August 16, 1995. I am in the city of Turkestan (Yesi) in South Kazakhstan. We set out with a group of friends to go to a place called Aykoca Ishan and Aktas Meşiti in the vicinity of Canga Korgan. Flat and wide lands. There are sunflower and melon fields around. The sky is a big blue tent, the horizon is vast. We turned off the main road onto a side road and went in the direction of a sign. In the middle of an empty field, a historic-looking building, a masjid, trees around it and seven or eight houses. Aktas Meşiti is 120-130 years old according to the inscription. There are graves a little further from the masjid.
There is a water spring (bulak) not far away. It’s boiling through the reeds. As in similar myths, it is narrated that when Aykoca Îshan came here to settle down, he struck his staff on the ground and this spring came into existence. It has been boiling ever since. Crossing a simple wooden bridge, we approached the spring, bent down and drank. There is life in water. This water is considered healing and sacred.
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There are also such healing springs in Anatolia and the Balkans. The way they are formed is described in much the same way. A saint, a friend of the Truth, strikes the ground with his stick and water starts boiling from there. The people accept it as a cure, so it becomes generally accepted and famous.
Do you think it’s that simple? Some things are secret, we cannot know the truth. Maybe that water has always been there, someone ascribed sanctity to it with a false rumor and this became widespread. Some spring waters may also be good for some diseases as they contain special minerals. If you have a more positivist mindset, these explanations are enough for you.
If you have an interest in spiritualism and metaphysics, you can also use myths. So, that source can be spontaneous or it can be the inspiration of a friend of the Truth. Allah’s soldiers are many, He can make some of them instrumental for some things. When you drink a water, it quenches your thirst. If you drink it with the intention of healing, it can also give you extra healing. As the saying goes, intentions are good, consequences are good.
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Isn’t that the story of Zamzam water?
Hz. Ibrahim was married to a very beautiful woman, Sarah, but they had no children. Sâra felt sorry for her husband’s homesickness and presented him with her concubine, Khâjar, whom she had brought from Egypt, as a second wife. Ismā’il was born from this marriage, but Sāra became jealous of Hājar after his birth, and after a while she asked her husband to remove Hājar and her son from the house. Abraham, who hesitated at first, left home with Hagar and her son on Allah’s command and took them to Mecca to the Ka’bah.
Mecca, which was completely deserted at that time, was just a dry valley. It was very difficult for Abraham to leave his little baby and his young wife in this desolate place. When the small amount of water and provisions left by Abraham in the desolate valley of Mecca ran out, Hâcer became alarmed, fearing that Ismâ’il would die of thirst, and out of desperation she went back and forth between the hills of Safâ and Marwa seven times, going as far as Marwa and then running back to Safâ to see if anything had happened to the child.
On his last return, he saw water coming out of the place where his son had been. This water came out as Ismâ’il struck the ground with his heels. Ismâil was playing with the water. Hâcer tried to create a pond by blocking the water so that it would not be wasted. . The Prophet said, “If Ishmael’s mother had not blocked the water, Zamzam would have been a flowing river.”
The well of Zamzam has been healing people ever since, without ever running out of water.
