Hagar/Hajar, muslim women and Islam: reflections on the historical and theological ramifications of the story of Ishmael's mother
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2012
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Crotty, R.
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Lovat, T.
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Source details - Title: Women in Islam: reflections on historical and contemporary research, 2012 / Lovat, T. (ed./s), vol.9789400742192, Ch.12, pp.165-184
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There is a duplicitous treatment of Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, in Western sources. Ishmael is Abraham’s first-born, so agreeing with the Islamic view, but is then cast out as illegitimate in favour of Isaac. Similarly, Hagar agrees to be Abraham’s wife, so as to give him the child his other wife Sarah cannot give him, and stands aside while this child is adopted by his other wife, but is then subsequently cast out as though a common adulteress. Granted Ishmael and Hagar are Arabic, while Isaac and Sarah are Aramaic (read Jewish), the Western story remains as a sore point in Muslim scholarship. It has potential to serve as a negative motif for the treatment rendered to Islam by Western sources from the very beginning. In the case of Hagar, it becomes a particular motif that suggests that the ill-treatment of Muslim women within Islam has been justified by the way the ‘ first Muslim woman’ was treated by the Jews. Recovering and re-conceiving the story from the Muslim perspective can serve to repair some of this negative history. This is the intention of this chapter
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Copyright 2012 Springer