for the purpose. That was great encouragement for his people to make generous contributions. Hāshim got his wealth through trade. When he was the chief of Makkah, he was eager that all the Quraysh should benefit from his commercial expertise. He started the biannual commercial trips which soon became a well-established tradition in the life of the Makkans. In the summer a large commercial caravan went from Makkah to Syria, and a similar one went to Yemen in winter. Each caravan was a joint enterprise in which all Makkan people shared. It brought profit to the people and prosperity to the city.5
ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s Leadership
Hāshim was succeeded by his brothers before his son, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, took over. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was the Prophet’s grandfather. He continued the traditions of the Makkan chiefs and proved himself a man of great integrity and an exceptional leader. His popularity in Makkah and in the whole of Arabia was unequalled by any of his predecessors.
ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib continued the institution of Rifādah, which meant supplying pilgrims with food during their stay in Makkah and their fulfilment of the rites of pilgrimage. Providing them with water to drink, however, was exceptionally difficult. There were only a few scattered wells in Makkah which hardly sufficed for the needs of its own population. Fetching the water from these wells and carrying it in leather sacks and containers was a hard task. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib thought carefully about a solution to the problem. He would have given anything for any method which would guarantee the provision of enough water for the pilgrims.6
One night, as ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was concentrating his thoughts on this problem, he was overtaken by sleep. In a dream, he heard someone saying to him: “ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, dig the good one.” He asked: “What is the good one?” but received no answer. The following night he heard the same voice telling him: “ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, dig the blessed one.” He asked: “What is the blessed one?” Again he received no answer. The third night the same voice told him to dig “the treasured one”. Again he received no answer to his question about what he was supposed to dig. All day long he thought about those cryptic messages. He felt very uneasy about the whole thing, which was becoming an enigma to him. He was reluctant to go to sleep the next night lest he should hear more of these mysterious words. He prayed that the whole question should be resolved one way or another.
In his sleep that night, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib heard the same voice telling him “Dig Zamzam”. He shouted angrily: “What is Zamzam?” This time he received the answer he was seeking. The voice told him that it was the water spring which would be sufficient for the needs of pilgrims, and gave him enough signs to determine its exact position. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib woke up very happy. He was full of hope.
The place was between the two hills of al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah, where pilgrims did their walking duty. In those pagan days, the Arabs had an idol placed on each hill. Isāf was the idol on top of al-Ṣafā and Nā’ilah was placed on top of al-Marwah. In pre-Islamic days, the Arabs made their sacrifice at that particular spot.
That morning, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib went to the place with al-Ḥārith, his only son. They brought all the digging equipment they needed and ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib began to dig while al-Ḥārith helped him with clearing the sand.
Alarmed by the digging, many people from the Quraysh came over. They told ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib that he could not dig in that spot, so close to the Kaʿbah and to their two idols, Isāf and Nā’ilah. He explained to them that he was only doing what he was bid. They did not accept his pleadings, and indicated that they were prepared to prevent him physically. Some of them told him that he had only the one son, while they had many children. This was very painful to ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. He prayed God to give him ten sons to support him and give him the protection he needed. He even pledged that should he be given ten sons, he would sacrifice one of them for God’s sake. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s position, his earnest pleadings and his apparent distress moved those Qurayshī people to change their attitude. They let ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib continue his digging, but no one helped him. He continued to dig for three days before he began to sense a feeling of despair. He even began to doubt whether the voice he had heard on those four nights was a voice of truth. When thoughts of stopping the whole enterprise began to press on his mind, one shovel stroke hit something metallic. That renewed ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s hopes. He went on removing the sand around the metallic object, and soon he discovered two gold deer and a quantity of shields, swords and weapons. He recognized that these were the stuff buried in Zamzam by the Jurhum when they left Makkah. He continued his digging with renewed strength, and soon he found the well. He shouted: “God is supreme. This is indeed Ishmael’s well. This is Zamzam, the drinking water of pilgrims.” When the Quraysh heard ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s shout, they realized that he had found the water and rushed to him, claiming a share in everything he had discovered.
ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib told them that the gold and the weapons did not belong to anyone. They were offered as gifts to the Kaʿbah and they would remain so. No one was to have anything. The water, however, was his and nobody else had any share in it. After all, he was the one given the information which determined its exact spot and selected to dig it. The Quraysh told him that it was the well of their grandfather, Ishmael. It belonged to them all. He could not claim it all for himself. There was much argument on this point. Being a man with a keen sense of justice, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib suggested that they should choose an arbiter. If the arbiter ruled that the water belonged to them, he would relinquish his claim. If the arbiter ruled in his favour, they would do likewise. They felt that this was fair and accepted arbitration.
Dispute Referred for Arbitration
It was customary at that time to refer such disputes to fortune-tellers and people who claimed supernatural abilities. A report exists by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib who, like the Prophet, was ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s grandson. This report indicates that they all agreed to refer the matter to a woman fortune-teller from the tribe of Saʿd Hudhaym who lived near Syria.
The Quraysh chose a delegation of twenty men from different clans. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib also had a twenty-man delegation from his clan, ʿAbd Manāf. They travelled together through some well-known routes and desert areas where there was no established track. While they were travelling in one such desert area, they lost their way. Soon, all the water ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and his delegation had was finished. They were extremely thirsty and were certain of death unless they could find some water. They asked the other delegation to share their water with them, but they refused. Their excuse was that they were all in a desert area and they feared the same fate for themselves. In his desperation, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib asked his men what they thought they should do. One man said: “We are certain of death. If we were to continue travelling we should die one by one and we shall be lost without trace in this desert. Let us stay here, and let every one of us dig his own grave. When any one of us dies we will push him to his grave. In this way, only the last one may be lost. This is better than all of us being lost. Who knows, our people may find our graves one day.”
They accepted this suggestion, and started to dig their graves, awaiting their death. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, however, told them: “To await death so passively, without doing anything to try to avert it, is indeed the worst option we have. Who knows, God may give us water in some place or another. Let us move on and hope to be rescued.” They picked up their belongings and prepared their camels, with the other delegation looking at them. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib mounted his camel and signalled her to rise. As she started to move, a spring of water gushed forth from under one of her hoofs. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and his kinsmen shouted: “God is supreme.” They dismounted and drank their fill, then filled all their containers. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib then called on the Quraysh people to drink and take all the water they needed. He said to them: “God has given us this water. Come along and drink.” When they had done so, they said to him: “God has given His verdict in your favour, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. We will never
