Meeting with the ‘Living Sahabi’ of the Prophet of Islam

On the third day of Eid we decided to visit an ancient tree located in Safavi near the city of Azraq, about 150 km from the Jordanian capital.

This is the same tree under which the Prophet of Islam rested on his way to Syria.

It took us about two hours to drive from Aman on a clean paved road to reach this place. It is a single tree surrounded by miles of desert.

Abu Hamza, the caretaker of the site, who also records details of visitors, told me, ‘It is a male and the only tree here.’

I asked him about watering the tree and he replied that it gets water only during rainy season.

This 1500 year old tree is also named ‘Zinda Sahabi’. It is indeed a tree of great historical and religious importance.

Abu Hamza told me that the pilgrims’ center was inaugurated by King Abdullah II in 2019 and that construction of a mosque would also begin soon.

Just a few hundred meters from the tree can be seen a section of an old road, probably used by caravans from Syria to Mecca.

In the shade of the tree our feelings were quite different. Although the sun was at its peak, we felt a pleasant temperature under it.