In 1980, I used to live in Hijaz, in Makkah. At that time, I was close friends with Prince Majid, the amir of Makkah, because of some of the work we used to do in Makkah, he was friendly with us. During that time, there was an order to close down the Zamzam well, because it was considered to be contaminated with the sewage draining from the houses on the hills around. They decided that Zamzam must be getting contaminated, and so it was to be closed.
However, there were some very strong Sunni scholars in Makkah who spoke with the King and asked him to reconsider. They mentioned the importance of Zamzam, in our religion, and its greatness and how the Prophet (ﷺ) had honored us with it. They mentioned the many hadith about Zamzam, including:
يقول الرسول ﷺ: إنها مباركة، إنها طعام طعم، وشفاء سقم فالشرب منها، والتروش منها، كل ذلك من أسباب الشفاء والعافية،
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “If you drink Zamzam to quench a thirst, it will do so, and if you drink it to fill the stomach in place of food, it will do so, and if you drink it for a cure from some illness, it will do so.”
And:
ويروى عنه ﷺ أنه قال: ماء زمزم لما شرب له
the Prophet (ﷺ) said, “The water of Zamzam is for whatever it is drunk for.” (Bukhārī)
عن ابن عباس -رضي الله عنهما- أن النبي -صلى الله عليه وسلم- قال: خير ماء على وجه الأرض ماء زمزم، فيه طعام من الطعم، وشفاء من السقم
After discussing with these scholars, the King ordered them to check before closing the well.
They dug deep into the Zamzam well. The water was coming through lots of sand that had accumulated over time. As they began to dig the sand out, they found Muslim coins from around the world, jars, and historical relics dropped by pilgrims into the well. The treasure was not only the Zamzam, but it became a dunyā treasure as well, full of historical artefacts! If they had not dug it out but closed it instead, then all those relics would have disappeared and all these Islamic historic relics would have been lost.
From the Ka’bah to Zamzam is about 40 feet, so they started to dig there and then the opening began to incline toward the Ka’bah. They went 10 meters down, which is like 30 feet, and then they were not able to go down more and found that they must dig in the direction of the Ka’ba!
More water kept coming so they brought big machinery to pull it out. They then brought two Egyptian divers to go down, who were able to penetrate further and clear more mud until water was filling all the way up to the top of the Zamzam Well. After they had removed all the sand they were able to see the water gushing from below like a waterfall! It was white and so powerful that they could not keep it down anymore. Therefore they brought two huge German-made turbines, in order to empty the water gushing up from underneath, to reveal the source of the water. Using these big turbines, they sucked the water out, but after three minutes the water filled back up! So, the divers had only three minutes to film and they found that the water was coming from directly under Hajar al-Aswad, the Black Stone. There was a hole, and the water was pouring out from there.
They went further and found that Zamzam is also coming from under al-Rukn al-Yamani, the Yamani Corner! So the King’s order came, “Don’t close Zamzam water; it is holy water that is coming and it will never end!” Subħānallāh, what began with Sayyīdinā Ismaīl (ع) four-thousand years ago is continuing until today! And that water is coming so strong up till now, and they are distributing that water around the world. And they say that that water is coming directly from Paradise. We learn a lesson from the water of Zamzam in the middle of the desert. If you dig 1,000 feet, it never runs out; with Allah’s Will it increases and never diminishes. If one thousand, one million, one billion, or one trillion people come to drink from it, it will suffice them!
So, when we see that and we understand the greatness of Islam and the greatness of this Message, everything else becomes easy for us, because we see the love that Allah (ﷻ) gives to us, how much He loves those who believe in Him and in His Prophet, Sayyīdinā Muhammad (ﷺ). Therefore, the importance is to develop love more than anything else. That is why, spirituality can do miracles!
[Excerpted from the book: Meccan Openings: A Pilgrim’s Guide to Divine Secrets available in full color or B&W at ISN1.NET ]
