Narrated Ibn `Abbas: The Prophet said, "May Allah bestow His Mercy on the mother of Ishmael! Had she not hastened (to fill her water-skin with water from the Zamzam well). Zamzam would have been a stream flowing on the surface of the earth."

Narrated Ibn `Abbas: The Prophet said, "May Allah be merciful to the mother of Ishmael! If she had left the water of Zamzam (fountain) as it was, (without constructing a basin for keeping the water), (or said, "If she had not taken handfuls of its water"), it would have been a flowing stream. Jurhum (an Arab tribe) came and asked her, 'May we settle at your dwelling?' She said, 'Yes, but you have no right to possess the water.' They agreed."