As you may know, it is mandatory for Muslims to pray the 5 daily prayers. What you may not know is that they all have to pray towards a particular direction (Qibla) and that it to this very house, the Kabah. Located in the heart of Makkah, Saudi Arabia, this house is where the nearly 2 billions people are to pray towards.

So what makes the Kabah special? Is it alive? Are the bricks holy? Has this house stayed the same since its inception? Did God send it down from the heavens? No, no, no, and no!

And perhaps that’s the wisdom behind why God chose a house Muslim are to pray towards. See, the core tenant of Islam is monotheism and Islam emphasizes that you lose the concept of one God, you lose your claim of being a Muslim and a true worshipper of God.

History has sadly shown us that without guidance, mankind falls for the most obvious routes for polytheism. You create a statue to commemorate a pious person and generations later, people will attribute divinity to him. You preserve a 1000 year old tree and people will think it’s holy.

Thus, that is perhaps why we have a house. How can one worship a house? If you do, which part of the house? With the bricks and coverings change over time, how can you?

However, you cannot just rely on people. Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) made sure his followers are not superficial people and wanted to keep things in perspective. As one of his companions, Abdullah ibn Umar رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ reported:

I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, circling around the Kabah and saying, “How pure you are and how pure is your fragrance! How great you are and how great is your sanctity! By the One in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, the sanctity of the believer is greater to Allah than your sanctity, in his wealth, his life, and to assume nothing of him but good.”¹

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1. Sunan Ibn Mājah 3932. Grade: Sahih li ghayrihi (authentic due to external evidence) according to Al-Albani

What if I told you there is a living physical miracle on Earth, would you then believe in God? That’s the question you have to ask yourself before you are told of anything that might be a miracle. What is your mindset? If something clearly cannot be explained scientifically, will you dismiss it or as at least consider that something supernatural is at play?

So what is Zamzam? It is water coming from a well in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. As Islamic traditions explain, when Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) was ordered by God to leave Hajar and his son, Ismail, alone in the middle of the desert, a miracle happened. After his mother was looking tirelessly for people and water, Ibn Abbas, the companion and cousin of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), explained that Angel Gabriel hit the ground with his heel and water gushed out.¹ From that moment thousands of years ago, we have the water well today.

So for thousands of years, in the middle of the desert, from the time of Abraham to this day², a water source has been supplying millions and millions of people. When you see the well, or visit Makkah and Madinah and see the countless people drinking the water at any given moment, and contemplate how gallons and gallons of it are being transported throughout the world, it’s incomprehensible. How is any of that possible? To add, to this day, we don’t know the source of it. How is it not linked to another water source? How is the water still coming? Surely, it would have dried up by now… but it hasn’t.

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1. Sahih al-Bukhari 3365.
2. Except a brief period before Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) when the well was lost.