The strength of Hagar shines to the forefront of Islam in Riffat Hassan’s piece “Islamic Hagar and Her Family.” In this piece, Hassan takes a feminist hermeneutic on the subject and puts the importance of females in Islam to question. She understands these women as important, but strives towards a more powerful basis in which an individual can truly understand the influence they can have. The Qur’an presents itself as a majority male dominated piece, in which either Sarah or Hagar never appear by name. The most prominent appearance of females in the Islamic faith come from Hadith, which are taken as a primary text as well. These stories are often orally recited, and speak more intimately with the observer. From these pieces, one can
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Hagar’s journey is discussed in depth, where it is clear that Sarah was jealous of Hagar, and thus had Abraham banish them. Thus, began the story that would become the base of the Hajj. However, only in the Hadith does one find that the Hajj is based around Hagar’s tribulations, and not simply from God requesting and demanding it. She has become such a figure through these tribulations that according to Hassan, she is considered not only as “as the pioneer woman who led the way to the establishment of a new civilization. She is seen not only as "’Ishmael's mother’ but also as the mother of all Arabs.” Hagar is truly the second only to the Prophet Muhammad himself in this religion when it is understood that “in Muslim societies the mother is the most highly regarded member of the family. . .” Having a female character act with such importance and power in a religion is almost unheard of. With that, Hagar rarely appears within the actual primary text that is the Qur’an, only coming close with mention as “Ishmael’s mother” (Qur’an 14:37). This hesitance provides an insight into why it might be so difficult to find such a character within the Christian religion, as these male centric works tend to hide the strength and power of such great …show more content…
She can correlate with much more strength to who many Muslims consider the mother of Islam with Hagar. Mary experienced God in the most intimate way; she bore his child in Jesus. Though, she was assumed to have been adulteress, and experienced not only ridicule from others, but guilt from within which lead her to burn offerings and repent for her sins in the Temple of Jerusalem (Luke 2:22). She was not necessarily expelled from society, nor was she truly pursued, but she dealt with the struggle she had incurred and strove forward in life to become one of the greatest figures in Christian history. She is the mother of the lord, Jesus Christ, and holds regard as one of the principle characters which one must pray to, as without her, there would have been no savior. From an insider perspective, Gasque gives the egalitarian viewpoint that within Christianity has within it. The article states that “both male and female are from God, and both as one flesh are heirs of the grace of God.” From this he extends the point that females are often understood to be the lesser of the two, even while they can hold the value that Mary shows vividly. She holds the power to give birth to Jesus, but from her strength, she is held as only a second to the males surrounding her. She holds high regard in the Catholic tradition, where she is regarded as the “blessed” and
Hagar’s journey is discussed in depth, where it is clear that Sarah was jealous of Hagar, and thus had Abraham banish them. Thus, began the story that would become the base of the Hajj. However, only in the Hadith does one find that the Hajj is based around Hagar’s tribulations, and not simply from God requesting and demanding it. She has become such a figure through these tribulations that according to Hassan, she is considered not only as “as the pioneer woman who led the way to the establishment of a new civilization. She is seen not only as "’Ishmael's mother’ but also as the mother of all Arabs.” Hagar is truly the second only to the Prophet Muhammad himself in this religion when it is understood that “in Muslim societies the mother is the most highly regarded member of the family. . .” Having a female character act with such importance and power in a religion is almost unheard of. With that, Hagar rarely appears within the actual primary text that is the Qur’an, only coming close with mention as “Ishmael’s mother” (Qur’an 14:37). This hesitance provides an insight into why it might be so difficult to find such a character within the Christian religion, as these male centric works tend to hide the strength and power of such great …show more content…
She can correlate with much more strength to who many Muslims consider the mother of Islam with Hagar. Mary experienced God in the most intimate way; she bore his child in Jesus. Though, she was assumed to have been adulteress, and experienced not only ridicule from others, but guilt from within which lead her to burn offerings and repent for her sins in the Temple of Jerusalem (Luke 2:22). She was not necessarily expelled from society, nor was she truly pursued, but she dealt with the struggle she had incurred and strove forward in life to become one of the greatest figures in Christian history. She is the mother of the lord, Jesus Christ, and holds regard as one of the principle characters which one must pray to, as without her, there would have been no savior. From an insider perspective, Gasque gives the egalitarian viewpoint that within Christianity has within it. The article states that “both male and female are from God, and both as one flesh are heirs of the grace of God.” From this he extends the point that females are often understood to be the lesser of the two, even while they can hold the value that Mary shows vividly. She holds the power to give birth to Jesus, but from her strength, she is held as only a second to the males surrounding her. She holds high regard in the Catholic tradition, where she is regarded as the “blessed” and