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 dispute your rights to Zamzam. The One Who has given you this water in this desert is the One Who has given you Zamzam. Let us go back, and we pledge to honour your rights to Zamzam.”7
They turned back without continuing their journey to meet the fortune-teller. Zamzam remained the sole property of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and his offspring. They in turn continued to use it to provide water for pilgrims.
Many years passed and ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib had his dearest wish fulfilled: he now had ten sons, all of them adults. In addition, he had six daughters. In all, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib had five wives.
One day, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib summoned all his sons to tell them about his pledge to God, which he had made while he was digging Zamzam. He said it was time he fulfilled this pledge by sacrificing one of them to God next to the Kaʿbah. They all expressed their readiness to submit themselves to be sacrificed. It was then a matter of choosing one of them. He suggested that they followed the Arab custom: have a toss between them administered by the man in charge of the Kaʿbah. They all went to him for the toss.
ʿAbdullāh was the youngest of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s sons. He was also the dearest one to him. He was a young man of great promise, mild temperament, very sociable, not given to wild practices and, at the same time, he was a man of high moral values. All these qualities endeared him even more to his father. The old man therefore thought that if ʿAbdullāh could be spared, the pain of sacrificing one of his other children would be a little less.
The toss, however, came out against ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s desire: it was ʿAbdullāh who had to be sacrificed. By that time, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was a very old man and had been the chief of Makkah for a great many years. He had no hesitation in fulfilling his pledge. He took his son by the hand, and took his knife and went to the mosque to sacrifice him. One of ʿAbdullāh’s sisters tried to pull him away. She was shouting and screaming, appealing to the Quraysh to save him. She cried and screamed and appealed. A number of Quraysh men were moved to act. They went straight to ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and said to him: “You shall not slaughter him until all alternatives have been explored.” When ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib protested that it was a pledge he had made to God and there was no choice for him in the matter, they pointed out the serious danger which they saw his action would bring. They told him: “You are our leader. You are well respected in the whole of Arabia. If you were to sacrifice your son now, your action would be imitated by others. Many a man would bring his son here to slaughter him. That is bound to weaken us and cause havoc in our society.” Al-Mughīrah ibn ʿAbdullāh, who belonged to the same clan as ʿAbdullāh’s mother, said to ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib: “Only when we have determined that there is absolutely no alternative may you sacrifice him. If it is possible to pay a large ransom for him we will certainly pay it, no matter how large it is.” Some men from the Quraysh counselled ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib to wait until he had seen a woman fortune-teller in Yathrib who was known to have contacts with the jinn. If she could find a way out of the problem, he would spare his son. If not, he could still fulfil his pledge.
When the fortune-teller was well apprised of the story she asked ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and his companions to wait for a while until she had referred to her jinni. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was praying God all the time to spare his son. Although he could not see how that might be done, he still held to his faint hope that a solution could be found. It was not long before the woman found that solution for him. She asked him how much they paid as blood money for someone who was killed accidentally. They replied that