Dhū al-Ḥulayfah

Dhū al-Ḥulayfah is a locality situated southwest of Madīnah and is the mīqāt designated for the people of Madīnah and those who pass through it intending to perform ḥajj or ʿumrah. Known today as Abyār ʿAlī, it occupies an important place in the sīrah tradition because it served as the principal departure point from which the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ entered into the state of iḥrām on journeys to Makkah. Its association with the Farewell Pilgrimage and other journeys of the Prophet ﷺ made it one of the most significant ritual stations in the sacred geography of Islam.

The site is mentioned repeatedly in the accounts of the Prophet’s ﷺ travels between Madīnah and Makkah. According to the ḥadīth and sīrah sources, the Prophet ﷺ designated Dhū al-Ḥulayfah as the mīqāt for the people of Madīnah, instructing pilgrims to enter the state of iḥrām there before proceeding toward the Sacred Mosque. The locality contained a mosque and a valley known as Wādī al-ʿAqīq, where the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have prayed before commencing his pilgrimage. Because of these associations, the site acquired enduring significance for later generations of pilgrims.

Dhū al-Ḥulayfah figures prominently in the narrative of the Farewell Pilgrimage (Ḥajjat al-Wadāʿ) in 10 AH/632 CE. After departing from Madīnah with a large company of Muslims, the Prophet ﷺ halted there, performed prayer, entered into iḥrām, and pronounced the talbiyah before beginning the journey to Makkah. The reports describing his actions at Dhū al-Ḥulayfah became the basis for many of the legal rulings governing iḥrām and pilgrimage. The site also appears in accounts of earlier journeys, including the expedition leading to the Treaty of al-Ḥudaybiyah and other occasions when the Prophet ﷺ traveled toward Makkah.

In the sīrah tradition, Dhū al-Ḥulayfah is remembered as the gateway through which the Prophet ﷺ and the people of Madīnah entered the rites of pilgrimage. Its designation as a mīqāt, its association with the Prophet’s ﷺ prayers and entry into iḥrām, and its prominent place in the narrative of the Farewell Pilgrimage have secured its lasting importance in Islamic memory. For centuries, pilgrims departing from Madīnah have followed the precedent established by the Prophet ﷺ at this station, making Dhū al-Ḥulayfah one of the enduring landmarks of the pilgrimage tradition.

## References

1 A. J. Wensinck, “Dhū ’l-Ḥulayfa,” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., ed. P. Bearman et al. (Leiden: Brill, 1965). 2 Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, “Kitāb al-Ḥajj,” bāb mawāqīt al-ḥajj, nos. 1524–1526. 3 Abū al-Ḥusayn Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, “Kitāb al-Ḥajj,” bāb mīqāt ahl al-Madīnah, no. 1181. 4 Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya, trans. Alfred Guillaume as The Life of Muhammad (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955), 649–51. 5 Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al-Ṭabarī, vol. 9, The Last Years of the Prophet, trans. Ismail K. Poonawala (Albany: SUNY Press, 1990), 101–5.