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A prophet · link 8 of 25 in the chain

إسماعيل

Ismail

The sacrifice ransomed

Left as an infant by Zamzam; offered himself to the command; co-builder of the House.

The story

His life begins as the answer to a prayer for righteous offspring (37:100) and unfolds as a series of surrenders. As an infant he is left with his mother Hajar in a valley of bare rock, because Allah commanded it; her sprint between Safa and Marwa searching water for him is re-walked by every pilgrim to this day, and the spring that broke out at his feet still flows: Zamzam.

As a boy old enough to run at his father's side, he was told of the dream in which he was the offering. His answer is the calmest sentence in scripture: 'O my father, do as you are commanded; you will find me, if Allah wills, of the patient' (37:102). The ransom came, and the surrender stayed. The Qur'an gives him a rare personal title: sadiq al-wa'd, true to the promise (19:54).

With his father he raised the foundations of the Kaaba, the two of them praying as they built (2:127). From his line, centuries later, rose the final Prophet ﷺ, so that the answer to Ibrahim and Ismail's wet-stone prayer walked out of their own descendants.

The Qur'an on it

'O my father, do as you are commanded.' The offering agrees to the offering.

Qur'an 37:102

'He was true to the promise, and was a messenger and a prophet.'

Qur'an 19:54

Side by side with Ibrahim, raising the foundations of the House.

Qur'an 2:127

The narrations

The Prophet ﷺ told the long story of Hajar and Ismail in the valley: her running between the two hills, the angel at Zamzam, and said: may Allah have mercy on the mother of Ismail.

Sahih al-Bukhari

In numbers

The journey

  1. A prayed-for child
  2. The empty valley
  3. Zamzam
  4. The sacrifice accepted
  5. Building the House
  6. Ancestor of the Seal ﷺ

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