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Arafat

World Religion
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The plain east of Mecca where pilgrims gather on the 9th of Dhul-Hijjah for Wuquf, the pinnacle of Hajj and a day of forgiveness.

Detailed Definition
Standing at Arafat (Wuquf) is essential to Hajj—where sins are washed away and souls stand exposed before God. In poetry, Arafat is the theater of mercy: sun-baked, crowded, yet intimate. Poets liken it to the Day of Judgment in miniature, where tears mix with dust, and every heart pleads, “O Forgiver, forgive!”—making it the rawest expression of human need and divine grace.
Example
Example in poetry:
A pilgrim’s poem: “On Arafat’s plain, sins dissolve like salt in mercy’s ocean”; In a mystical verse, “Arafat is not a place—it is the moment the heart stands naked before Truth”; A modern reflection: “I stood at Arafat and begged not for heaven, but for the courage to be human”; A minimalist lyric: “Arafat: where ‘I’ vanishes, and only ‘We’ remain before the Divine.”
Additional Notes
Arafat is the climactic site of Hajj, where pilgrims stand (wuquf) in prayer and repentance from noon to sunset on the 9th of Dhul-Hijjah, reenacting Adam and Eve’s reunion and seeking divine mercy. Tradition holds that this is where Muhammad delivered his Farewell Sermon. Missing wuquf invalidates Hajj, highlighting its spiritual centrality. In Islamic poetry, Arafat becomes a metaphor for existential exposure before the Divine—Rumi speaks of the heart as a plain of Arafat where secrets are unveiled. For scholars, its symbolism bridges ritual, ethics, and eschatology.
Also Known As
Jabal al-Rahmah Mount Arafat Plain of Arafat
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