10. THE BIRTH OF MECCA

Ibrahim a.s lived alone with his wife Sarah for a long time without any children.  She realized she was barren.  Sarah knew that Ibrahim a.s. longed for children.  She offered her servant, Hajar, to Ibrahim a.s. in marriage.  Invariably, Sarah began to grow jealous of Hajar especially when she conceived and then delivered a baby boy, Ismail a.s.

One day, Ibrahim a.s. awoke from sleep and asked Hajar to prepare herself and their son for a long journey.  The journey took some time until they reached a certain place in the Arabian Peninsula now known as Mecca.  It was a desolate and deserted valley right in the middle of the stifling hot desert that had no vegetation or any food or water with which to sustain life.  There was also no sign of either human or animal life in this valley.  The valley was infact completely empty except for the desert terrain.

Ibrahim a.s. left his wife Hajar and baby boy Ismail a.s. with nothing but a leather bag containing some dates and a small water-skin containing some water.  When the water had all been used up, she and her child became thirsty.  She found that the mountain of Safa was the nearest mountain to her.  She stood on it and started looking at the valley keenly so that she might see somebody, but she could not see anybody.  Then she descended from Safa, reached the valley.  She crossed the valley and reached Marwa mountain where she stood and started looking, but she could not see anybody.  She repeated that running between Safa and Marwa 7 times.

When she reached Marwa for the last time, she saw an angel at the place of Zam-zam, digging the earth.  Water flowed that place.  She started to make something like a basin around it and started filling her water-skin with water.  For quite some time though, Hajar ans Ismail a.s. remained alone in that area.  They survived just on water from the Zam-zam well.  Slowly birds began to gather and drank water from the same well.

One day a caravan from the Jurhum tribe passed by Mecca.  They were from the Yemen area left in search of water upon the collapse of Marab dam in Yemen.  As they approached the Bekkah valley, as they called it then, they saw some birds flying aroun the vicinity of the Zam-zam well.  They knew the birds have the habit of flying around water although they also knew that there was no water in this valley.  The scout discovered that there was indeed a source of water.  The caravan then headed for the water.  Hajar allowed them to drink the water but not claim the ownership of the Zam-zam well.

Eventually the people from the Jurhum tribe settled permanently and sent for their families to join them.  Ismail a.s. grew up amongst them.  Ismail a.s. possessed noble qualities and the community loved and admired him.  When he reached puberty, he married a woman from their tribe.  From his descendants came the Musta’areba Arabs and Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.

STORIES OF THE PROPHETS IN AL-QURAN

(Lessons that we can extract, lessons that we can apply)

(Teaser extraction from the book)

To be continued…

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