Prophet Ismail (AS) – The Patient Son and Builder of the Ka'bah حضرت اسماعیل علیہ السلام – صابر بیٹا اور کعبہ کے معمار

Ibrahim (AS) had left his homeland in Mesopotamia, his people and his father's house for the sake of Allah. He had faced the fire and been saved from it, and he had migrated through Syria and Palestine, and for a time to Egypt, with his wife Sarah and his nephew Lut. He had everything a man of faith could ask for except one thing: a child. Sarah was barren and the years passed. At last he turned to his Lord with a simple prayer recorded in the Quran: ‘My Lord, grant me [a child] from among the righteous.’ (As-Saffat 37:100).

The answer came in the words that follow: ‘So We gave him good tidings of a forbearing boy.’ (37:101). The commentators are agreed that this forbearing boy was Ismail, the firstborn of Ibrahim, because the glad tidings of Ishaq are mentioned separately later in the same surah, after the story of the sacrifice (37:112). Ismail's name in Arabic carries the meaning ‘Allah hears’, and the scholars of tafsir note that it commemorates the hearing of his father's prayer.

The mother of Ismail was Hajar. The sound narration in Sahih al-Bukhari (3364) relates her story from Ibn Abbas, and from it we learn the circumstances in broad outline: Hajar had come to the household of Ibrahim from Egypt, and Sarah, who had no child, gave her to Ibrahim so that he might have offspring through her. The books of history add that she was given to Sarah by the king of Egypt as a servant, a detail that appears in the same Bukhari narration, where the king, after failing to harm Sarah, gives Hajar to her. These reports are sound in their core, while many of the further details found in later books are Isra'iliyyat and should not be stated as established.

When Ismail was born, Ibrahim was already old. The Quran later records his gratitude: ‘Praise to Allah, who has granted to me in old age Ismail and Ishaq. Indeed, my Lord is the Hearer of supplication.’ (Ibrahim 14:39). The order of names in this verse, Ismail before Ishaq, confirms that Ismail was the elder, and the mention of ‘old age’ shows that the gift came after a long wait.

From the outset, then, Ismail's life was defined by prayer and trial. He was the son of a father who had asked Allah for him, and he would be the son whom that father was commanded to give back. The Quran's description of him as ‘halim’, forbearing, before he was even born, foretells the character he would show in the valley of Makkah and on the day of the sacrifice.

Ibn Kathir observes that the whole of Ismail's story is bound up with the story of the Ka'bah and the origins of the Arab nation, and that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ took pride in being from his line. ‘I am the son of the two sacrificed ones,’ is a saying attributed to the Prophet ﷺ in some books, but it has no sound chain and is cited only to show the memory of the Arabs. What is firmly established is that the Prophet ﷺ was a descendant of Ismail through Adnan, and that he said, ‘Allah chose Kinanah from the descendants of Ismail, and chose Quraysh from Kinanah...’ (Sahih Muslim 2276).

The most detailed account of Ismail's childhood comes from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself, in a long narration from Ibn Abbas recorded by al-Bukhari (3364, 3365). Ibrahim brought Hajar and her nursing infant Ismail from the land of Syria and travelled with them far to the south, into the Arabian desert, until he reached a valley with no inhabitants, no water and no vegetation. There, beside the spot where the Ka'bah would later stand, under a tree near the place of Zamzam, he set them down. He left with them a leather bag of dates and a skin of water, and then he turned to go back.

Hajar followed him and said: ‘O Ibrahim, where are you going, leaving us in this valley where there is no person and nothing at all?’ She said this several times, and he did not look back at her. Then she asked: ‘Did Allah command you to do this?’ He said: ‘Yes.’ She said: ‘Then He will not let us perish,’ and she went back. This exchange is the heart of her story. She did not demand an explanation beyond knowing that the command was from Allah; that was enough for her trust.

When Ibrahim reached the pass where they could no longer see him, he turned toward the site of the House, raised his hands and prayed the words that the Quran preserves: ‘Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in an uncultivated valley near Your sacred House, our Lord, that they may establish prayer. So make hearts among the people incline toward them and provide for them from the fruits that they might be grateful.’ (Ibrahim 14:37). Every pilgrim who has ever travelled to Makkah is an answer to that prayer.

Hajar nursed the child and drank from the water until it ran out. Then both she and the boy became thirsty, and she watched him writhing, or as the narration says, ‘kicking the ground’ in distress. Unable to bear the sight, she went to the nearest hill, Safa, climbed it and looked across the valley for anyone, and saw no one. She came down, lifted the hem of her garment, and ran across the valley bed like an exhausted person until she climbed Marwah and looked again. She did this seven times. The Prophet ﷺ said: ‘That is why people walk between them,’ referring to the Sa'i between Safa and Marwah which is part of Hajj and Umrah to this day (Sahih al-Bukhari 3364).

On the seventh time, standing on Marwah, she heard a voice. She said: ‘Hush,’ to herself, and listened, and heard it again, and said: ‘You have made me hear; help if you have any help to give.’ And there was the angel at the place of Zamzam. He dug with his heel, or with his wing, until water appeared. Hajar began to make a basin around it with her hands, scooping water into her skin, and it kept gushing after she had scooped. The Prophet ﷺ said: ‘May Allah have mercy on the mother of Ismail; had she left Zamzam alone, or had she not scooped from the water, Zamzam would have been a flowing stream.’ (Sahih al-Bukhari 3364).

The angel said to her: ‘Do not fear perishing, for here is the House of Allah which this boy and his father will build, and Allah does not let His people perish.’ The site of the House was then a raised mound, with the flood waters passing to its right and left. Hajar lived there with her son in the solitude of the valley, drinking from Zamzam, until a caravan of the tribe of Jurhum, coming from the direction of Kada', camped nearby. They saw a bird circling and said: ‘This bird circles over water, yet we know this valley has no water.’ They sent scouts, who found the spring, and the tribe asked Hajar's permission to settle beside her. She agreed on the condition that they would have no right over the water. The Prophet ﷺ said that she welcomed their company, for she loved human companionship. So the first town of Makkah grew around a mother, her child and a well.

Ismail grew up in the company of the Jurhum. The Bukhari narration says: ‘The boy grew up and learned Arabic from them, and he became most dear and admirable to them as he grew up. When he reached the age of maturity they married him to a woman from among them.’ (Sahih al-Bukhari 3364). The scholars draw from this that Ismail was the first of the line of Ibrahim to speak Arabic as his tongue, and that the Arabs of the Hijaz, called al-Arab al-Musta'ribah, the Arabised Arabs, descend from him through his marriage into the Jurhum.

In the meantime Ibrahim had returned to his family in Syria, but he did not forget his son in the desert. The narration tells us that Hajar died, and that after her death Ibrahim came to visit. He did not find Ismail at home but found his wife, and asked where Ismail was. She said he had gone to seek provision. He asked about their life and condition, and she complained: ‘We are living in hardship and poverty,’ and spoke to him in that spirit. He said: ‘When your husband comes, give him my greeting and tell him to change the threshold of his door.’ When Ismail returned he sensed that someone had come, and his wife described the old man and relayed the message. Ismail said: ‘That was my father, and he has ordered me to divorce you. Go to your family.’ He divorced her and married another woman from the Jurhum.

Ibrahim stayed away for as long as Allah willed, then came again. Again he found only the wife at home, and asked about Ismail and their condition. This time she said: ‘We are well and prosperous,’ and praised Allah. He asked what they ate and drank; she said meat and water. He prayed: ‘O Allah, bless their meat and water.’ The Prophet ﷺ added that there was no grain in Makkah then, and had there been, he would have prayed for it too; and he said that no one outside Makkah can live on those two alone without harm, a comment on the blessing of that prayer. Ibrahim told her: ‘When your husband comes, give him my greeting and tell him to keep the threshold of his door.’ When Ismail returned and heard this, he said: ‘That was my father, and you are the threshold. He has ordered me to keep you.’

This part of the narration is often read as an account of Ibrahim's authority over his son's marriage, but its deeper point is the character of Ismail: a man who recognised his father's wisdom through a stranger's report, and obeyed without being present at the conversation. The commentators note that the first wife was not condemned for poverty but for ingratitude and complaint before a guest, while the second showed the contentment and thankfulness that Ibrahim had prayed for in the valley.

The Quran, for its part, describes Ismail's qualities in brief but weighty terms. In Surah Maryam: ‘And mention in the Book, Ismail. Indeed, he was true to his promise, and he was a messenger and a prophet. And he used to enjoin on his people prayer and zakah and was to his Lord pleasing.’ (Maryam 19:54-55). Being ‘true to his promise’, sadiq al-wa'd, is the quality that the Quran selects above all others, and it is the fitting description of a man who, as a boy, promised his father that he would be found patient and kept that promise under the knife.

Ismail is listed among the prophets in several passages, in the company of Ibrahim, Ishaq and Ya'qub (Al-Baqarah 2:136; Al-Imran 3:84; An-Nisa 4:163), and in Surah Sad among the patient ones: ‘And remember Ismail, Al-Yasa' and Dhul-Kifl, and all are among the outstanding.’ (Sad 38:48). In Surah Al-Anbiya: ‘And Ismail and Idris and Dhul-Kifl; all were of the patient. And We admitted them into Our mercy. Indeed, they were of the righteous.’ (21:85-86). Patience is the thread that runs through every stage of his life.

The defining trial of Ismail's life, and one of the greatest trials given to any human being, is told in Surah As-Saffat. After the glad tidings of a forbearing boy, Allah says: ‘And when he reached with him [the age of] exertion, he said: O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I [must] sacrifice you, so see what you think. He said: O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast.’ (As-Saffat 37:102).

The ‘age of exertion’ means the age at which a boy can walk and work beside his father; the commentators place it in early adolescence. The dreams of prophets are revelation, so Ibrahim understood that he was being commanded to offer up the very son he had prayed for and left in the desert for Allah's sake. He did not hide it from the boy, nor force him; he laid the matter before him and asked his view. Ismail's answer did not hesitate: ‘Do as you are commanded.’ He added ‘if Allah wills’, attributing even his own steadfastness to Allah's help rather than his own strength.

The Quran continues: ‘And when they had both submitted and he put him down upon his forehead, We called to him: O Ibrahim, you have fulfilled the vision. Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good. Indeed, this was the clear trial. And We ransomed him with a great sacrifice. And We left for him [favourable mention] among later generations: Peace upon Ibrahim.’ (37:103-109). The phrase ‘they had both submitted’, aslama, is the root of the word Islam; the surrender of father and son is the archetype of what it means to be a Muslim.

Ibn Kathir, in his tafsir and his Qasas, discusses at length which son was to be sacrificed. The majority of the early generations, and the plain reading of the Quran, indicate that it was Ismail, because the tidings of Ishaq are given after the sacrifice as a separate reward (37:112), and because Ishaq was announced to Sarah together with the tidings of Ya'qub, his son, meaning he was promised a lineage and could not have been the one laid down for slaughter (Hud 11:71). Some reports from the Companions and Successors name Ishaq, but Ibn Kathir explains that these go back to the People of the Book and are Isra'iliyyat; he says the correct view is Ismail. The location of the sacrifice, by the tradition of Makkah, was at Mina, and the ram was sacrificed there, which is why the pilgrims sacrifice at Mina on the day of Eid al-Adha.

The details often told in popular accounts, such as Ismail asking his father to tie him firmly so he would not struggle, or to turn his face away so that compassion would not weaken him, or Shaytan appearing to tempt Ibrahim, Hajar and Ismail at the three pillars of Mina, are found in reports of varying strength. The stoning of the pillars is an established rite of Hajj, and a narration in Musnad Ahmad and others links it to Ibrahim pelting Shaytan at those spots; the dialogue attributed to Ismail is found in tafsir reports without sound chains. None of this is necessary to the lesson, and the Quran's own account is complete: a father obeyed, a son submitted, and Allah ransomed him.

The ‘great sacrifice’ was a ram sent from Allah. From that day the sacrifice at Eid al-Adha became a rite for the followers of Ibrahim, continued by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who said: ‘It is the Sunnah of your father Ibrahim,’ when asked about the sacrifice (Sunan Ibn Majah 3127, graded weak by some scholars, but the practice itself is established by many sound hadiths; see Sahih al-Bukhari 5558 and Sahih Muslim 1966 on the Prophet's sacrifice of two rams).

Ismail walked away from Mina alive, ransomed, and with the title that Allah would later give him: true to his promise. The Quran closes the passage: ‘Thus do We reward the doers of good. Indeed, he was of Our believing servants.’ (37:110-111).

The crowning work of father and son was the building of the Ka'bah. The Bukhari narration continues: Ibrahim came to Makkah a third time and found Ismail sharpening his arrows under a tree near Zamzam. When he saw his father he rose, and they greeted one another as a father greets a son and a son greets a father. Ibrahim said: ‘O Ismail, Allah has given me an order.’ Ismail said: ‘Do what your Lord has ordered you.’ He asked: ‘Will you help me?’ Ismail said: ‘I will help you.’ Ibrahim said: ‘Allah has ordered me to build a house here,’ and pointed to a raised mound (Sahih al-Bukhari 3364).

The two of them raised the foundations. Ismail brought the stones and Ibrahim built. When the walls rose too high, Ismail brought a stone for his father to stand on, the stone that is known today as Maqam Ibrahim, the Station of Ibrahim, preserved beside the Ka'bah (see Al-Baqarah 2:125). Ibrahim stood on it and built while Ismail handed him the stones, and as they worked, both of them said the words the Quran records: ‘Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed, You are the Hearing, the Knowing.’ (Al-Baqarah 2:127). They went around the House in this way, building and praying, until the structure was complete.

The Quran describes the scene and the prayers in Surah Al-Baqarah 2:127-129: ‘And when Ibrahim was raising the foundations of the House and Ismail, [saying]: Our Lord, accept from us. Indeed You are the Hearing, the Knowing. Our Lord, and make us Muslims [in submission] to You and from our descendants a Muslim nation [in submission] to You. And show us our rites and accept our repentance. Indeed, You are the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful. Our Lord, and send among them a messenger from themselves who will recite to them Your verses and teach them the Book and wisdom and purify them. Indeed, You are the Exalted in Might, the Wise.’

This last prayer was answered more than two thousand years later. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: ‘I am the prayer of my father Ibrahim and the glad tidings of Isa, and my mother saw when she gave birth to me a light that illuminated the palaces of Syria.’ (Musnad Ahmad 17163; its chain is graded sound by many scholars, hasan by others). The messenger ‘from among themselves’ came from the descendants of Ismail, in the very town that Ismail's mother had settled beside the well.

Allah also commanded Ibrahim and Ismail jointly: ‘And We charged Ibrahim and Ismail: Purify My House for those who perform tawaf and those who are staying [there] for worship and those who bow and prostrate.’ (Al-Baqarah 2:125). The Ka'bah was never meant to be an idol-house; it was built for tawaf, for i'tikaf and for prayer, and its purification from idols by the Prophet ﷺ at the conquest of Makkah was a return to the purpose for which Ismail had carried the stones.

Ibn Kathir notes that the Quran mentions the ‘raising of the foundations’, which the commentators understand to mean that the site of the House had been known or marked since the time of Adam, and that Ibrahim and Ismail rebuilt upon it. Reports about angels or Adam building a first house at that site are found in tafsir literature and are not established by sound narrations; what the Quran establishes is that ‘the first House established for mankind was that at Bakkah, blessed and a guidance for the worlds’ (Al-Imran 3:96), and that Ibrahim and Ismail raised it.

When the House was complete, Ibrahim was told to proclaim the pilgrimage: ‘And proclaim to the people the Hajj; they will come to you on foot and on every lean camel; they will come from every distant pass.’ (Al-Hajj 22:27). Ismail, the Arabic-speaking son of the valley, became the custodian of the House and the father of the people who would serve it. The rites of Hajj, the Sa'i, the sacrifice, the stoning and the tawaf, all pass through his family's story.

After the Ka'bah was built, Ismail remained in Makkah as its guardian and as a prophet to the people who gathered there. The Quran says he ‘used to enjoin on his people prayer and zakah’ (Maryam 19:55); the word ‘ahl’ here can mean his household or, more broadly, his people, and the commentators understand it to include the tribes of Jurhum and the growing community of the valley. He was a messenger as well as a prophet (19:54), which means he was sent with a message to a people, not merely inspired for his own guidance.

Ibn Kathir records from the historians that Ismail was the ancestor of the Arabs of the Hijaz, and that his descendants multiplied and spread across Arabia. The Prophet ﷺ traced his own lineage to Adnan and said that Adnan was of the line of Ismail, while cautioning that the genealogists had erred in the generations between Adnan and Ismail. The books of history mention twelve sons of Ismail, among them Nabit and Qaydhar, from whom the Arab tribes descended; these names come from the People of the Book and from Arab genealogy and are reported as history, not as revealed text.

An important narration touches on the piety of Ismail's descendants. The Prophet ﷺ passed by some men of the tribe of Aslam who were competing in archery and said: ‘Shoot, sons of Ismail, for your father was an archer.’ (Sahih al-Bukhari 2899). This small hadith confirms two things: that Ismail was known as a skilled archer, which matches the Bukhari narration that Ibrahim found him sharpening arrows, and that the Prophet ﷺ regarded the Arab tribes as the sons of Ismail.

The Quran names Ismail in the creed that every Muslim is taught: ‘Say: We have believed in Allah and what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Ibrahim and Ismail and Ishaq and Ya'qub and the Descendants, and what was given to Musa and Isa and what was given to the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we are Muslims [in submission] to Him.’ (Al-Baqarah 2:136). When Ya'qub lay dying and asked his sons what they would worship after him, they answered: ‘We will worship your God and the God of your fathers, Ibrahim and Ismail and Ishaq, one God.’ (2:133). Ismail was Ya'qub's uncle, not his father, but the Arabs call an uncle a father, and the verse shows the honour in which the family of Ya'qub held him.

Ismail is also mentioned among the recipients of revelation in Surah An-Nisa (4:163) and among the prophets to whom Allah gave the Book, judgement and prophethood in the line of Ibrahim (Al-An'am 6:84-86 lists his relatives, and 6:86 names him with Al-Yasa', Yunus and Lut: ‘and all [of them] We preferred over the worlds’). In Surah Sad he is among those described as ‘the outstanding’ (38:48). Each mention is brief, but the pattern is clear: Ismail is always placed in the company of the greatest prophets, never as a lesser figure.

The Quran says nothing of Ismail's death. The historians, as cited by Ibn Kathir, report that he lived to a great age, that he was buried in Makkah in the area of the Hijr beside his mother Hajar, and that his descendants continued as custodians of the House until the Jurhum, and later the Khuza'ah, and finally the Quraysh took charge of it. These are historical reports. What the revelation preserves is his rank: a prophet and messenger, true to his promise, patient, among the outstanding, and pleasing to his Lord (Maryam 19:54-55).

His legacy is lived out every year by millions of pilgrims who run between Safa and Marwah in the footsteps of his mother, drink from the well that was opened for him, circle the House he helped raise and sacrifice on the day he was ransomed. And his greatest descendant, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, brought the religion of Ibrahim and Ismail to the whole world.