecca by the Saudi government on the claim that the crescent was sighted a day earlier in Arabia, or perhaps it was not seen at all.
Anyway, some 2.5 million pilgrims from all over the world assembled around Jabal ar-Rahmah (Mount of Mercy) to observe this major ritual of the Hajj – little knowing that it was from this hillock that Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) during his Farewell Pilgrimage delivered his famous sermon saying that all mankind is from Adam and Adam is from clay and therefore none has any claim to be superior to any other on the superfluous basis of colour of skin, language spoken, ethnicity, social status, supposed qualifications, and geographical area, except on the grounds of piety and sincere adherence to God’s commandments.
The gist of the Messenger of Mercy’s memorable message on that day in 10 AH was the famous Hadith Thaqalayn as recorded in the books of both Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, and which he proclaimed in a clear tone:
"I am leaving behind among you the Two Weighty Things (Thaqalayn); the Book of God (holy Qur’an) and my progeny the Ahl al-Bayt. Hold fast to them and you will not go astray for the two never part with each other even when they return to me at the Fountain (of Kowthar on Judgement Day).”
He then specified by name his Divinely-Designated successors, of whom the first was his cousin and son-in-law, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) – the formal proclamation of whose mission as Vicegerent would be made at the historic plain of Ghadir-Khom near Juhfa to a record gathering of 120,000 pilgrims on the 18th of Dhu’l-Hijjah with the immortal words: "Man kunto Mowla fa hadha Aliyun Mowla” (For whomsoever I am Master this Ali is his Master).
Yesterday, the 88,000 Iranian pilgrims to the Hajj devotedly observed the rites of the Day of Arafah on the plain of Arafah, in the footsteps of the Prophets Adam, Abraham, and others, especially the Seal of all Messengers.
They – as well as pilgrims from other lands – recited the famous supplication for this day taught by the Prophet’s grandson Imam Husain (AS) – the Zibhin Azeem whose sacrifice on the 10th of Muharram in the year 61 AH fulfilled the ransom that God, having ascertained the firm faith of Abraham, had foretold by saving Ishmael from being sacrificed.
One of the moving passages of this supplication is produced below:
"I affirm, my God, with the veracity of my faith, my resolute conviction, my positive profession of Your Oneness, the inner depths of my consciousness, the connections of the conduits of light of my eyes, the lines on my forehead, the hollow passages of my breath, the pliable tissues of the ridge of my nose, the auditory meatuses of my ears, that upon which my lips come together and close, the vocal movements of my tongue, the joint of my mouth’s palate and jaw, the roots of my molar teeth, the organs that facilitate the swallowing of my food and drink, the stem of my brain, the hollow passages of my neck’s cords, that which is enclosed in my breast’s cavity, the vessels of the trunk of my aorta, the veins of my heart’s diaphragm, the lobes around my liver, that which is contained in my ribs’ cartilage, the sockets of my joints, the contraction of my legs, the tips of my fingers, my flesh, my blood, my hair, my skin, my nerves, my windpipe, my bones, my brain, my veins, and all of my members, and what was woven upon them in the days of my suckling, what the earth has taken away from me, my sleep, my waking, my pauses and the movements of my bowing and prostrating, that had I taken pains and striven for the duration of epochs and ages—were I to given to live that long—to deliver thanks for one of Your blessings, I would not be able to do so, except by Your favour, which would make it incumbent upon me to offer You never-ending thanks anew and to celebrate Your praise afresh.”
The followers of the Ahl al-Bayt also commemorated yesterday on the Plain of Arafah, the martyrdom anniversary of Hazrat Muslim ibn Aqeel (AS) the cousin of Imam Husain (AS) and his emissary to the people of Iraq, who was killed in a brutal manner in the city of Kufa by the tyrannical Omayyad governor, Obaidollah ibn Ziyad.
A fundamental ritual of the Hajj pilgrimage which the Iranian pilgrims observed in Arafah in obedience to God’s commandment was the Disavowal of Disbelievers by denouncing the archenemies of Islam, such as the US and the Zionist regime – a ritual which the Saudis have been trying to suppress.
"[This is] an announcement from Allah and His Prophet to all the people on the day of the Greater Hajj: that Allah and His Prophet repudiate the polytheists” (Holy Qur’an 9:3)
As is clear the repudiation of the polytheists or disavowal of disbelievers (bar’aat min-al-mushrikeen) is a commandment of God Almighty and His Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), to be observed during the Hajj.
Alas, following the Prophet’s departure from the world, when the political power of the Islamic state was usurped by former idolaters and after them by the second, third and subsequent generations of Arab Muslims, who were in fact the descendants of polytheists, pagans, atheists, idolaters, this divine commandment was totally ignored.
It was only in 1980 that by the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini (RA) – a direct descendant of the Prophet through his 7th Infallible Heir, Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS) – this fundamental principle of Hajj was revived, with clear instructions to Iranian pilgrims to preach Islamic unity during the rituals, while proclaiming in an organized manner the repudiations of the polytheists, especially the present archenemies of the Ummah (the US and the Zionist entity).
Many Muslims welcomed this, but those who had usurped the political power of the Land of Revelation, were firmly sitting in the lap of the US and Britain, and were direct descendants of the pagan and polytheist Arabs (or Israelites in the case of the Saudi clan), who had troubled Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), not only opposed the ceremony of "bara’at min al-mushrikeen” but used batons and firearms to shed by blood of the Guests of God in the most inviolable of all places – beginning with the 400 Iranians massacred by the Aal-e Saud in 1987 and reaching climax with the stampede in Mena in 2015 by the mischievous Wahhabis that resulted in the death of at least 7,000 Guests of God pilgrims, including over 500 Iranians.
Well, since tomorrow is Eid al-Adha in most countries, we wish the Ummah a happy day, but with thoughts for the Chief of Martyrs Imam Husain (AS), the "Zibhin Azeem” or the Great Sacrifice, through whom God Almighty ransomed Prophet Ishmael in the distant pre-historic past.