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Hagar in Islam

Islamic figure, cognate to the Biblical Hagar

Summary

Islamic figure, cognate to the Biblical Hagar

Field	Value
honorific_prefix	هَاجَر
name	Hājar
birth_place	Egypt
death_place	Mecca
known_for	Egyptian princess, being the slave of Sarai/Sarah Ibrahim (Abraham) and mother of Ismail (Ishmael).
spouse	ʾIbrāhīm (Abraham)
children	ʾIsmāʿīl

Hājar (), known as Hagar in the Hebrew Bible, was the wife of the patriarch and Islamic prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) and the mother of Ismā'īl (Ishmael). She is a revered woman in the Islamic faith. According to Muslim belief, she was a maid of the king of Egypt who gifted her to Ibrahim's wife Sarah. Although not mentioned by name in the Qur'an, she is referenced and alluded to via the story of her husband. She eventually settled in the Desert of Paran, seen as the Hejaz in the Islamic view, with her son Ishmael. Hajar is honoured as an especially important matriarch of monotheism, as Ishmael was the ancestor of Muhammad.

Narrative

Abraham was childless. He was a prophet of God and, having left his native land, he was concerned about who would take the prophetic office after him, and whether he would be a father one day. His wife's servant Haajara, who was gifted to her, was given to Abraham as a wife to bear a child. According to modern scholars, Haajara was not a concubine, but rather a princess, the daughter of the king of Egypt. Haajara subsequently bore a child who would grow to be righteous and ready to suffer and endure. Hagar named him Ismail, meaning "God has heard".

Islamic scholar Muhammad Saed Abdul-Rahman states the following using the Arabic name Haajar for Haajara; Allah revealed to Ibrahim that he should take Haajar and the infant Ismaa’eel and take them to Makkah. So he took them and left Haajar and her child Ismaa’eel in a bleak, isolated place in which there was no water, then he left them and went back to Canaan. Haajar said to him, 'For whom are you leaving us in this forsaken valley?' But Ibrahim went and left her, and she said, 'Has Allah commanded you to do this?” He said, 'Yes.' She said, 'Then Allah will not cause us to be lost.'"

Abraham submitted to the command of his Lord and patiently bore the separation from his wife and child. The Qur'an contains several verses regarding the origin of the Sacred House, known as the Kaaba, in which Haajara and her son lived. It states that the Kaaba was the first House of Worship for mankind, and that it was rebuilt by Ibrahim and Ismail on Allah's instruction. A few years after he first left, Ibrahim returned and turned towards where they were at the Sacred House and prayed for them in the following words (interpretation of the meaning): 'O our Lord! I have made some of my offspring to dwell in an uncultivatable valley by Your Sacred House (the Kaaba ('Cube') at Mecca) in order, O our Lord, that they may perform As-Ṣalāt. So fill some hearts among men with love towards them, and (O Allah) provide them with fruits so that they may give thanks' Qur'an, Ibraaheem 14:37

Because of the scarcity of water in the desert, it was not long before both mother and son suffered immense thirst. Thus, Haajara ran between the Safa and Marwa hills in search of water for her son. After the seventh run between the two hills, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) appeared before her. He told her that God had heard Ishmael's crying and would provide them with water. At that moment, God caused a spring to burst forth from the ground under Ishmael's heel, and thereafter Mecca became known for its excellence and abundance of water. The well was subsequently named Zamzam, and became a holy source of water.

Status

Hajara is presented as a bondswoman in the Bible and some Islamic sources. Pakistani scholar Muhammad Ashraf Chheenah attributes the claim to Christian and Jewish sources and identifies her as the daughter of an Egyptian king who gifted her to Abraham.

Legacy

Hagar is honoured by Muslims as a wise, brave and pious woman as well as the believing mother of the Adnani Arab people. The incident of her running between Al-Safa and Al-Marwah hills is commemorated by Muslims when they perform their Ḥajj (major pilgrimage) or Umrah (minor pilgrimage) at Mecca. Part of the pilgrimage is to run seven times between the hills, in commemoration of Hagar's courage and faith in God as she searched for water in the desert (which is believed to have then miraculously appeared from the Zamzam Well) and to symbolize the celebration of motherhood in Islam. To complete the task, some Muslims also drink from the Zamzam Well and take some of it back to their homes.

References

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References

Parry, Lesley. (2016). "AQA GCSE religious studies. Specification A".
Muhammad Saed Abdul-Rahman. (2003). "Islam: Questions and Answers, Volume 1, Basic Tenets of Faith: Belief, Part 1". MSA Publication Limited.
Muhammad Ashraf Chheenah. (2016). "Hagar the Princess, the Mother of the Arabs and Ishmael the Father of Twelve Princes". Interfaith Studies and Research Centre.
Safa Faruqui. (2021-04-19). "Hajar (as) and the Miracle of Zamzam".
[[Martin Lings]]. (1983). "[[Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources]]". Islamic Texts Society.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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