Reading other People’s Holy Works: Islamic Hagar and Her Family

I found the stories of Hagar, Sarah and Their Children in the Islamic texts fascinating and somewhat strange. While I take the stories of Sarah and Hagar from the Jewish and Christian scriptures as stories which contain truth but not historical fact. I found myself not sure how to read the stories of Hagar in the Muslim scriptures.

Muslims and I do not share a common scripture. While the old testament texts are a shared body of work, Muslim holy writings of the Qur’an and hadith are not part of my sacred tradition. How does one read someone else’s sacred mail with sensitivity and respect? In this chapter Riffat Hassan mentions this concern. She warns us that other people do not take the holy writings of Islam with the same authority afforded the texts of Jewish and Christian scriptures.

When I read scripture with most Jews or Christians from other traditions I assume that we are all coming from a modern hermeneutic. Whether that might be a feminist, liberation or simply historical-critical method, most modern Jews and Christians do not read scriptures quite as literally as this author reads her holy writings. The lack of critique of the way the stories are told or the interpretation of the stories within the Islamic tradition gave me pause. Can I profess with Riffat that Sarah’s virtue and faithfulness to God is affirmed by her ethical choices and obedience to Abraham while she was in Egypt? Can I claim that Hagar’s obedience and submission to Abraham in her desert exile showed how much she trusted Abraham and therefore, trusted God?

This is the sort of hermeneutic that leads to men’s dominance in religion, education, and the home. And in the extreme, this sort of exegesis can lead to violence against women done in the name of God for her own ‘good’.

This is exactly what we were hoping to avoid in the study of this book. We were given the expectation that the dialogue in this book would lead us to the place where we would not allow our traditions to be used against ourselves or other women.

So I have no answers here. I’m not sure how to honor the Islamic stories without a different sort of hermeneutic. And I am not sure that I am allowed to do that exegesis without dishonoring my sisters in the Muslim community.