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One valley, two mosques. The Prophet ﷺ set the miqat of Qarn al-Manazil for the people of Najd (see no. 02). The valley of Qarn is long: it starts on the heights of al-Hada, west of Taif, and runs north down to as-Sayl al-Kabir, from where the valley of Nakhla al-Yamaniya leads towards Mecca. The old road from Taif to Mecca, the one taken by the army in the year 8, went through the bottom of the valley, at as-Sayl, then through Nakhla.
A new road, an “upper” miqat. With the opening of the paved al-Hada road and the descent of Kara (see no. 05), many travellers no longer went through as-Sayl. A miqat mosque was then set up at the top of the valley, at the place called Wadi Mahram (or Wadi Muhrim). Saudipedia presents it as « الْمِيقَاتُ الْأَعْلَى لِوَادِي قَرْنِ الْمَنَازِلِ » (“the upper miqat of the valley of Qarn al-Manazil”). The reasoning adopted is that the name Qarn covers the whole valley: so one may enter ihram at either of its two mosques. Shaykh Saʿid ibn Wahf al-Qahtani sums it up this way in his pilgrimage manual: Wadi Mahram « لَيْسَ مِيقَاتًا مُسْتَقِلًّا، وَإِنَّمَا هُوَ الطَّرِيقُ الْأَعْلَى لِقَرْنِ الْمَنَازِلِ » (“is not a separate miqat: it is the upper road of Qarn al-Manazil”).
The sources consulted give neither the date the mosque was built nor the name of the authority that designated it as a miqat. Google Maps shows an old miqat mosque a few hundred metres from the present mosque.
The place today. The mosque stands at the top of a hill overlooking the valley, in the centre of al-Hada, about 15 km from the centre of Taif and 76 km from the Sacred Mosque by the mountain road. It is 33 km from the mosque of as-Sayl al-Kabir. Its minaret is about 30 m high. The men's hall holds 1,500 worshippers, the women's hall 500, with about 190 ablution points. Pilgrims from Taif, Najd, the Eastern Province and the south of the kingdom, as well as those taking the al-Hada road, enter ihram here.
What is certain and what is not
- Certain: Qarn al-Manazil is a miqat set by the Prophet ﷺ (al-Bukhari).
- Modern: the mosque of Wadi Mahram and its role as a miqat are recent; they follow the opening of the al-Hada road.
- Adopted opinion: Wadi Mahram is part of the valley of Qarn, and ihram there is valid according to Saudipedia and al-Qahtani's manual.
- Unknown: the date the mosque was built and the official text that designated it.
- No link with the Sira: the name Wadi Mahram does not appear in the early sources consulted.
Sources
1. Al-Bukhari, as-Sahih, no. 1524, 1526, 1530 (miqat of Qarn al-Manazil).
2. Ibn Hisham, as-Sira an-nabawiyya, vol. 2, p. 481 (route of the year 8 by Nakhla al-Yamaniya and Qarn).
3. Yaqut al-Hamawi, Muʿjam al-buldan, vol. 5, p. 276, entry « نخلة » (Nakhla al-Yamaniya descends from Qarn al-Manazil).
4. Saudipedia, « ميقات وادي محرم »: https://saudipedia.com/ميقات-وادي-محرم
5. Saudipedia, « قرن المنازل »: https://saudipedia.com/قرن-المنازل
6. Saʿid ibn Wahf al-Qahtani, al-ʿUmra wa l-hajj wa z-ziyara fi dawʾ al-Kitab wa s-Sunna (passage on the miqats): https://usul.ai/t/the-umrah%2C-hajj-and-visit-in-light-of-the-quran-and-sunnah/33