Arafat: Where the Heart Speaks

Arafat: Where the Heart Speaks

Arafat is where the heart speaks and existence falls silent.
It is one of the rare places where a person comes face to face with existence, time, and most of all, themselves.

Arafat is neither merely a geographical location nor just an ordinary place of worship…
It symbolizes a metaphysical threshold, where the individual meets both their most intimate truths and the transcendent power of the Divine.

In Sufism, Arafat is seen as the most intense scene of shedding the ego and turning towards divine truth.
Here, existence becomes a veil, and the path towards what lies beyond existence, to truth, begins to unfold.

In this sense, Arafat is perhaps where the ecstatic monotheism behind Hallaj al-Mansur’s cry of “Ana al-Haqq” was first awakened.
Because here, shedding the self brings about a complete submission to the Absolute Being.

As Shaykh Shibli said:

“Arafat is where the knower falls silent and the ignorant assumes they know.”

When a Sufi stands in wuqūf (vigil) at Arafat, time and space dissolve.
Consciousness, hidden behind the shadow of the body, passes into a transcendent realm.
In the words of Ibn Arabi:

“To see Him in all things” becomes reality here.

From this point, time becomes a moment, space becomes the heart.
Supplication (du‘ā) is no longer just a plea — it becomes the echo of the inner self turning outward.

The awareness of death here is not symbolic — it is a realization of the Day of Judgment.
Because Arafat is, in many ways, a rehearsal for the Resurrection.
At Arafat, the believer takes on flesh and bone.
As one confronts their true self, they experience both their helplessness and their freedom.
But this freedom is not a worldly choice — it is a freedom found in submission to the transcendent.

According to Suhrawardi, truth becomes visible through inner illumination.
Arafat is like a metaphysical dawn, where this inner birth takes place.

When Mawlānā Rumi said:

“We came from nothingness, and to nothingness we shall return,”
he was, in essence, describing the spirit of Arafat.

Arafat is the moment when a person abandons the illusion of existence and steps toward the station of nothingness.
This is not a nihilistic void — it is a sacred fullness, the realm of Divine manifestation.
At that point, the individual lets go of “I”,
and begins to say “He”…
and in saying “He,” they truly exist.

Dr. Özer Akpınar
Researcher / Historian