Qualla: Safa and Marwa

Safa and Marwa: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aiman titi, CC BY-SA 3.0. Islamic tradition tells it simply. Ibrahim left Hajar and their infant son Ismail in a dry valley, at what Muslims believe was God's command. Their water ran out. Their food ran out. Hajar, desperate as her nursing son weakened, climbed the nearest hill, Safa, and looked for any sign of a caravan, any glimpse of water. She saw nothing. She climbed the next hill, Marwa, and looked again. Still nothing. She ran back to Safa, then to Marwa, seven times in all, as the mother of a dying child does when there is nothing left to try. On her return, she found water bubbling from the ground where Ismail lay. That spring is the Zamzam Well.

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Image: Aiman titi | CC BY-SA 3.0

Safa and Marwa: Two Small Hills

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aiman titi, CC BY-SA 3.0. Safa is a small outcrop on the flank of Abu Qubais Mountain, southeast of the Kaaba. Marwa is a small white-stone rise to the northeast, attached to Qaiqan Mountain. The distance between them is a few hundred meters. For most of Islamic history these hills stood outside the Masji...

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Image: Aiman titi | CC BY-SA 3.0

Safa and Marwa: The Sa'i

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Angnation, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sa'i, the ritual of running between the two hills, is an integral part of both the Hajj and the Umrah, a rukn, a required pillar of the pilgrimage. Pilgrims walk from Safa to Marwa and back, seven times in all. Four journeys go outward from Safa, three return, or three go outward...

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Image: Angnation | CC BY-SA 3.0

Safa and Marwa: The Verse That Closed a Debate

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Dowley from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, CC BY 2.0. Early Muslims had questions about the ritual. Some of the Ansar, the Medinan supporters of Muhammad, told Aisha they felt walking between the hills was sinful, because it had been associated with pre-Islamic pilgrimage customs that visited the idol Manat at Qudaid near Mecca. Ana...

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Image: Peter Dowley from Dubai, United Arab Emirates | CC BY 2.0

Safa and Marwa: Hajar, Without Sanitizing

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Carport, CC BY-SA 3.0. The sa'i centers one of the most striking figures in the Abrahamic traditions. Hajar is, in the biblical account, Sarah's Egyptian handmaid, the mother of Ishmael, eventually cast out by Abraham at Sarah's insistence. The Quranic and Islamic traditions treat her differently, as t...

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Image: Carport | CC BY-SA 3.0

Safa and Marwa: A Debate Among Scholars

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Swerveut (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Not every scholar has agreed about the location. The revisionist historians Tom Holland and Patricia Crone have argued, on the basis of source criticism of early Islamic texts, that Islam may not have originated in Mecca at all, but somewhere further north. Building on that sugge...

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Image: Swerveut (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Safa and Marwa: Still Running

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sureyya Aydin, Norway, CC BY-SA 3.0. During Hajj, millions of pilgrims perform sa'i in a single week. The Mas'aa is open 24 hours a day, cooled against the heat of Mecca, fed with Zamzam water, staffed to handle medical emergencies. Pilgrims in ihram, the simple white garments that erase distinctions of wealth and n...

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Image: Sureyya Aydin, Norway | CC BY-SA 3.0