Muzdalifah - Union

Muzdalifah
Union Hidden in the Chest of Night

"Stop, for walking requires patience;
But waiting demands surrender…
One who walks in Muzdalifah first learns to stop."

Meeting the night; the final threshold of union.
Muzdalifah, linguistically derived from the root meaning “to draw near,”
points to the spiritual center of the pilgrimage.
The pleas made with tears at Arafat turn here into an inner tranquility.
After the circling of Tawaf, the striving of Sa’i,
the heart that cascaded with love at Arafat now matures in silence at Muzdalifah.

This night clings neither to the weight of the past nor to the uncertainty of the future.
Only the present exists.
And that present is the moment closest to Allah.
In Sufi understanding, Muzdalifah is the “Station of Waiting.”
This waiting is not a passive posture; rather, it is the heart standing with adab before its Lord.
The body lies upon the earth, but the spirit has taken wing toward the heavens.

Sleeping on the Ground: Embracing Mortality

Sleeping at Muzdalifah is done not above the ground, but laying down on it.
This is not merely a form of worship; it is also an experience of lowering the ego,
condemning the self to the earth.
Lying on the earth is to remember Adam, to return the body to its origin.

Hz. Ali’s profound words echo through the night:
"Man weeps twice: once when he comes from the earth, and again when he returns to it..."

Every body lying here remembers its essence; pride kneels, the ego falls silent.
Darkness covers darkness, yet the light of the soul shines in this night.
For the disciple, this is a rehearsal for surrender before “Fana Fillah.”

Muzdalifah’s Standing: A Pause Beyond Time

Standing at Muzdalifah seems outwardly like mere waiting;
but in truth, it is aligning with the cosmos for the heart’s purification.
According to Sufis, this standing is the creature’s silent presence in the
presence of Allah, transcendent of time and space.

The prayers spoken at Arafat are clothed in silence here.
Words have ended, realization has begun.
This is what the Sufis call the “Station of Silence.”
Because… “Words are the exterior of the heart; silence is its interior.”

Thus, though Muzdalifah outwardly seems like waiting, inwardly it is an awakening.
Time does not stop, but the servant learns to step outside of time —
to fall into the moment, to touch that secret void between pre-eternity and eternity.

Muzdalifah: The Place of Gathering Stones

Muzdalifah is also the place where stones are gathered.
These stones are not just for the symbolic throwing at Mina.
Each one represents a piece detached from the self,
an outward reflection of inner purification.

According to the Sufis, the stone symbolizes the manifest aspects of the ego:
pride, anger, lust, hypocrisy, envy…
When the pilgrim picks these stones from the earth,
he is actually gathering the parts of his inner world.
He will throw them later not at Satan, but at his own self.
Because “Satan” is often not outside but within.

As Yunus Emre says:
"There is a self within me, deeper than me..."

These stones are gathered to pierce through that inner “I.”
One who collects stones at Muzdalifah carries his own shadow in his heart…

The Night of the Inner Sacrifice

The night of Muzdalifah is the preparation for an inner sacrifice.
By morning, the pilgrim walks to Mina to stone Satan and slaughter the sacrifice.
But what is slaughtered is not merely an animal.
The true sacrifice is the idols, desires, excesses, and ego within.
This night is the prayerful night of that inner sacrifice.
The Sufis call this “sacrificing the commanding self (nafs al-ammara).”

That is why Muzdalifah is the scene of the first symbolic inner jihad.
The sacrifice, the stones, the night, the earth… all are markers on an inner map.
Muzdalifah is not just a place; it is a state of being.

Perhaps this is the most important:
Muzdalifah is not merely a nightly stop squeezed between Mecca and Mina.
It is an inner station every servant reaches, pauses at, reflects within.
Sometimes it happens in one night, sometimes it takes a lifetime.
Sometimes it is where one is lost, sometimes where one is found.
Every seeker, at some point in their journey, faces their own Muzdalifah.

And there he learns:
"Walking becomes union for one who knows how to stop."

Muzdalifah is the homeland of those who seek light in the darkness;
it is the lantern burning in the night of the heart.
There the servant lying down rises as one.
Because the first step toward nearness to the Lord is distancing from the self…

Dr. Özer Akpınar
Researcher-Historian