Zam Zam is also call the well of Ishmael. When Abraham left Ishmael and Hagar under the shade of a tree in the valley of Makkah name Fa’ran, the baby Ishmael was helplessly crying because of thirst. Hagar having no milk in her breast and no water in her leather bag run here and there but found nothing. She ran up the hill of Safa and looked here and there whether anyone was in sight but found none. Then she ran down the valley frantically and climbed on the mount Marwah and looked here and there whether anyone visible but found none. Likewise she did seven times but all proved futile. Ibnu Abbas says that the apostle of Allah said, “It was because of this that the pilgrims run seven times between the two eminences of Safa and Marwah”.
When the baby cried of thirst by kicking the ground by his tiny hells, water began to ooze out with bubbles making the sound like zamzam. (There is also another tradition which relates that Gabriel open it by scratching it with his heel or wing. Hagar returned with great agony of mind saw to her great surprise water gushing up near her baby. Soon she deterred its course of running by making a mound round the spot crying in Hebrew “ZamZam” which mean ‘Stop stop’. Then taking a handful of water she quenched the thirst of her infant son.
In Arabic the word ‘ZamZam’ means ‘water in profusion’ it also means ‘drinking by little gulps and muttering through by the teeth’
In the year 297 A.H. (909 AD) ZamZam overflowed for the first time and caused flood. Its water’ which is somewhat brackish is considered sacred. It is given to the sick as panacea for ills. The well also dried up many times it had been redug deeper and deeper. In 1039 A.H. when Kaabah was devastated by a great flood Sultan Murad IV of Turkey reconstructed it. Then he raised a building above and around the well of ZamZam. At present the well has gone underground for the convenience of the pilgrims. The well is situated on the south-eastern side of the Kaabah opposite Rukne Hajarul Aswad
End of part 1
Coming up next The Well part 2
