Day Of Arafat ...

The Prophet (SAW) said: "Hajj is 'Arafa" ... 
So it is evident that the great gathering of the hajji's on the plain of 'Arafa is the core rite of Hajj ... 
This is what everyone has come for ... 
There is no doubt that in an almost explicit way it prefigures 
That Final Gathering which all of us will inevitably attend on the Last Day ... 
It is there at 'Arafa that the reality of the state of ihram is made most manifest ... 
The lives of all who are present are stripped down to the barest essentials ... 
All distinctions are removed ... 
Wealth and poverty 
Every kind of class distinction 
All the things which normally set people apart from one another in their worldly lives 
All these things are set aside 
And all that remains is the simple fact of our common humanity ... 
All we have is our actions ... 
What we have done with ourselves up to that point ... 
What we have turned ourselves into by what we have done ... 
Nothing more and nothing less than what we truly are ... 
It is a priceless opportunity to take stock ... 
We stand there, as it were, naked in front of our Lord ... 
With all the normal distractions and cushions taken away ... 
Face to face with Allah ...
With nothing in between but the veil of our own existence ...

There is nothing to do there but turn to Allah with complete sincerity ...
And to call on Him making our deen sincerely His ... 
Hoping for His forgiveness ... 
Longing for His mercy and yearning ... 
For the vision of His noble Face ... 
And truly there is nowhere and no time on Earth ... 
Where our prayers are more likely to find acceptance ... 

Jabir reported Allah's Messenger (salla'Llahu 'alayhi wa sallam) as saying:

When the Day of 'Arafa comes
Allah descends to the lowest heaven 
And praises the people there to the angels, saying: 

"Look at My servants who have come to Me dishevelled ... 
Dusty and crying out from every deep valley ... 
I call you to witness that I have forgiven them" ... 

Then the angels object, saying: 
"But my Lord this man has done such and such a thing and also that woman" ...

Allah, Who is Great and Glorious replies: "I have forgiven them" ...

Shaykh Abdalqadir says about 'Arafa in The Way of Muhammad:

It is a rite that takes man back to his origin, for 'Arafa is the meeting point ... 
The point of the reunion on earth of Adam and Hawwa, peace be upon them ... 
It is the source point of the human situation ... 
The meaning of the Hajj and its reality lies in this 'moment' ... 
This time at the source of life itself, and what the hajji does is stop ... 
Stand on 'Arafa ... 
It was for this that the journey was undertaken ... 
Alone on a wide desert plain surrounded by a throng of others identical to yourself ... Bare-headed and draped in two white cloths ... 
Many there will be buried in these same cloths ... 
You just come to a halt ... 
Quite simply, exhausted, dazed, you stop ... 
At that moment there is absolutely nowhere to go ... 
You are there ... 
With Allah ... 
The journey is accomplished ... 
After that everything is purification and supplication ...