EnglishAbraham returned to Palestine where Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. Sarah became so jealous of
Hagar that she forced Abraham to send Hagar and her baby away to a plantless valley on a small
hill in Hijaz, by the Sacred House, exposed to the wearing of floods coming right and left. He chose
for them a place under a lofty tree above Zamzam near the upper side of the Mosque in Makkah
where neither people nor water was available, and went back to Palestine leaving with his wife and
baby a leather case with some dates and a pot of water. Not before long, they ran out of both food
and water, but thanks to Allâh’s favour water gushed forth to sustain them for sometime. The whole
story of Zamzam spring is already known to everybody.
Another Yemeni tribe – Jurhum the Second – came and lived in Makkah upon Hagar’s
permission,
after being said to have lived in the valleys around Makkah. It is mentioned in the Sahih Al-Bukhari
that this tribe came to Makkah before Ishmael was a young man while they had passed through that
valley long before this event.
Abraham used to go to Makkah every now and then to see his wife and son. The number of these
journeys is still unknown, but authentic historical resources spoke of four ones.
Allâh, the Sublime, stated in the Noble Qur’ân that He had Abraham see, in his dream, that he
slaughtered his son Ishmael, and therefore Abraham stood up to fulfill His Order:
“Then, when they had both submitted themselves (to the Will of Allâh), and he had laid him
prostrate on his forehead (or on the side of his forehead for slaughtering); and We called out
to him: “O Abraham! You have fulfilled the dream (vision)!” Verily! Thus do we reward the
Muhsinûn (good-doers, who perform good deeds totally for Allâh’s sake only, without any
show off or to gain praise or fame, etc. and do them in accordance to Allâh’s Orders). Verily,
that indeed was a manifest trial — and We ransomed him with a great sacrifice (i.e. a ram)”
[37:103-107]
9
It is mentioned in the Genesis that Ishmael was thirteen years older than his brother Ishaq. The
sequence of the story of the sacrifice of Ishmael shows that it really happened before Ishaq’s birth,
and that Allâh’s Promise to give Abraham another son, Ishaq, came after narration of the whole
story.
The Sealed Nectar