The miracle of our mother, Hajar عليها السلام is one that is close to my heart. Maybe because she’s a woman or maybe because I’m her namesake. Or maybe because it’s one of the few miracles that will exist till time immemorial and one that I can see for myself.
I haven’t formally studied Tafseer (Quranic exegesis) and I may not know much in this regard. But sometimes, even the little things touch my heart and this miracle is one of them. She was given a spring… in a desert. That in itself is a miracle. Yet, there’s more to this story. She was left in a desert with her infant child by her husband Ibrahim عليه السلام. In our words, we would say ‘abandoned.’ But he left her in the Care of Allah. And she didn’t feel heartbroken that he left her alone in the middle of nowhere. No anger, no bitterness, no sense of betrayal. Because she understood why he was doing it. No home, no family, no supplies. Because she understood Who actually takes care of her.
What is more interesting is, she ran repeatedly between the same 2 hills. Now, imagine yourself in that scenario. If you were looking for something, and you already looked in one place, what were the chances you’d look there again? That too in a state of desperation? Maybe once, maybe twice, at most thrice? But she عليها السلام ran 7 times! And it was in the 7th time, that in the very same place, where there was dust, did a spring gush forth.
What does that mean? That means, that if you persist long enough, and believe hard enough, Allah can and will make means where there were no means. And He will make means even when you have exhausted every option and every inch in your search. He will make something in the very place there was nothing, if you wait and try long enough. At no point did she give up and flop on the ground and say, “There’s nothing here!” She kept looking even when she found nothing, because she had conviction she would find something. And she did! She found a miracle that gushes forth even today.
Something about her running pleased Allah so much that He made it a rite for every person who performs the ‘Umrah. It wasn’t her fasting or her praying or her qiyaam. It was her effort in running and relentless searching for a miracle that pleased her Lord. Her faith while looking for that miracle is the one you and I need to have while we run back and forth the same hills. It is the same Lord who granted her miracle, why can He not grant yours?
The question you and I need to ask is – Is our faith the same faith that pleased her Lord?
“Verily, in that are indeed signs for a people who reflect.”
