The articles in this series quote the detailed Hadith narrated by Jabir ibn Abdullah, describing the pilgrimage of the Prophet (peace be upon him) from the moment he announced his intention to do it. This Hadith provides the basis of most of the rulings concerning the performance of all pilgrimage rituals. We quote the Hadith and add some comments of explanation where necessary.

We noted that at Muzdalifah, the Prophet only offered his two night prayers, Maghreb and Isha, combining the two and shortening the second, then went to sleep until shortly before Fajr. This is the practice to be followed. Pilgrims arrive at Muzdalifah and they are tired after a full day at Arafat. Having some sleep is the best thing because they have another full day ahead of them. We continue with the Hadith reported by Jabir:

“The Prophet carried Al-Fadl ibn Abbas (his cousin) behind him on his she-camel. Al-Fadl was a man of fine hair, fair complexion and generally handsome. When the Prophet moved on he came across some women riding on their camels and moving fast. Al-Fadl gazed at them and the Prophet put his hand on Al-Fadl’s face. Al-Fadl then turned his face the other way and gazed at the women. The Prophet put his hand again from the other side to turn Al-Fadl’s face away from the women. When he arrived at Muhassar Valley, he increased his speed a little and proceeded along the middle road (which was different from the one he used on his way to Arafat) which led to the Grand Jamrat.

“He proceeded up to the Jamrat, which is by the tree where he did the stoning. He threw at it seven little stones and each time he threw a stone, he said: ‘Allah-u akbar’, which means ‘God is supreme.’ When he finished his stoning he stood at the bottom of the valley (so that Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah were on his right-hand side and Makkah was to his left). He then went to the slaughter place where, with his own hand, he sacrificed 63 animals and asked Ali to slaughter the rest. Ali did that, and the Prophet made Ali his partner in his sacrifice. He ordered that a small piece of meat should be taken from each animal he sacrificed and they were all put in a large saucepan to cook. When it was ready, the Prophet and Ali had some soup and ate of the meat of that cooking.

“The Prophet then mounted his she-camel and went straight on to Makkah. Arriving at the Sacred Mosque he did the tawaf of ifaadah and prayed Dhuhr at Makkah. He then went toward Zamzam where members of the clan of Abd Al-Muttalib (the Prophet’s own clan) were serving people, getting the water from the well of Zamzam to give a drink of its water to anyone who cared to have one. The Prophet said to his tribesmen: ‘You Bani Abd Al-Muttalib! Work hard at providing drinks for people. I would have joined you in your service except for my fear that people would overpower you to do this service.’ They gave him a bucket of water and he drank from it.”

The last statement by the Prophet means that he feared that if he were to join his relatives in providing drinks for pilgrims, people would think this to be one of the pilgrimage rituals and everyone would try to emulate the Prophet. This would have led to chaos. Hence, he refrained from doing it.

The Hadith mentions the order in which the Prophet did the four duties due on the day of sacrifice, i.e. 10 Dul Hijjah. However, his companions did these in different orders. When they reported this to him, he approved all permutations. Thus, he made it easy to fulfill these duties for all time. Had he insisted on any particular order, this would have become obligatory. With the large numbers of pilgrims we see nowadays, it would have been impossible to fulfill these duties. The latitude the Prophet allowed ensures that all pilgrims can fulfill their duties without much difficulty.

The Hadith Jabir reported on the Prophet’s pilgrimage is thus concluded. It practically covers all aspects of the pilgrimage up to the end of 10th of Dul Hijjah, leaving out only the stay in Mina and stoning on the following days and the tawaf of farewell.