Asma LAMRABET

This is what Hagar was enduring as a believer. She was confident; if this was God’s will, then she would submit to Him willingly. There could be no greater example of genuine submission to the Creator than this. She stopped at the valley’s edge and tried clinging to this hope, to this small voice buried deep inside her heart and insistent that no wrong could befall her if this was God’s will. He was her sole Protector. At the same moment, Ibrahim on his way back, was also invoking God, imploring Him to protect his family:

“Our Lord, I have established some of my offspring in an uncultivated valley, close to Your Sacred House (Ka’ba), Lord, so that they may keep up the prayer. Make people’s hearts turn to them, and provide them with produce, so that they may be thankful. ” Qur’an 14:37

Once Ibrahim had disappeared over the horizon, Hagar dwelt on this sentence that was both fortifying and raising her spirits: “He won’t abandon us!” Indeed, those who follow God’s path should not be afraid and certainly her faith was somehow comforting her. But she was simply a poor mother who, despite her deep trust in God, was fearful for her cherished infant, even more so as he started crying his heart out. He was crying of thirst and hunger, while only desolation and sadness surrounded them. How to find help in this uninhabited valley? Where to find water in this desert region? Distraught and panic-stricken by the incessant cries of her child, she left him at the valley’s edge, desperately searching to and fro, for a tree, a sign, or a living soul.

Not knowing either where to go, or in which direction to head for, she undertook to walk at times towards the hill of Safa, at other times towards the hill of Marwah. And so she found herself repeatedly walking and running between these two hills while scrutinizing the infinite horizon, hoping to find help in the direction of Safa, or keeping her ears open for a sound or familiar noise from the direction of Marwah!

After seven journeys back and forth between the two hills she threw herself to the ground, exhausted, sobbing with her entire body at her impotence and torment. How intense must have been her pain to see her son suffering, unable to help him. She hid her face to avoid witnessing her child’s life ebbing away before her eyes. She would rather have been buried at that moment than suffer this agonizing ordeal! 

But suddenly, in the midst of a dreadful silence that reigned over this place - punctuated only by the sounds of her baby’s cries and her own sobs – she caught sight of clear and limpid water gushing out from under the fingers of her child! Raving with joy and happiness, she rushed to the spring to give her son water. And while she was quenching her own thirst, she tried keeping the bursting water in her hands uttering: “Zam… Zam…” an Arabic term meaning “stop flowing’”, which conveyed her fear of seeing the spring water disappearing as abruptly as it had emerged. 

Certain texts from the tradition relate that it was Archangel Gabriel (Jibril) who made the spring water appear from under Ismail’s fingers, while others recount the material manifestation of the Archangel who spoke and pointed out to Hagar the spring’s source.[1] This episode of Hagar’s story endeavours to make us reflect on the profound meaning of two events of fundamental importance for Islam and Muslims: the ritual of Sa‘i or the seven round journeys between Safa and Marwah during Hajj (pilgrimage) as well as the symbolism of Zamzam spring water which thereafter has always been present in the holy land of Mecca.

Sa‘i, symbolising the round journeys, is an Arabic expression meaning “determination” or the “fervour” in pursuit of the effort. During the pilgrimage one makes the “effort” to complete a journey between Safa and Marwah identical to the one undertaken by Hagar to save her thirsty child.

With the advent of Islam, the Qur’an revived the story of Hagar. God’s intention was to remind us through the prescription of the rite of the seven journeys between Safa and Marwah that it is Hagar and her alone who we are commemorating.

This rite remains a highlight of the annual pilgrimage of Muslims, and Hajj cannot be validated without its fulfilment. For more than fourteen centuries, thousands upon thousands of Muslims have annually walked and ran between the two hills as did Hagar. Could one imagine a finer tribute to a human being than to celebrate her memory in this manner? Hagar’s story is a commemoration of a female character in Islam; Islam, so readily accused of humiliating the fairer sex, eternally glorifies here the memory of a woman by chronicling the route she took as one of the pillars in the worship of God.

“Safa and Marwah are among the rites of God […]” Qur’an 2:158

Admittedly, it should be observed that Hagar’s name is never directly mentioned in the Qur’anic text, except by an allusion used during Ibrahim’s invocation and cited in the following verse: “Our Lord, I have established some of my offspring in an uncultivated valley, close to Your Sacred House – the Ka’ba - […]” It is the tradition of the Prophet S and the entire corpus of the exegesis that will relate Hagar’s story. However, even if she appears to be absent, at least through a specific appellation in the Qur’anic text, her memory is formally reclaimed by the dogma and ritual of Islam. Without naming her, the ritual of Safa and Marwah during the pilgrimage remains the indelible testimony of her journey, of her distress, of her presence.

It is, therefore, an example that honours the woman; forever commemorating her patience, her devoutness, and her sacrifice. Pilgrims from all times and from all lands, whilst annually fulfilling this pillar of Islam, will celebrate the memory of this woman who submitted herself to the commandment of her Creator, through the profoundest act of self-sacrifice.

But who now is able to fully recall this woman’s story during the pilgrimage? Are they aware that it is in her name and for the sake of God that this ritual has been revivified by Islam? Do they understand that it is in memory of a woman that they solemnly celebrate this ritual? A woman that the Prophet has, moreover, evoked respectfully in the hadith: “If you arrive in Egypt I recommend you to treat well its inhabitants and to wish them well because there is between them and us an alliance of protection and a blood relationship.”  The blood relationship the Prophet was referring to was that of Hagar.[2]

And what could be said of the source of Zamzam offered to her by the grace of God to sate her son Ismail. This water, whose benefits were endlessly praised by the Prophet Muhammad in several hadiths, is supposed to be imbibed by pilgrims on their arrival in the Holy Land. This inexhaustible source of water illustrates both God’s generosity towards this arid land and the divine reward to this exemplary female believer. It is important to stress the symbolism of this water, as the Sunnah reminds us that the Prophet’s grandfather Abd al-Muttalib will, sometime prior to the birth of the messenger of Islam, re-discover the well of Zamzam, which will strengthen the continuity established between the two prophets Ismail and Muhammad, peace be upon them both.

The tradition falls silent after the ordeals of Hagar and her son Ismail, who we will encounter again in later years with his father Ibrahim during the construction of the Ka’ba.

Ismail, raised by a mother emblematic of devotion, will himself demonstrate the same sublime abnegation to God during the story of the offering and sacrifice. The self-sacrifice of Ibrahim, of Sarah, of Hagar and of her son Ismail… This is a story of sacrifices, of all sacrifices, where people have been anointed by God to become true symbols of devotion to the Creator. In re-reading their stories, we are constantly reminded of the genuine sense of submission to God, the first pillar of Islam. To be eternally with God and to submit to His Truth in spite of the difficulty, ordeal, and suffering … regardless of the personal cost!

Sarah, the mistress of the household, a free woman, and Hagar, the abandoned and humble maidservant, are equal before their Creator. They both have received the same divine favour, the same gifts, and the same sublime honour to be women whose names will eternally transcend the memory of humankind.

 Asma Lamrabet

Avril 2014