Sarah and Hagar

Two women, and a God who hears

Abraham (peace be upon him) is honoured by Jews, Christians and Muslims. His family is not a simple one. Sarah is his wife. Hagar is the Egyptian woman who becomes the mother of his first son, Ishmael (peace be upon him). Isaac (peace be upon him) is born to Sarah later.

All three faiths remember something both women share: a promise from God, and a moment when God showed He had heard.

You can read more about their sons on the pages for Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael.

Sarah

In the Hebrew Bible Sarah is the first of the four matriarchs. God changes her name from Sarai to Sarah, and promises that she will be "a mother of nations". When three visitors say she will bear a son in her old age, she laughs. Her son is named Isaac, from the same root as "laughter".

And Sarah said: 'God hath made laughter for me; every one that heareth will laugh on account of me.'

Genesis 21:6 · JPS 1917

The prophet Isaiah (peace be upon him) later tells the people to remember her: "Look unto Abraham your father, And unto Sarah that bore you" (Isaiah 51:2, JPS 1917). When she dies at 127, Abraham mourns for her (Genesis 23:1–2).

Jewish tradition honours her as a prophet. Rashi, the great medieval commentator, reads God's words to Abraham in Genesis 21:12, "hearken unto her voice", as a sign that Abraham was below Sarah in prophecy.

Christians read the same story. The Letter to the Hebrews praises her faith:

By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised.

Hebrews 11:11 · WEB

The Qur'an does not name her. It calls her "his wife", and it tells how the angels brought the news of the child:

And his wife, standing by laughed when We gave her good tidings (of the birth) of Isaac, and, after Isaac, of Jacob.

Qur'an 11:71 · Pickthall

The angels then say to her, "The mercy of Allah and His blessings be upon you, O people of the house!" (Qur'an 11:73). The name Sarah comes from later Muslim tradition, including the hadith about Hagar below.

Hagar

The Hebrew Bible says Sarai, who had no child, gave Hagar to Abraham "to be his wife" (Genesis 16:3). Then the two women fell out. Genesis says plainly that "Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face" (Genesis 16:6). An angel of the LORD finds Hagar by a spring in the wilderness. She does something remarkable: she gives God a name.

In Genesis 21 Hagar and the boy are sent away. The water runs out. She sits a bowshot away, because she cannot watch him die. God hears the boy, and opens her eyes so she sees a well.

Jewish tradition keeps this scene, and it has later readings. One midrash, quoted by Rashi on Genesis 25:1, identifies Hagar with Keturah, the wife Abraham takes after Sarah's death, and says her deeds were as sweet as incense.

Christian readers often return to the name she gave, "a God of seeing". There is a short film on our Ishmael page. Paul uses Hagar and Sarah in a different way, as a picture of two covenants (Galatians 4:21–31). Many Christian readers today stress that Paul is arguing about faith and law, not about any people.

Hagar and Zamzam

Muslim tradition tells Hagar's story in more detail. The longest account is in Sahih al-Bukhari, number 3364, from Ibn Abbas. Abraham brings Hagar and the baby to a valley by the future Kaaba, where there is no water. He leaves a bag of dates and a skin of water. She asks, "Has Allah ordered you to do so?" He says yes. She says:

Then He will not neglect us.

Sahih al-Bukhari 3364 (Ibn Abbas)

When the water runs out she runs seven times between the hills of Safa and Marwa, looking for help. At the end the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (peace be upon him) says of this: "This is the source of the tradition of the walking of people between them." An angel digs the ground, and water flows. That is the spring of Zamzam.

The Qur'an names Safa and Marwa "among the indications of Allah" (2:158). Every pilgrim on Hajj or Umrah walks between them seven times, and drinks Zamzam water. Sunni and Shia Muslims alike perform this walk, called the sa'y.

Honest differences

If you visit

For the pilgrimage itself, see Going on pilgrimage.