The valley was almost empty when Ibrahim brought Hajar there with their baby, Ismaʿil. There were no homes waiting for them, no fields, no familiar voices nearby and no stream running through the dry ground, only a small amount of dates, a waterskin and the vast stillness of a place that had not yet become the Makkah the world would later know. When Ibrahim began to leave, Hajar went after him, asking where he was going and why he would leave her and their child in a valley with no people and nothing around them that seemed capable of sustaining a family.

She asked him more than once, and when he did not turn back, she changed the question and asked whether Allah had commanded him to do this. Ibrahim told her that He had, and Hajar answered with a certainty that would outlive the barren valley around her: “Then He will not neglect us.” Once she knew that this was Allah’s command, she returned to Ismaʿil without knowing when another person might appear, how long their small supply would last, or what shape help would take when they eventually needed it.