COME the Haj season, and I am reminded of the wonders of Zamzam water. Let me go back to how it all started. In 1971, an Egyptian doctor wrote a letter to the European Press, saying that Zamzam water was not fit for drinking purposes. I immediately thought that this was just a matter of prejudice against Muslims and that since Ka'ba was a shallow place (below sea level) and located in the center of the city of Makkah, the wastewater of the city collecting through the drains fell into the well storing the water. Fortunately, the reports came to King Faisal, who got extremely angry and decided to disprove the Egyptian doctor's provocative statement. He immediately ordered the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources to investigate and send samples of Zamzam water to European laboratories for testing the potability of the water. The ministry then instructed the Jeddah Power and Desalination Plant to carry out this task. It was here that I was employed as a desalting engineer (chemical engineer to produce drinking water from seawater). I was chosen to carry out this assignment. At this stage, I remember that I had no idea what the well holding the water looked like. I went to Makkah and reported to the authorities at Ka'ba explaining my purpose of visit. They deputed a man to give me whatever help was required. When we reached the well, it was hard for me to believe that a pool of water, more like a small pond, about 18 by 14 feet (5.5 by 4.3 meters), was the well that supplies millions of gallons of water every year to Haj pilgrims ever since it came into existence at the time of Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) many, many centuries ago. I started my investigations and took the dimensions of the well. I asked the man to show me the depth of the well. First he took a shower and descended into the water. Then he straightened his body. I saw that the water level came up to just above his shoulders. His height was around 5 feet, 8 inches (173 cms). He then started moving from one corner to the other in the well (standing all the while since he was not allowed to dip his head in to the water) in search of any inlet or pipeline inside the well to see from where the water came in. However, the man reported that he could not find any inlet or pipeline inside the well. I thought of another idea. The water could be withdrawn rapidly with the help of a big transfer pump that was installed at the well of the Zamzam water storage tanks. In this way, the water level would drop, enabling us to locate the point of entry of the water. Surprisingly, nothing was observed during the pumping period, but I knew that this was the only method by which one could find the flow of water into the well. So I decided to repeat the process. But this time I instructed the man to stand still at one place and carefully observe any unusual thing happening inside the well. After a while, he suddenly raised his hands and shouted, “Alhamdulillah! I have found it. The sand is dancing beneath my feet as the water oozes out of the bed of the well.” Then he moved around the well during the pumping period and noticed the same phenomenon everywhere in the well. Actually the flow of water into the well through the bed was the same at every point, thus keeping the level of the water steady. After I finished my observation I took the samples of the water for European laboratories to test. Before I left Ka'ba, I asked the authorities about the other wells around Makkah. I was told that these wells were mostly dry. When I reached my office in Jeddah, I reported my findings to the concerned official, who listened with great interest but made a very irrational comment that the Zamzam well could be internally connected to the Red Sea. How was it possible when Makkah is about 46.7 miles (75 km) away from the sea and the wells located around the city usually remain dry? The results of the water samples tested by the European laboratories and the one we analyzed in our own laboratory were found to be almost identical. The difference between Zamzam water and other (city water) was in the quantity of calcium and magnesium salts. The contents of these was slightly higher in Zamzam water. This may be why this water refreshes the Haj pilgrims, but more significantly, the water contains fluorides that have an effective germicidal action. Moreover, the remarks of the European laboratories showed that the water was fit for drinking. Hence the statement made by the Egyptian doctor was proved false. When this was reported to King Faisal, he was extremely pleased and ordered the contradiction of the report to be published in the European press. In fact, the more you explore, the more wonders surface and find yourself believing implicitly in the miracles of this water that Allah bestowed as a gift on the faithful coming from far and wide to the desert land for pilgrimage.
