DRINK

Muhammad also drank water from the well of Zamzam as part of the ritual.  Coming to the tribe of �Abd al-Muttalib (also his own tribe), he said: �Draw water, O BanI  �Abd al-Muttalib; were it not that people would usurp this right of supplying water from you, I would have drawn it along with you.  So they handed him a basket and he drank from it� (2803).  KAtib al-WAqidI, the Prophet�s biographer, gives us one further detail which would be considered unhygienic by the impious.  Muhammad took part of the content, then rinsed his mouth in the pitcher and directed that the water remaining in it should be thrown back into the well.  That was his way of invoking a blessing on a well-by spitting into it.  Many such wells are mentioned in the traditions (TabaqAt, vol. II, pp. 241-244).

He also did not forgo his favorite beverage, nabIz, a soft drink.  Though the nabIz offered him had been fouled by many hands, he took it, declining the offer of a cleaner and purer one.  The orthodox pilgrims of every generation have continued the practice.

author : ram swarup