Ishmael grew up among the Jurhum tribe, learning their language, Arabic, and mixing with their children. When he was a young man, he married a Jurhum girl who gave him a number of sons and daughters. Ishmael was in effect one of the Jurhum. He and his children lived in that valley, and many generations later Muhammad, God’s Messenger and a direct descendant of Ishmael, was born in that very place.
Abraham did not just abandon his young child with his lonely mother and forget about them. Prophets do not abandon their families in that manner. Despite the long distance between Palestine and the place where Ishmael had been left, Abraham visited Hagar and Ishmael every now and then. He recognized God’s grace, which was manifest in the fact that the Jurhum came to settle in that valley, so that Ishmael could grow up among them.
The Great Sacrifice
On one of his visits, Abraham saw in a dream that he was commanded to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, for God’s sake. At that time Ishmael was in his teens, able to understand the fact that Prophets like his father did not see any ‘false’ dreams. It is the first mark of prophethood that the dreams a Prophet sees are as true as anything he sees in real life. The dream was repeated on three consecutive nights and Abraham realized that he had no choice but to carry out the Divine order. He put the matter as gently as he could to his son, who was still in the prime of youth, and asked him: “What do you say, son?”
Since Ishmael was brought up by a mother whose firm belief in God did not forsake her even at the moment when she was abandoned alone with her young boy in the middle of the desert, and by a father who was a Prophet, faith had been instilled in him ever since he was very young. He therefore faced the problem squarely and announced his readiness to submit himself to God’s will: “Father, do as you are bid. You will find me, God willing, patient and able to face death with fortitude.” (37: 102)
Both father and son went some distance out of the city, to the place known today as Minā, where they prepared to obey God’s command. Satan tried to dissuade Abraham from sacrificing his son. He tried to arouse fatherly love in him. Abraham’s submission to God’s will, however, showed no sign of weakness whatsoever. He stoned Satan in three different spots. His action is commemorated by pilgrims when they stone the Jamrahs as one of the duties of their pilgrimage. At the point when Abraham was about to cut his son’s throat in complete submission to the Divine will, an angel came to him and bade him stop. He was told that God had accepted his offering and was pleased with his obedience. He had spared Ishmael for the sake of his elderly father. The angel gave Abraham a fully grown sheep to sacrifice instead.
Building the Kaʿbah
On another visit, perhaps when Ishmael was already married and had some children, Abraham told him that God had ordered him to erect a House in that place, to serve as a consecrated temple. Ishmael expressed his readiness to help his father build the desired structure. Both father and son worked hard to lay the foundations and erect the building. Ishmael carried the stones and put each one in its place while Abraham made sure that the building was firm and well established. When the building was higher than Abraham’s reach, Ishmael brought a large stone for his father to stand on and continue the work. As father and son laboured to complete the building, they prayed God to accept their work and bless their seed. The Qur’ān quotes their prayers:
When Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the House, they prayed: “Our Lord, accept You this from us, for You are indeed the One Who hears all and knows all. Our Lord, make us submit ourselves to You, and make out of our offspring a community which will submit itself to You, and show us our ways of worship, and accept our repentance. You are indeed the One Who accepts repentance, the Merciful. Our Lord, raise up in the midst of our offspring a messenger from among themselves, who shall convey to them Your revelations, and instruct them in the Book and in the wisdom, and cause them to grow in purity. You alone are the Almighty, the truly Wise.” (2: 127-129)
God accepted the work done by Abraham and Ishmael, and answered their prayers. He made the building they erected a centre of worship to which people from all over the world came on pilgrimage. God instructed Abraham to announce to mankind that God required them to make the pilgrimage to that House. Abraham asked: “How far can my voice reach, my Lord?” God told him that it was his task to make the announcement and God Himself would ensure that it was heard all over the world. Abraham complied, and God caused his announcement to be heard far and wide. People started coming to the House, which was called the Kaʿbah, from the time of that announcement. Abraham taught them the rituals of pilgrimage, as he was taught them by God through an angel. God told Abraham that it was His will that Makkah should be a consecrated city where fighting was forbidden. Its animals were to move about safely without fear of being hunted. It was forbidden to cut down its trees. People were secure and safe there. Such has been the status of Makkah ever since Abraham built that House which was the first ever to be erected as a centre of worship for mankind.
Abraham was instructed by God to build the Kaʿbah so that it could serve as a focal point for those who worshipped God alone and ascribed no partners or equals to Him. It was also meant to be a refuge, where everyone felt secure. The Kaʿbah was always a structure of dark stones which had no special significance of their own. The ceiling was raised over pillars made of the best wood. The sanctity the Kaʿbah has come to acquire is the result of the memories with which it has been associated. More importantly, its sanctity is due to the concept for whose propagation it is a symbol: the oneness of God, the only deity worthy of worship. Anyone who assumes that the Kaʿbah itself, or any part of it, can have any beneficial or harmful effect of its own accord is guilty of idolatry, which Islam will always fight with all its might to eradicate.
The Kaʿbah continued to be revered and sanctified by the Arabs, even at the height of their polytheism. Indeed, the Arabs who lived far from Makkah used to make the trip to visit the holy place. The Quraysh derived much of their prestige as the master tribe in Arabia from the fact that they were the custodians of the Kaʿbah.
God also answered Abraham’s and Ishmael’s prayer to send among their offspring a messenger to instruct them in the pure faith based on total submission to God. That messenger was Muhammad, the last of all Prophets.1
The building of the Kaʿbah and the regular pilgrimage to it gave Makkah a special importance in Arabia. In time, other tribes came to settle there. The authority in Makkah, however, belonged to the tribe which looked after the Kaʿbah and held its custody. They held the keys to it and led the pilgrimage, showing the pilgrims how to perform their rituals. That was a position of great honour and the Arabian tribes competed among themselves to win over the custody of the Kaʿbah. When any tribe had the upper hand in Makkah, its nobility enjoyed that honour for as long as they could keep it in the face of constant opposition from other tribes.
Naturally, the custody of the Kaʿbah belonged at first to Ishmael and his offspring. It continued in their hands until it was later taken over by the Jurhum tribe. The takeover was completed without violence, since the Jurhum were considered the ‘maternal uncles’ of the Ishmaelites, because Ishmael was married to a Jurhum woman. The Jurhum continued to be custodians of the Kaʿbah for a long while. As time passed, however, they allowed changes to creep into the rituals of pilgrimage and their rule became tyrannical. Always, in the history of Makkah, whenever the custodians of the Consecrated Mosque, that is, the Kaʿbah, allowed corruption to spread, God would cause them to lose the honour of the custody of the Kaʿbah to some other tribe. Thus the Jurhum ceded to the Khuzāʿah the supreme honour of holding the custody of the Kaʿbah. The Jurhum, however, did not surrender willingly. When they realized that they were unable to defend their position, they collected all the treasures which were dedicated to the Kaʿbah and buried them in the well of Zamzam, the spring which had gushed forth between Ishmael’s feet when he was a very young boy. They levelled the well and removed all traces of its position. When they had made sure that no one would be able to discover the position of the well, they left Makkah for some other place.2
For a long time the Khuzāʿah continued to be the custodians of the Kaʿbah. They were the rulers in Makkah until the Quraysh took over. The Quraysh enjoyed the noblest lineage in Arabia because they were the direct descendants of Ishmael and Abraham (peace be upon them both). The man who gained that honour for the Quraysh was Quṣayy ibn Kilāb,3