Where did wrath manifest?
During the Farewell Pilgrimage, the Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- paced through Batn-i Muhassir, lying between Mina and Muzdalifah.
“What was the matter that you sped up, Messenger of Allah?” asked the Companions, astounded.
“It was at that spot”, replied the Prophet of Allah -upon him blessings and peace-, “that Allah destroyed Abrahah’s army of elephants with the flocks of birds. I sped up to ensure nobody received a share of that wrath.” (Nawawi, Sharh-u Muslim, XVIII, 111; Ibn Qayyim, II, 255-256)
In fact there is no waqfah in that area during hajj.
Manifestations of mercy or wrath may even reflect onto things in the given area. Therefore, one must make the most of places where Divine mercy manifests itself like Kaabah, mosques or the settings of the righteous, and on the contrary, refrain from being present in places reeking with sin and rebellion, manifest with Divine wrath.
Things, too, are subject to the law of attraction; just like the date log against which the Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- used to address the Believers, that, having become saturated with spiritual sentimentality, began to weep once the Prophet of Allah -upon him blessings and peace- started giving his sermons elsewhere.[1] The ahadith which provide an account of the incident are mutawatir, that is, their narrative authenticity is of certainty.
In relation, Mawlana Rumi says, “Air, earth, water and fire are all servants of Allah and they obey him. They are spiritless towards you and I yet spirited in the presence of Allah.”
After moving quickly through the Muhassir Valley, the Noble Messenger -upon him blessings and peace- arrived at the great jamrah, that of Aqabah. There, he threw the stones after daybreak on the day of sacrifice. As he commenced throwing the little stones from between his thumb and index fingers, so did the mass of Believers. They began cramming one another however, causing a stampede. The Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- called out to them. “People…Do not kill each other! When you are to throw stones for the jamrah, throw the little ones from between your fingers!”[2] (Ahmad, VI, 379)
Qudamah ibn Abdullah -Allah be well-pleased with him- remembers Blessed Prophet’s -upon him blessings and peace- manner during that moment:
“I saw the Messenger of Allah throwing stones on camelback. Neither was he pushing and shoving nor was he telling others to move out of his way!” (Ibn Majah, Manasiq, 66)
After sacrificing, with his own hands, a total of sixty-three camels, one for each year of his life, the Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- passed the knife to Ali -Allah be well-pleased with him-, who slaughtered the remainder. The Prophet of Allah -upon him blessings and peace- then ordered a piece of meat be taken from each sacrificed camel. They were all placed in a single pot and cooked, from which he and Ali -Allah be well-pleased with him- ate. Later, the Noble Messenger -upon him blessings and peace- asked Ali -Allah be well-pleased with him- to distribute the remaining meat, along with the skins of the sacrificed camels, among the needy.
Thereafter, the Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- called a barber and had his hair cut. “Women”, he said, “do not have their hairs cut; they only have it trimmed”, prohibiting women from having their hair cut short. (Darimi, Manasiq, 63)
Anas ibn Malik -Allah be well-pleased with him- narrates:
“After the Messenger of Allah finished stoning the devils, he offered his sacrifice and had his hair cut short. “Women do not cut their hairs short; they only trim it”, he then said, prohibiting women from cutting their hair short or shaving their heads. (Darimi, Manasiq, 63)
Another recap of Anas ibn Malik -Allah be well-pleased with him- is more detailed:
“After stoning the devils, the Messenger of Allah -upon him blessings and peace- slaughtered his sacrifice and had his hair cut. The barber held his lock of hair on the right and cut it. The Messenger of Allah -upon him blessings and peace- called Abu Talha and gave him that lock. The barber then held his the hair on his left side. ‘Cut’, the Messenger of Allah -upon him blessings and peace- told him; and he did. He also gave that to Abu Talha, telling him to ‘Distribute it among people!’” (Muslim, Hajj, 323-326; Bukhari, Wudu, 33)
As the fringes of the Prophet’s -upon him blessings and peace- hair were being cut, Khalid ibn Walid -Allah be well-pleased with him- insisted he be their recipient. “Please give those to me, Messenger of Allah”, he pleaded. “Do not prefer anyone else above me in this regard…may my parents be ransomed for you!”[3] Upon receiving the fringes of the Blessed Prophet’s -upon him blessings and peace- hair he desperately wished for, he rubbed them over his eyes and placed them in the front of his cap beneath his imamah. Thereafter, he never encountered an enemy force he did not ultimately vanquish. “Wherever I directed them towards”, Khalid -Allah be well-pleased with him- later said, “that place was ultimately taken!”[4] (Waqidi, III, 1108; Ibn Athir, Usd’ul-Ghabah, II, 111)
Prior to the zuhr salat on the first day of the eid’ul-adha, the Noble Messenger -upon him blessings and peace- mounted his camel and headed towards Kaabah to perform the ifada circumambulation. After its completion, he offered the zuhr salat. He then went to the zamzam well. Nightfall was approaching when that day he eventually returned to Mina, where he was to spend the days and nights of tashriq. During the evenings, however, he continued his regular visits of Kaabah.
After the day of sacrifice, during the afternoon of both the first and second days of tashriq, the Prophet of Allah -upon him blessings and peace- walked to the first jamrah near the Mina Masjid. On the last day of tashriq, he threw his third and last jamrah, after which he moved from Mina to Muhassab[5] in the afternoon. Noticing that the Believers were becoming prone to separating and heading out from Muhassab in their own ways, the Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- declared “Do not leave unless your final destination is Kaabah!” (Darimi, Manasiq, 85)
The Prophet of Allah -upon him blessings and peace- afterwards made it known that there would be a final circumambulation of Kaabah before fajr salat on the fourteenth day of Dhil-hijjah. In the meantime, someone came and posed a question about staying in Mecca. “Mecca is not a place to stay”, answered the Prophet of Allah -upon him blessings and peace-. “For those who come outside of Mecca to offer their pilgrimage, the period of stay is three days.” (Ahmad, IV, 339)
The Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- used to conduct himself towards the Sacred House with enormous respect. If he wanted to eat or take care of a need, he would go outside the precinct, to a place remote. Fearing a feeling of tiredness might arise or that he might make a slip-up in his respect towards Kaabah, he would never stay there for an extended period of time. After all, to be in an other location with the heart attached to Kaabah is preferable to being in its vicinity yet perceiving it like any other place, carrying on in a disrespectful manner, preoccupied with the desire to head back home or any other location.
After offering the farewell circumambulation, the Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- and the Companions made their return to Medina. (Bukhari, Hajj, 21, 70, 128; Muslim, Haj, 147; Ibn Majah, Manasiq, 84)
As Allah, glory unto Him, had now completed His favor and perfected the religion, time was now near for the greatest of all separations and reunions.
[1] Bukhari, Manaqib, 25; Buyû, 32.
[2] Unfortunately, the practice of ‘stoning the devils’ today is far from being performed with a depth of sentiment, with awareness of it being a deed of worship, whereas in effect, it should be offered in a similar state of mind to Ibrahim –upon him peace- when he himself stoned the devil.
[3] In the meantime, Abu Bakr -Allah be well-pleased with him- was looking on in amazement, comparing Khalid’s -Allah be well-pleased with him- deeds at Uhud, Handak and Hudaybiyah to what he had become now. (Ibn Saad, II, 174)
[4] Hikmet Atan testifies to a recent, similar instance of the blessings provided through the Blessed Prophet’s -upon him blessings and peace- hair and beard:
“In 1983, I heard Ali Yücel Efendi explain the following incident. ‘It was during my time as imam at Suluova Central Mosque, when another imam from one of the neighboring villages came to me and said, ‘Something just happened of which I could make little sense’, he said as he began explaining to me the following.
“Recently, some people from a village close to the village where I am imam came to me with a fair number of books. ‘Our father has just passed away’, they said, ‘and he has left us these. But we cannot read them. You are a scholar; only you can benefit from these books around here. So we thought we would give them you as present’. So I took the books and went home. I then sat in front of the stove, which was burning at full blast, and began to examine the books. Inside them were some letters and enveloped belonging to the deceased imam. They were personal, I thought, and decided to gather them and throw them all into the stove burning ferociously in front of me. But as soon as I did, the stove suddenly went ‘tissss’ and was put out. Horrified, I ran outside. Only later did I find enough courage to enter back inside the house.”
“So I told the hodja”, continues Ali Efendi, “that there was a strand of the beard of the Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- inside one of those envelopes”.
After a while, I saw the hodja once again, who straightaway asked me, “How did you know that there was a strand of the beard of the Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- inside one of those envelopes? The people that gave the books came again later on and said, ‘We were unaware at the time but it turns out there is a strand of the beard of the Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- inside the envelopes. Could we have it back?’”
[5] Muhassab lies between Mina and Mecca, closer to Mina however. It was there that the leaders of Quraysh had decided to place an embargo on the Muslims. The Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- recalled that the moment he arrived at Muhassab. (Bukhari, Hajj, 45)
Source: Osman Nuri Topbaş, The Prophet Muhammed Mustafa the Elect II, Erkam Publications
