Islam - Its Meaning for Modern Man — Page 209
209 Similar emotions swell the pilgrim’s heart when he runs between Safa and Marwah, thus calling to mind the distress of a mother, who, although resigned to her own and her son’s fate, in the parched valley, because such was the will and pleasure of God, was, nevertheless, anguished by her son’s extreme thirst. Hagar ran from one hillock to the other straining her eyes to catch some sign of habitation, a passing caravan, or even a solitary traveller ⎯ any source, or even a mere indication, from which water could be obtained. All pilgrims drink from the Zam Zam, the spring disclosed to Hagar in her distress over Ishmael. This is no part of the ceremony or ritual of the pilgrimage, but again the urge to drink from the same source which God of His Grace and Mercy disclosed to the distraught mother and which continues to run as fresh and as plentiful as ever, can be well understood. The Zam Zam is within the precincts of the Ka’aba, between the Ka’aba itself and the two hillocks of Safa and Marwah, but closer to the Ka’aba. Other places within the precincts and in the neighbourhood of the Ka’aba that have particular associations are named accordingly. There is the Place of Ishmael, immediately outside the northern wall of the Ka’aba, and the Place of Abraham a few paces from the eastern wall, between the Ka’aba and the Zam Zam; but, characteristically, there is no place