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J:AF

zahir See batin; tafsir.

zakat See almsgiving.

Zamzam

A feature of many sacred places and pilgrimage

centers is the water source. Practically, it provides

water for the people and animals who reside in

or frequent the site. However, the water from

this source is also used in ritual activity, such as

performing ablUtions and other purification rites.

Often, its significance is woven into the mythol-

ogy and sacred history of the site. For Muslims

the most sacred water source is the well known

as Zamzam. It is situated within the courtyard

of the Sacred Mosque in mecca, near the corner

of the kaaba, which contains the black stone.

Pilgrims performing the haJJ and umra (the lesser

pilgrimage) customarily drink water from the

well, although this is not a required part of pil-

grimage rituals. Those who do that believe the

water is full of blessings (baraka) and has healing

power. Many take vials of Zamzam water home

with them, or they soak cloth in it that will be

used as burial shrouds. It is also mixed with

rosewater and used in the ritual cleansing of the

Kaaba twice each year, during ramadan and dur-

ing the hajj season.

The source of the water for Zamzam is subter-

ranean runoff from the sporadic rains that come

between October and March. Since Mecca is

located at the low point of a narrow valley, water

collects in the aquifer about 90 feet below the

surface that feeds the well through springs. With-

out this vital source, and other wells in the area,

the town would not have flourished through the

centuries as it has. Zamzam’s importance, how-

ever, is also recognized and magnified in Islamic

traditional literature. Although never mentioned

in the qUran, other early Islamic lore, such as

Ibn Ishaq’s Sira, an early biography of mUhammad

(written in the eighth century), explains that the

well originated in the days of abraham, when he

left hagar and Ishmael, his wife and son, there.

(He would later return to join his son in build-

ing the Kaaba.) Ishmael, perhaps an infant at the

time, thirsted for water. Hagar left him and went

to search of it, praying and running in despera-

tion—an event commemorated whenever pilgrims

“run” between the hills of Safa and Marwa next to

the Sacred Mosque during the hajj and umra. At

last Hagar’s prayers were answered and the water

Z