Guided by Fiṭrah to ʿArafah

Allah (swt) was guiding him towards some of the ʿibādah that nobody else knew about among the people of Quraysh. During Ḥajj, they would be the only people not to participate in ʿArafah. So you have different rituals of Ḥajj — you have ṭawāf around the Kaʿbah, you have saʿy between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah, you have standing in ʿArafah, you have camping in Minā. The people of Quraysh would participate in all of these rituals, with the exception of ʿArafah. Why? Because ʿArafah is considered outside of al-Ḥaram. ʿArafah is outside the boundaries of the sacred place, al-Ḥaram. So all of the Arabs would go to ʿArafah in Ḥajj, with the exception of the people of Quraysh. They would say: we are the dwellers of al-Ḥaram, how can we go outside of al-Ḥaram? That was their logic — if we are a part of al-Ḥaram, we are the people of Makkah, how can we get out of the boundaries of Makkah? So they would stop at the borders with ʿArafah.

Al-Muṭʿim ibn Jubayr lost his camel, and he went to look for it, and he ended up searching for his camel in ʿArafah. To his amazement, who does he find there? Muhammad (peace be upon him). Al-Muṭʿim said, "Isn't he from among the people of Quraysh? What is he doing in ʿArafah?" But Allah (swt) was guiding Muhammad (peace be upon him) by fiṭrah to go to ʿArafah during the time of Ḥajj.