Prophet Ismael[Ishmael]-How Allah satiated his thirst with Zam Zam & rescued him from Sacrifice

“[Ibrahim said] My Lord, grant me [a child] from among the righteous...So We [Allah] gave him good tidings of a forbearing boy[Ismael]…And when he reached with him[the age of] exertion[ability to work and be of assistance]he said, “O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I [must] sacrifice you, so see what you think”. He said, “O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast [patient].”…And when they had both submitted [to Allah’s command] and he put him down upon his forehead, We [Allah] called him, “O Ibrahim, You have fulfilled the vision.” Indeed, We thus reward the doors of good. Indeed this is a trial. And We ransomed him with a great sacrifice [a huge ram …” --- Qur’an chapter 100-107

Ismael was the oldest son of Prophet Ibrahim. He was born when his father was at the age of ninety. And Ishaque was born after him about thirty years later. It was narrated that, Ismael’s mother Hajar gave birth to him when they migrated to Makkah. Later Allah commanded Prophet Ibrahim to move to Palestine. So he left his wife, Hajar and the baby, Ismael with some dates and small gallon of water. Hajar followed him to a certain point and asked; O Ibrahim, will you go and leave us in this valley, that has nobody and nothing? He never responded nor turned to her. But upon repeating that three times, she asked: “Was it Allah who commanded you to go?”. And he said, “Yes”. And she said: “Then Allah would not neglect us.”
So as Ibrahim was on his way to Palestine, he stopped at a place where no one could see him and prayed with this prayer, which Allah Almighty, narrated to the Prophet [PBUH] in Qur’an chapter[Ibrahim] 14 verse37 that: “O Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in an uncultivated valley near Your sacred House, our Lord, that they establish prayer. So make hearts among the people incline toward them and provide for them from the fruits that they might be grateful.”
Later when they ran out of water, the mother of Ismael, Hajar decided to run from one hill [safah] to another [marwah]-looking for a sign of people or caravan of tradesmen passing by, from whom she could request for water to quench his thirst. She ran this errand for seven times and never found anyone. But she suddenly saw an Angel closer to her son, who used his wings and dug a trench beneath the toes of the crying baby Ismael.
Suddenly, water begins to gush out of this small trench and she scooped it and fed her thirsty and yelling baby and hebecame mute. According to Ibn Abass, the Prophet said: May Allah have mercy on the mother of Ismael, if she had not said, “Zami Zami ya Mubarak”, or “gather at one place, gather at one place, or the blessed water”, Zam Zam would have overflown and flooded the entire valley of Makkah and beyond. And the Angel told her before he left: Do not fear, the water would be continuously flowing and this place would be a house of Allah to be built by this boy and his father, and Allah would not neglect his family.
As time goes on, an ancient Arab tribe, by name Jurhum were on their trade mission and they passed by the valley on the south end of Makkah. They saw a bird crisscrossing a particular direction-back and forth and they concluded that: This bird certainly goes to a location that has water, so we need to follow her direction. They then sent one girl or two to go and check. Lo and behold, they came back and inform them about the availability of water and they moved to settle there.
Upon arrival, they requested to settle closer to her and she answered in affirmative and said: But you have no right of ownership to this water in our place. They answered: Yes.
Later when Ismael came of age, Allah sent him as Prophet to his people and most of them did not believe in his mission. According to a narrative by Muhammad bun Umar: When Ismael reached 20 years, his mother Hajar died at the age of 90 and Ismael buried her inside her room.
Muhammad bun Aliyu bunul Hussein was once asked who was the first person to communicate in Arabic and he said, Ismael, who by then was at thirteen years of age. He was further asked what was the language of the people before him and he said, Hebrew.
According to history scholars, Ismael lived for 137 years and then he died and was buried inside the room beside his mothers’ grave.
Umar bun Abdul Aziz, the fifth Caliph and grandson of Umar bunul Khatab, the second Caliph narrated that: Prophet Ismael lamented to Allah the hardship he was having in Makah due to the scorching heat of the environs - a Sahara terrain characterized by a severe draught and dust]. And Allah sent a wahyi or inspiration to him that, he will open a special door of comfort and convenience for him until he dies in that room and buried there. And truly he died and was buried inside that room.
Zam Zam-The Miraculous Water that would never seize flowing
Zam Zam is the name of the well that provides the water to billions of people. They have thirstily drunk from throughout history, especially during the Hajj pilgrimage.
Zam Zam well is located approximately 20 meters east of the Ka’bah. It is 35 meters deep and topped by an elegant dome. Since the amazing incident over 5000 years ago, the miraculous water of Zam Zam is still flowing until today.
Medical experts disclosed that: "The difference between Zamzam water and other [city water] was in the quantity of calcium and magnesium salts. The content of these was slightly higher in Zam Zam water. This may be why this water refreshes and rejuvenates pilgrim who are exhorted but more significantly, the water contains fluorides that have an effective germicidal action."
They further indicated that: "This well has never dried up. On the contrary, it has always fulfilled the demand for water. It has always maintained the same salt composition and taste ever since it came into existence. Its portability has always been universally recognized as pilgrims from all over the world visit the Ka’abah every year for Hajj and Umrah, but have never complained about it. Instead, they have always enjoyed the water that refreshes them. Water tastes different at different places. Zam Zam water's appeal has always been universal. This water has never been chemically treated or chlorinated as is the case with water pumped into the cities. Biological growth and vegetation usually take place in most wells. This makes the water unpalatable owing to the growth of algae causing taste and odor problems."
Zam Zam before Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]
The appearance of the Zam Zam began the settlement of the Makkan valley, where the descendants of Prophet Ismail populated the area. But through the passage of time, Prophet Ibrahim and Ismail's monotheistic message, which once dominated the region, began taking a backseat to pagan, polytheistic beliefs.
Nonetheless, the well of Zam Zam retained its importance in later generations. The grandfather of the Prophet, Abdul Muttalib, was honored with the responsibility of taking care of the well and the pilgrims to Makkah.
Zam Zam water: the power drink
One of the miracles of Zam Zam water is its ability to satisfy both thirst and hunger. One of the companions of the Prophet said that before Islam, the water was called "Shabbaa'ah" or satisfying. It was filling and helped them nourish their families.
After Islam, this powerful ability to quench thirst and fill stomachs remained. Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] said: "The best water on the face of the earth is the water of Zam Zam; it is a kind of food and a healing from sickness."
According to the Muslim collection of Hadith, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, a Companion [Sahabi], noted that when he first arrived in Makkah during the early days of Islam, not only did he satisfy his hunger and thirst but he survived only on Zam Zam water for a whole month.
More recently, in the last few decades, scientists have collected samples of Zam Zam water and they have found certain peculiarities that make the water healthier, like a higher level of calcium.
Zam Zam water: a cure for sickness
Apart from its ability to serve as satisfying food and drink, Zam Zam water's health benefits are also commended. Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] said it was a healing from sickness. This is why pilgrims to Makkah until this day scoop it in bottles to bring for relatives and friends who are sick back home.
Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] used to carry Zam Zam water in pitchers and water skins back to Madinah. He used to sprinkle it over the sick and make them drink it.
Wahab Ibn Munabbah, who was from the second generation[Tabi’een] of Muslims, said “I swear by Him[Allah] in whose possession my life is, Allah Ta'ala will relieve the person of all illnesses who drinks Zam Zam to his fill and will also grant him good health.”
In order to vindicate this prophecy by our beloved Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] regarding the medicinal power of Zam Zam, here are some few instances where some sick persons drunk it and got cured in this contemporary time:
During the Somali war in the early nineties, a Somalian citizen who used to hear clearly became totally deaf, due to the heavy artillery bombardments being shelled in the town of Mogadishu in Somalia, as a result of their war in the early nineties. This man was taken to several medical institutions, with doctors with expertise to cure him but to no avail. However, this man later got the opportunity to make Umrah [the lesser form of Hajj]. It was narrated that, he even had to put into writing the kind of food that he wanted to eat when the flight attendant approached him, since he could niether hear them nor could they hear him.
But when he arrived in Makkah and after he performed the first circumambulation upon arrival [tawaful qudoom], he went down the basement to drink from the well of Zam Zam. Surprisingly, as he was claiming up the stairs from the basement location of Zam Zam, he begins to hear the Azan, or Muslim call for prayer. This means the deficiency he had regarding hearing for many years got cured within a shortest possible time, right after he drunk from the well of Zam Zam. He was taken to a hospital in Makkah to verify if he was truly cured, but the hospital confirmed that, there was nothing wrong with him from the beginning. Clearly, Allah sealed his ears and led him to Makkah to perform Umrah , thereby experiment and experience the miraculous medicinal power of Zam Zam.
In another incident, a Muslim lecturer in the US visited his colleague professor’s son at the hospital, who was recuperating from a near fatal accident. Upon a second visit, he realized the condition of this patient was not improving, so he suggested to his colleague in the academia [the patient’s father], that he has this “medicine” that he wants him[the patient] to try and see if it will work for him. The father, having trusted him said, he should go ahead and bring it. So when he brought the “medicine”, [Zam Zam], and the patient drunk it, he recovered within few days and was discharged. Having been amazed by this colorless and curing “medicine”, his friend curiously asked what kind of “medicine” was that, and the man took that golden opportunity to make dawah[propaganda] about the miraculous water and about the history behind Zam Zam in general. Eventually, the entire family members embraced Islam. This story was narrated in Arabic youtube video by the contemporary and renowned Egyptian Muslim earth scientists, Dr. Zaglulu Najjar.
Moreover, all water bodies have both positive and negative bacteria, except Zam Zam, whose bacteria are only positive. And since water has life in it and reacts to emotions and feelings as human does, it has been scientifically proven by scientists upon scientific research on Zam Zam that, they discovered it reacts only to positive emotions.
It should be noted that, Ka’abah is located at a very dry valley in Makkah. It is surrounded by rocky mountains with no vegetation. Makkah, being in a desert land has a very insignificant amount of annual rain, Moreover; there is no water pond or lake in or around Makkah. Hence, one would assume that, the Zam Zam well would supply a limited amount of water. On the contrary, countless people use its water continuously. First, most of the inhabitants of Makkah and the neighboring cities of Jeddah and Taif make arrangements for the continuous supply of Zam Zam water for their daily needs of drinking and cooking. Second, Ka’abah is visited by a countless number of people all around the year.
They generously use the Zam Zam water for drinking, bathing and also for laundry. Third, when they return to their homes, they take ample supply of water as presents for their friends and family members. Fourth, during the month of fasting [Ramadan], at least half a million people assemble at the Ka’abah daily. All of these visitors generously use this water for their daily needs and also take at least one container of water back home. It is amazing that with thin immense use of Zam Zam water all year round, there has never been shortage of water in this well. No one has yet determined the never ending source of this abundant water in the dry and rocky land of Makkah.
Since it started flowing over 5000 years ago. And interestingly enough, notwithstanding the law by the US government restricting or forbidding the importation of foreign liquids and fruits, there is an exception made for pilgrims returning from Makkah, who bring Zam Zam home for their loved ones. This is one of the manifest signs of Allah, the Exalted at Ka’abah, quite apart from the[hajarul aswad] Black stone and the [maqamu Ibrahim] resting place Prophet Ibrahim, etc. And remember that this location is directly under the throne of the Almighty Allah and has been proven scientifically as the epicenter of the earth.
Ismael on the verge of Sacrifice
Ishaque bun Abdallah bun Abi Farwah said: None of the Prophet gave was discovered except three: The graves of Ismael, Hud, and the grave of our beloved Prophet [PBUH].
Prophet Ibrahim had 11 children but the most popular of them were Ismael and Ishaque, because just like their father, they also became prophets. They both inherited Prophethood, Divine Book, knowledge and patience of Prophet Ibrahim. However, Ibrahim inherited mostly their father’s patience, while Ishaque tilted more towards his knowledge.
However, when Ismael grew up and reached a marriageable age, his father arranged a marriage between him and “Raf’at bin Batu’el”. She later gave birth to “Issu” and “Ya’kub”, both were also Prophets of Allah.
As the above mentioned verse stated, when Prophet Ibrahim migrated out of his country, he prayed to Allah to give him an obedient child. And Allah then, gave him glad tidings of a patient and steadfast chaild - “Golamun Haleem”. And that was Ismael, the first son of Ibrahim, when he was at 86 years of age.
So when Prophet Ibrahim had a dream that Allah commanded him to sacrifice Ismael. Ismael accepted and even encourage his father to do what Allah commanded him. So as he and Prophet Ibrahim were on their way to the place of Sacrifice, Satan approached him[Ismael] three times, trying to brainwash him not to go with his father, and he would pick up pebbles and throw at him on different direction. This was the reasons why pilgrims pelt pebbles at the symbol of Satan, called [Jamarat].
Upon arriving at the spot of sacrifice, he turned him facedown, so that he would not see his face in order to sympathize with him. As soon as he placed a sharp knife on his son’s neck, Allah proclaimed: “O Ibrahim, You have fulfilled the vision.”, meaning, you have passed the test, hence Allah rescued him with a huge ram to sacrifice in place of his son. The popular narrative was that, it was an all-white ram, with well carved horns. And according to Ibn Abbass, the ram was raised in Jannah or Paradise for 40 years.
According to Abadallah Yusuf Ali in his analysis on this great historic narrative: This was in the fertile land of Syria and Palestine. The boy thus born was, according to Muslim tradition, the first-born of Abraham, Ismail. This name itself is from the root word in Arabic,“Sami’a”, to hear, because Allah had heard Abraham’s prayer. Abraham's age when Isma’il was born was 86. The boy’s character was to be “Haleem”[forbearing or patient]. This is also applied to Abraham. It refers to the past way in which both father and son cheerfully offered to suffer any self-sacrifice in order to obey the Command of Allah.
Regarding the place of this incident, the Muslim view is that, it was in or near Makkah. Some would identify it with the valley of Mina, six miles north of Makkah, where a commemoration sacrifice is annually celebrated as a rite of the Hajj on the tenth of Zul-Hijjah, the ‘Id of Sacrifice”, in Memory of this Sacrifice was near the hill of Marwa[the companion hill to Safa], which is associated with the infancy of Ismai’l.
This incident occurred after Prophet Ibrahim’s arrival in the land of Canaan and after Ismai’l had grown up to years of discretion. The sacrifice was demanded of both Abraham and Ismai’l. It was a trial of the will of the father and the son. By way of trial the father had the command conveyed to him in a vision. He consulted the son. The son readily consented, and offered to stand true to his promise if his self-sacrifice was really required. The whole thing is symbolical. Allah does not require the flesh and blood of animals, much less of human beings. But he does require the giving of our whole being to Allah, the symbol of which is that, we should give up something very dear to us, if Duty requires that sacrifice.
But history had a very scanty records of the event during the Prophecy of Ishaque or Isaac. As we know in history, the Jew insisted on several occasions that, it was Ishaque[Isaac] that was slaughtered. And according to Muhammad bun Ka’ab: That he once narrated to Umar bun Abdul Aziz who was the Caliph, when he was with him in Sham[Syria]…He sent for a man who was in Sham with him. This man was a Jewish and converted to Islam…And Umar bun Abdul Aziz asked him: Which of the two sons of Ibrahim was commanded to be sacrificed? And he said: Ismael! “Wallahi”, I swear by Allah! O Amirul Muhmineen, or commander of the faithful, and the Jews know about this, but they are envious and jealous of you, the Arabs, by virtue of the fact that, it was your great grandfather [Ismael] who was asked to be sacrificed and due to a special divine privilege he acquired from Allah, because of his patience and perseverance in the face of the sacrificial test he and his father went through. So they are disputing, alleging and asserting that it was rather Ishaque[Isaac], because he was their great grandfather.
Husseini Yushau BabalWaiz, is the Research & Outreach Coordinator at the Center for Media & Peace Initiatives Inc. New York, Author of three books, including "Islam Promotes Tolerance & Prohibits Terrorism-Reviving the Islamic Advocacy of Mercy and Magnanimity to Mankind" & Tutor in Arabic & Islamic Studies in New York, babalwaiz71@gmail.com.
NB: Folks, this is the thirteen in the new series entitled: "Delving Deep Inside the Islamic Historic Memory Lane", which will be running for months, even years, aimed at showcasing the amazing historical phenomena that happened in the pre and post Islamic world. Next week, our series will focus on the people of Prophet Ya’qoob or Jacob.
So please read, comment, forward and share to as many people as possible on social media.
References:
Al-Muntazam-Fii Tareekhil Umam Wal-Mulook, [Periodicals on the History of [medieval] Societies & Kingdoms] by, Abil Faraj, Abdul Rahman Bun Aliyi Bun Muhammad Ibnil Jawzi. vol. [1] of [10] vols.
Qisasil Qur'an-Min Adam Alihi Salamu Ilaa Ashabul Feel[Tales of the Qur'an- From Adam Peace be upon Him to the Companions of the Elephants], by, Dr. Muhammad Bakr Ismael
Qisasil Anbiyah,[Tales of the Prophets] by Abil Fadah, Imam Hafiz Ibn Kathir
160 Mysteries & Miracles of the Holy Qur'an, by Dr. Mazhar Qazi
The Holy Qur'an-English Translation of Meaning & Commentary, by Abdallah Yusuf Ali.

The pictures below show the location of Zam Zama and the water gushing out.