The Legacy of an Empowered African Woman

by Umm Zaheen

On January 20, 2009, Americans witnessed history in the making as the first African- American man became the 44^th president of the United States. This event is historic not because of the color of President Barack Hussein Obama’s skin, but rather that people looked past his skin color and foreign name and looked at his character and qualifications. It was only 50 years back that he wouldn’t even be considered worthy of sitting next to a white person on the bus or being served in a public restaurant. It was through the sacrifices and struggles of the people during the civil rights movement that African-Americans and other minorities in this country were finally allowed to enjoy some parts of the American dream. This is an important lesson for Muslim-Americans, who in the past eight years have also witnessed greater amounts of discrimination and distrust by the larger American society. Learning from the civil rights movement, it is through vigilance, unity, and peaceful but open protest that we will also get our voices heard and the injustices overturned. As people of faith, we also know that it will be our full trust in God that will help us get through the darker and tougher times, as we see our brothers and sisters around the world suffering from injustice, violence, and poverty.

While President Obama’s story can be inspiring to many of our youth, I would like to turn our attention to another inspiring African whose actions and faith have left an even greater legacy. Based on both Islamic and Judeo-Christian traditions, Hajar, also known as Hagar in the Bible, lived in ancient Egypt during time of Prophet Abraham between the dates of 2008 BCE to 1637 BCE. During this time, Pharaohs controlled Egypt and the areas around the Nile from the delta all the way to what is current day Sudan. Archeologists term this time period as the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, when the Theban forces from southern Egypt under Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II finally defeated the Herakleopolitan rulers who had controlled the northern region, and began a sort of renaissance in ancient Egypt.

While the racial background of the Pharaohs is still debated, there are some scholars who suggest that Egyptians at the time of Abraham were black Africans. One of the evidences for this assumption is that during the 5th century, Greek historian Herodotus referred to the ancient Egyptians as “melanchroes” (black-skinned). Whether they were black or brown, the Pharaohs had developed a grand civilization that still baffles historians today.

In most traditions, Hajar was the daughter of one of these Pharaoh’s who was killed by a new tyrannical Pharaoh, and as a young girl, she was taken as captive of war to serve the palace. However, some Christian traditions relate that Hajar was the daughter of the Pharaoh himself who captured Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Either way, Hajar lived in the palace when Sarah and Prophet Abraham entered Egypt in search of food during a famine in their region. Word had spread out that the most beautiful woman had entered the land. While surely the Egyptians had many beautiful women in their region, it may have been that Sarah’s presence was noticed due to her fairer skin color.

Unbeknownst to Abraham and Sarah, the tyrannical Pharaoh had the reputation of capturing any woman at his pleasure, whether she was single or married. If she was married, he would have her husband killed immediately. Prophet Abraham and Sarah had already survived several attempts to their lives as they tried to spread their message of monotheism. But they had found almost no followers in their region except Abraham’s nephew, Prophet Lot. Being one of the few people who believed in the ancient message of Adam, Noah, and the past prophets, Abraham knew that his death would mean also the death of the message. Therefore, to safeguard the message of unity, Abraham had to lie to the Pharaoh’s army and say that Sarah was his sister when the men of the Pharaoh came for her. Sarah was taken to the palace to be yet another concubine. However, when the Pharaoh came to touch Sarah, she sought refuge and protection in God. God answered her prayer and paralyzed the Pharaoh whenever he approached her. The Pharaoh, scared and dumbfounded, finally released Sarah. In order to appease this powerful “sorceress”, as he might have considered her, he also gave her Hajar to be her slave. Living in the palace, Hajar most likely heard about and perhaps even witnessed this incident because soon she also came to believe in the one God of which Abraham and Sarah preached. Her life in the palace proved to her, similar to the life experiences of Prophet Moses, that the Pharaoh was nothing but a mere human with no extra ordinary powers.

Abraham, Sarah, and Hajar left Egypt and went back to the region of Palestine. The meaning of Hajar in Hebrew means “stranger”. It may have been a title that was placed on her when she moved with them as she was probably darker skinned than the rest of the community in Palestine and stood out as a new stranger. Several years had passed while Hajar lived with Abraham and Sarah and they got to know of her good character. Thus, when Sarah thought that she had passed the age to bear a child and that Abraham would be left without an heir to pass on the message of monotheism, she told Abraham to take Hajar as a second wife, who was still young enough to bear children. Prophet Abraham agreed to this and made Hajar his wife, with equal status to Sarah. Then to his great pleasure, Hajar gave birth to Ishmael, Abraham’s first-born son. While Ishmael was still an infant, however, Abraham saw a vision in a dream that he was to take Hajar and his only son to a desolate desert land of his ancestors and leave them there. He was promised by God that they would be taken care of and from them would rise a great nation. Perhaps he saw this dream several times to confirm that this was not some random hallucination but a message from the Almighty God. Having this vision and close connection to God, Abraham saw no other choice but to obey.

Unfortunately some have placed the blame on Sarah, saying that she became jealous of Hajar’s new status and asked Abraham to send her away. On deeper reflection and knowing the history of Abraham and Sarah, that version of the story seems quite against the character and unbecoming of any of these righteous figures. First, Sarah was not an ordinary wife as it was she who had suggested the marriage of Abraham and Hajar in the first place. At her late age, Sarah was less interested in her marital life as she was about keeping the message of monotheism alive. She was not a weak woman controlled by her whims and desires as that version would have us believe. It would have taken much strength, faith, and character to have lived through such hardships as she did being a Prophet’s wife. Thus, wishing to send Ishmael away at this infant stage would have defeated her original motivation to bring up the next generation of Prophets. Secondly, Abraham would never leave his new wife (who was also a believer) and only son (the future of the religion) in a barren land unless it was dictated by God himself. Thirdly, for her faith and good character, God blessed Sarah with Isaac thirteen years later, who would also become a prophet. God would not have given this blessing to Sarah if she had such a low character as the one described by some.

Therefore, as the “friend of God”, Prophet Abraham obeyed his vision and mounted his second wife and their son on a camel with some food and water and headed 700 km south from Palestine towards Yemen. During this long trek, Hajar must have known that Abraham intended to “resettle” her and her son somewhere else. She might have imagined that it was another believing or friendly community. But when they stopped in the middle of nowhere, in a barren and harsh land with no water, people and food, she questioned Abraham “O Abraham, where are you going, leaving us in this valley where there is no person whose company we can enjoy, nor is there anything here?” Abraham could not respond as there was no human logic, only a divine vision which he was afraid to explain to her. She asked him three times, but being a believing woman, she finally asked him “Has God asked you to do so?” Abraham stopped, turned back and said, “Yes!” Feeling a degree of comfort in this answer, Hagar asked, “O Abraham, to whom are you leaving us?” Abraham replied “I am leaving you to God’s care”. Hajar then showed her strong faith by responding that, “I am satisfied to be with God!”

Now if this happened to any of us, we would have thought our husband was out of his mind acting on a dream. We may have pleaded and thrown ourselves at his feet or gone hysterical out of desperation. Not this brave and strong willed woman. She had already seen or heard of how God saved Sarah from the Pharaoh. She had heard the story of how God saved Abraham from the fire. So she knew that the same God will also test her and save her and her son from this predicament. She had complete trust in God.

When Abraham left, Hajar was completely alone with only a baby to care for. She did not have a “Mahram” or male relative to defend or help her. She could not depend on her father, her husband or her son to protect her. In fact, her son’s survival depended on her. She had only God and herself to count on. The story is usually related that out of desperation for water, she ran between the hills of Safa and Marwa. But Hajar had already shown that she did not act in desperation but in faith when Abraham turned around and left. The food and water they had left was soon depleted. While she had complete trust in God, she knew she could not stand still but must seek God’s sustenance. So she first ran up to higher ground on one side of the valley and then to the other side. She did this seven times, yet she did not see anything. If we were in a hot desert, either low or without water, our first instinct would be to conserve our energy. If we climbed once or even twice on the same hill and saw nothing, we’d most likely quit in frustration and hopelessness. But Hajar knew that God would not let them die. Because her faith was so strong, she kept seeking for God’s grace. By running seven times up and down those hills, she showed a will and determination that few of us have. It was this faith and hope that made Hajar pass the test. God would not have honored Hajar with the legacy of the Sa’i, (part of the Hajj ritual), if Hajar showed lack of resolve and perhaps blasphemy for her situation. Any one of us may have found that we would have lost our faith in God if we were put in such a dire situation, as so many of us do with even smaller tests. If she was desperate, she would have gone once or twice and then given up. But it was her determination and trust in God that kept her seeking and she would have continued to run up and down those hills had it not been that she heard a noise near her son’s feet.

God answered her prayers and sent angel Gabriel, the same angel that brought the revelation of the Quran to Prophet Muhammad, down to strike the ground and spring up the well of Zam Zam. Hajar heard the sound of the spring coming under Ishmael’s feet. A hadith of Prophet Muhammad says that if Hajar had left the spring alone, it would have become a rushing river. However, Hajar said to the water “zam zam” which means “stay...stay” and it became just a well. This hadiths may suggest to some that Hajar had interfered with a miracle of God out of her own ignorance. Yet, the real meaning of this hadith indicates that God had given this African slave woman the same power as He would later give to Moses when he split the Red Sea. With her mere two words, the water obeyed her commandments and stayed in place. If God had wanted the zam zam to be a gushing river, what would the words of anyone stop it? But God had given this privilege to Hajar for her unyielding faith.

God had promised Abraham that his wife and child would be kept safe in a community of people and that a great nation would arise from them. As such, God sent some birds to the area which then were attracted to the presence of water and circled around it. A passing caravan of the Jerhome tribe from Yemen saw the birds and sent two people to investigate. They came back to tell of a new source of water, which is considered the lifeline of the desert, and that near it was only a single woman and a baby. This warring tribe of men could have calculated that they could easily subdue or kill the woman and child and then take over the well themselves. But strangely, this tribe came to Hajar in a peaceful and respectful manner and asked for her permission to settle near the well. Stranger yet was her answer. She told them that they could settle there only on the condition that the well of Zam Zam belonged to her and her son, with no fear of the consequences of such bold claims. They, however, easily agreed to this condition.

While many have considered this behavior of the tribesmen and Hajar as strange, when we consider the whole situation, it was not so strange after all. The Jerhome tribe had recently emigrated from Yemen, a region who had just witnessed a devastating flood when their dam broke and destroyed their rich and fruitful land which they had enjoyed for centuries. They had received warnings from their own messengers that if they did not desist their corruption and evil ways, that they would lose everything. The Jerhome tribe felt that the destruction of their crops was a punishment from God and now they were forced to seek their sustenance away from their original land. So when they came upon a lone woman with an infant and a water source that had never been there before, they could have only guessed that this was divine intervention; thus, they dared not again incur the anger of God on themselves by harming this miracle woman and her child. On the other side, Hajar had witnessed with her own two eyes the miracle of the zam zam water, and felt fully empowered with her faith in God. She understood that God was there to protect her and her child, so no one, however many, would be able to harm her. Thus, while she was happy for the human company which they offered, she had also grown up in a palace and was the daughter of a Pharaoh. She used her intelligence and experience when she told them that she would remain as the owner of the Zam Zam Well, the main source of life in that region. If she had given up that ownership, which was a gift from God, then she knew that her and her son’s position in the new society would be far diminished. But as the Well’s owner, she and her son would in essence be the new royalty of the new found city. Sensing the divine protection and impressed by her confidence, the Jerhome tribe agreed to this condition and settled on the land which is now known as Mecca.

Ishmael was thirteen or so when Abraham and Sarah were visited by angels to give the good news of their son Isaac. Therefore, it would make sense that Abraham had come to visit Hajar and Ishmael in Mecca beforehand as again Abraham was given another vision in a dream that he was to sacrifice his only son, which he abandoned in the desert several years ago, to God. When Abraham arrived to the same area, to his surprise, he found a flourishing society around the well of Zam Zam. He went to visit his son and wife and was warmly welcomed, rather than rejected or ignored for his previous actions. This was the first time Ishmael had seen his father since he was one years old. Yet, Ishmael had nothing but love and respect for his father. Abraham was taken back by this loving generosity and strong faith. He probably had expected at least some hostility from the son he had left in the desert and never visited. But when Abraham shared his vision with Ishmael about offering him as a sacrifice, his son said nothing except "O my father! Do as thou art commanded: thou will find me, if Allah so wills, one of the steadfast!" (Quran 37:102). It is very similar to Hajar’s response when she said, “I am satisfied to be with God.”

While the name of Hajar is not mentioned in this passage, and she may have not known at that time Abraham’s reasons for returning, Ishmael’s ready acceptance of his father’s vision reflects the upbringing Ishmael had received under his mother, his first and for his case only teacher. Hajar was left with the full responsibilities of raising her son as a single parent. She could have chosen to be upset at her predicament and tell Ishmael negative stories about his father and how he had abandoned them and left them to die in the harsh desert environment. But Ishmael’s reaction showed that he knew his father to be a truthful and trustworthy man, a man with whom God speaks, a man to be admired and followed. He could have known that only if his mother had made sure Ishmael knew the good character of his father and that it was God who chose for them to be in Mecca and that Abraham was a true man of God by obeying His commandments.

When God accepted both Abraham’s and Ishmael’s submission to His will, He replaced Ishmael with the ram. Ishmael had also passed his test and now was considered a prophet like his father. Afterwards, he and his father were commanded to establish the first house of prayer to Allah, at a site next to the well of Zam Zam and the two hills of Safa and Marwa. As mentioned earlier, the people of Jerhome were also God fearing men and women. They had great respect for Hajar and her son Ishmael who grew up among them. Therefore, they extended that respect to his father who was a stranger to them. They did not protest that Ishmael and his father were building the Kaaba, next to their precious well of Zam Zam, as that well belonged to Ishmael and his mother. Additionally, because of their respect for Hajar and Ishmael, they accepted the religion of monotheism and the ritual of circumambulating the House of God. Abraham would not have gotten this grand respect had it not been for Hajar.

The descendants of Ishmael continued to have control of both the well of Zam Zam and the Kaaba, and were the religious heads of the region up until the time of Prophet Muhammad some 2,500 years later. This could not have been possible if it was not for the bravery and astuteness of Hajar, the founder of the holy city of Mecca, the first owner of the miracle well of Zam Zam, and the great ancestor of Prophet Muhammad. While Abraham was the father of the three monotheistic religions, Hajar and Sarah were the mothers.

God has kept her legacy alive for over almost 4,000 years to the present time so that we may not forget about this great woman. Every single day, millions of Muslims come to the city of Mecca to do their Umrah or Hajj pilgrimage, and they circumambulate the Kaaba and then run between the two hills of Safa and Marwa seven times, which is called the Sai, in her remembrance.

There are several lessons we can learn from her story. First, we can see that Islam’s roots were established on a multi-cultural, multi-racial, and multi-linguistic basis. Ishmael was the son of Prophet Abraham, a Chaldean, and an African Egyptian slave woman, and brought up among the Arab people of Yemen. The annual pilgrimage of Hajj continues to reiterate the oneness of human kind and shows that our different colors and languages add to the beautiful diversity of the world, and should not be reasons for animosity but rather appreciation. It also shows that greatness is not based on skin color, socio-economic background or gender, but from one’s righteousness and faith.

Secondly, her life story reaffirms the high status women have in Islam, who are considered equal under the eyes of God. God could have easily told Abraham to go dig the well of Zam Zam and wait for the tribe to come before departing back to Palestine. Yet, God had chosen this special blessing for an African slave woman. Hajar passed her test when she showed true resilience and faith. She learned that she should not depend on any man, but rather she should put all her trust in God, who was the only true protector and savior. As God saved Abraham from the fire, Sarah from the Pharaoh, and Hajar from the desert, it is God alone who provides our sustenance and God alone that is worthy of worship. This countered the many beliefs at that time that women should always be subservient to men and should worship them or obey them devoutly, with no questions asked. God showed us centuries back that women were intelligent human beings equally worthy of respect and blessing and could play part in politics, ownership and self reliance.

Lastly, we learn the true effects of being empowered. Hajar could have given up her search for water after one or two tries, but she believed in God and believed in herself. She would not just watch her son die of thirst and hunger without trying her best to prevent it. Hajar also came from a noble and knowledgeable background. She understood politics, understood human nature and understood how to best position herself in any situation. She did not cower with fear and desperation as Abraham walked out of view, leaving them in the desert. She did not cower with fear when a group of strange men approached her and asked for her to share her water. This empowerment came from her Taqwa. When you know deep down inside that God is with you and watching, you learn to only fear and trust Him and no one else.

While Obama’s actual legacy yet remains to be seen as it’s only been a day he’s been president, all of us can learn from the legacy of this greatly empowered African woman, our mother Hajar.