Arafat is a place of forgiveness and refuge.
Arafat reminds us that people will rise up from their graves in the morning of the Last Day and gather in crowds at the place of final judgment. Needy servants of Allah hopefully shall wait for forgiveness in the presence of Allah. Hearts and eyes are soaked by the tears of repentance. Many sincere supplications ascend towards Allah the Almighty. One starts with a clean slate in his or her life and promises to Allah the Almighty to continue to live the rest of his or her life in obedience.
Therefore mount Arafat presents a scene from the last judgment. Some of its sights are experienced there. It really reminds us of the state of rising up from the grave , coming to the place of final judgment, struggling in desperation, and sincerely begging the Lord for mercy. It is the state of shedding all worldly rank and entering into the presence of Allah with only two pieces of clothing.
On the other hand Arafat takes us to ancient memories. As we know, because of their lapse of eating from the forbidden fruit, Adam (Peace Be Upon Him) and Eve were expelled from Paradise and sent to different places on earth. They were consequently made to miss each other greatly.
Adam (Peace Be Upon Him) begged for forgiveness from Allah the Almighty for the sake of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) thinking of his esteem and honor in the presence of Allah the Almighty. His request, then, got accepted and Allah the Almighty appointed an angel to show Adam (Peace Be Upon Him) the path to Mecca. As a consequence of Adam’s supplication, our mother Eve was taken by another angel towards Adam (Peace Be Upon Him). They got together in the valley of Arafat in the late afternoon of a certain day. They wept and repented of their sins.
Allah the Almighty, the Generous, not only accepted their invocation but also bestowed upon them and promised that every year He will forgive those from their offspring who come and repent at the same place on the same day and at the same hour. This is the reason why pilgrims go to Arafat and ask for forgiveness on the day called ‘Arafah a day before the ‘Eid.
After their meeting Adam (Peace Be Upon Him) and our mother Eve adopted Mecca as their homeland by the command of Allah. This is why Mecca is also called “Umm al-Qura” or the mother of all lands; because Mecca has become a place where all temporal and relative attributes, like homeland, color, wealth, poverty and physical appearance, lose their meaning, and believers become one nation under the brotherhood of Islam. In Mecca employer and employee, rich and poor, ignorant and educated are all at the same place and in the same garments. All persons stand in the same rows. Mecca is the place to be freed from all differences of class, to experience the feel of burial garments, to turn toward the Lord, and to tremble with the thought of the terrifying scene of the Judgment Day.
This blessed city is the arms of safety, peace, and love; it is the city of the prophets who fill our hearts with blessings and mercy. Today despite all the sufferings of the Muslim world, the summit of unity, love and brotherhood generated by pilgrimage to these holy places is something that the rest of the world dreams of. Nations do everything they can to establish this level of unity through their international institutions but they could not achieve a complete success. Due to their endless worldly desires and spiritual collapse they have countless disagreements, divisions, enmity, oppression, injustices and the winds of favoritism divide them.