Tradition I.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Hughes, Thomas Patrick
For reasons known only to Abraham and his wife, Sarah, the former took Ishmael, his son, and the boy’s mother (Hagar), and left his country.
And they had with them a skin full of water.
Ishmael’s mother drank from out the skin, suckling her child.
Upon her arriving at the place where Mecca now stands, she placed the child under a bush.
Then Abraham returned to come back to his wife, and the mother of Ishmael followed him,
Until she reached Keda.
And she called out, “O Abraham, with whom leavest thou me?”
He answered, “With God.”
She replied, “I am satisfied with my God.”
Then she returned, and commenced drinking out of the skin, and suckled her infant until the water was consumed.
And she thought that if she went and looked around, she might, perhaps, see someone; and she went.
She ascended Mount Safā, and looked around to see whether or not there was anyone in sight; then hastily returning through the wilderness, she ascended the mountain of Marvā.
Then she said, “I must now go and see how my child is.” And she went, and saw that he was at the point of death; but not being able to compose her mind, she said, “If I go and look around, peradventure I may see someone.” And accordingly she ascended the mountain of Safā, but could descry no one.
And this she repeated seven times.
She then said, “It will be better for me to go and see my child.” But she suddenly heard a voice.
And she replied, “Kindly assist me, if you have any compassion.”
The angel was Gabriel.
The narrator of the tradition, stamping the earth with his foot, said, this was exactly what the angel did, and that water issued from the spot; and she began to widen the hole.
It is related by Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Prophet said that had she (Hagar) allowed the water to remain in its former state, the water would then have continued issuing forth for ever.
She used to drink that water and suckle her child.