When Ibrahim brings Hajar and Ismael to Becca, the wilderness of the place makes Hajar question their survival in a place where there is just nothing. She keeps repeating the question to Ibrahim, until she realises and asks him if this was the command of Allah, to which he responds in affirmative. Can we think what it must have felt like? You are being led to a place where there is no one but you alone, and your baby. You don't see no man, no dwelling, no food around. And it's being told to you that this is the will of Allah. What Hajar does is submits. Submission. She says that Allah will not leave them alone. How monumental is that reliance that Hajar exercises in the moment. To see nothingness, yet remembering that Allah has their back. Being left with some supplies of dates and water in this desert, it wasn't long before thirst overtook them. Imagine these Ramadan days where we refrain from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk. Imagine having to be in that state without respite. Imagine being like this in the middle of a desert. You and your baby. Imagine the impoverished state. There is no glistening water, the hope that it would carry. There is no knowing that Maghreb would bring along with it the breaking of this fast. In this very state of desperation, Hajar moves to the top of a hill, Safaa to look for any form of help, anything to alleviate the thirst but finds nothing. She then runs to the other side of the valley, Marwah to meet the same disappointment. In her despair, she runs between these two vantage points. Imagine her state. She was left in the middle of nothing by her husband, and told that this was Allah's plan for her. And now she is in need. Ismael, a baby, is restless and crying for the lack of water. Imagine the pain that it would inflict upon the mother, yet she does all that is in her power moving between the two points to look for any source of mercy. Just when she moves the seventh time between Safaa and Marwah, she sees a spring open up where Ismael is kicking the earth with his feet. Water. Zamzam. Hope. Mercy. The path her Rabb carves out for her in the nothingness of the place, the result of her Tawakul. Imagine how she lived the word Tawheed. She believed in the oneness of Allah, and didn't let her reliance waiver. Imagine how beautiful the scene of Zamzam had been to her! Allah u Akbr.
"Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee; in whose heart are the ways of them who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well." ~ Psalm 84: 5-6
How profound are these words. How the submission and reliance of Hajar made water spring in the middle of the desert. How her faith became the strength of her soul and carved a way out for her. By the will of Allah!
May we all be blessed with the same, in this holy month of Ramadan.
Salaam! :)
