Hajra is Hajra; Hager is Hager

Hajra, the wife of Prophet Ibrahim, the mother of Prophet Ismael and the matriarch that created an entire civilization remains a forgotten figure in the annals of religious history. There is not much archeological data available on her life, genealogy, family. Her description in Old Testament projects her as a villain who could not show gratefulness to her mistress Sarah, the wife of Prophet Ibrahim who in her old age had given her the status of his concubine and whose son was always jealous of Saras’s son Prophet Isaac. The Muslim scholarship has also not focussed on her real contributions to humanity and especially in building an international community of monotheists single-handedly. Even though the Quran has preserved her sacrifices and contributions in the institution of Hajj, our scholarship, in general, has ignored the essence of Hajira’s life and the lesson one should draw from that.

Hajra was young and had a suckling infant. No woman could ever imagine that her husband who in his old age miraculously fathered his heir would leave the wife and child in a barren land with not many resources to sustain them. Regardless of the explanations given by others, the act would appear to many as an irresponsible one. Yet Prophet Ibrahim described as the friend of Allah and one of the role models for humanity did that. Why?

Let us turn to the prayer that Prophet Ibrahim made while leaving the young wife and the infant in the desert of Arabia. “O our Sustainer! Behold, I have settled some of my offspring in a valley in which there is no arable land, close to Thy sanctified Temple, so that, O our Sustainer, they might devote themselves to prayer: cause Thou, therefore, people’s hearts to incline towards them and grant them fruitful sustenance, so that they might have cause to be grateful.”- 14:37

The prayer is not just a plea to God but an agenda given to Hajira who was the only adult in that neighborhood. This is a four-part agenda:

Obviously, the task to ensure that the people who settle near the well of Zamzam water understand and live by that, in addition, to prepare her son for the role of leadership.

God inspired Prophet Ibrahim to leave her in the barren land to prove through her dedication, perseverance, struggle, commitment, and faith in God that the task of community building can be led by women as well and given the opportunity she can create a whole civilization and community by herself. Prophet Ibrahim was fully convinced that such a leadership role cannot be demonstrated in societies that were male-dominated for centuries and had little worth for women.

In Hajira, God found the strength, integrity, and tenacity of a woman to play that role.

The idea was to demolish the idea of gender-based discrimination and the notion that a woman cannot play a major role in community life. So precious were her experiences in the barren land that God preserved them in the rituals associated with Hajj. The staying in Mina and spending night n Muzdalifa, the running between Safa and Marwa, that God describes as divine knolls, the drinking of water of Zamzam as well as making rounds of Kaaba and the sacrifice are all associated with her and her son.

Hajira is not an ordinary woman in the history of monotheism, It was her leadership that created the corridor of unity in Makkah among believers coming from different parts of the world. God preserved the institution of Hajj not only to remind people of his oneness and the unity of humanity but also to teach that women can also be the leaders in every sense of the term.

Hajira is the only woman in the history of monotheism who created a monotheistic civilization by herself and demolished the false idols of gender discrimination. She showed to people that even in the loneliness and in the most vulnerable situations, a woman can protect her honor and dignity and play the leadership without compromising them, She proved that leadership comes from dedication and commitment to right ideas and had nothing to do with gender divisions. She established the principle that women are no less than men in seeking the welfare of the society. She proved that a woman can be positive even in the worst adversarial conditions and she demonstrated beyond doubt that if she can raise a child all by herself without any ill feelings towards his father who had left them alone, she can also raise a nation and a civilization. So Hajira is Hajira because God honored her by institutionalizing her leadership in the form of Hajj.