Zamzam for Hajar and the Infant Isma‘il: Trust, Search, and Divine Rescue

Sahih al-Bukhari tells the Zamzam story from a moment when outward means were almost absent but trust in Allah was firm. Ibrahim عليه السلام brought Hajar and her nursing infant Isma‘il عليه السلام to the place near the Ka‘ba where Zamzam would later be known. There were no people in Makkah and no water. He left them a small supply of dates and water and began to depart.

Hajar followed him and asked why he was leaving them in such a valley. When she learned that Allah had commanded him, she answered with confidence that Allah would not neglect them. After he had gone out of sight, Ibrahim turned toward the Sacred House and made the prayer whose wider setting is preserved in Qur’an 14:37: he had settled some of his descendants in an uncultivated valley near the Sacred House so that they might establish prayer, and he asked that hearts incline toward them and that they receive provision.

When the water ran out, thirst overtook both mother and child. Hajar climbed Safa looking for help, crossed the valley to Marwah, and repeated the search seven times. The Prophet ﷺ explained that this became the origin of the sa‘i between Safa and Marwah.

On the final approach to Marwah she heard a voice and called for help. The strongest marfu‘ account, Sahih al-Bukhari 3364, says that she saw an angel at Zamzam digging the ground with his heel—or, in the other wording preserved in the same report, with his wing—until water appeared.

Classical tafsir also preserves another early transmitted variant. Al-Tabari reports from Ibn ‘Abbas that the thirsty Isma‘il was scraping the ground with his heel; when Hajar returned from her search, the spring was emerging at that spot. This version is preserved as a classical report and is not merged into the wording of the sahih Bukhari account.

Hajar gathered the water, filled her water-skin, drank and nursed her child. The Prophet ﷺ prayed for mercy upon Isma‘il’s mother and said that had she left the water, Zamzam would have become a flowing stream. The angel reassured her that Allah would not neglect the people of that place and that the boy and his father would build Allah’s House there.

Later, people from Jurhum noticed birds circling over a place where they had known no water. Their scouts found the spring, and they asked Hajar’s permission to settle nearby. She agreed while retaining the right to the water. Thus a waterless valley, a mother’s persistent search and Allah’s provision became the beginning of settlement and a sacred history centered on Zamzam.