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.

Double Rejection

Christians have been brought up to understand that Sarah is not only the matriarch of our faith tradition, but is also an example of human (womanly, in particular)virtue. Hopefully, by the time readers have made it to chapter 3 they have a broader and deeper understanding of the story of Hagar and Sarah.
Letty continues to broaden and deepen our understanding of the story of Sarah and Hagar by looking in depth at what Paul does with the story. Besides pointing out the 'Twists and Turns in Paul's Allegory,' Letty's expositions of the texts also give us occasion to contemplate the ways allegory in moral and ethical arguments can lead us astray.
Focusing on the texts in Galatians, Letty shows the ways in which Paul's writings in one letter contradict each other. In the familiar text in chapter 3, Paul writes, "for there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, for all are one in Christ." (vs28) Then in chapter 4 vs. 21-31, Paul contradicts himself by affirming the oppression of Hagar by Sarah because Hagar was a foreigner and Sarah's slave. Paul even goes so far as to say that 'Hagar's child was born according to the flesh while Sarah child was born through promise'. So much for neither slave nor free as a basis of worth and acceptance in God's realm!
Paul further complicates the relationship and meaning of the women's lives by ‘representing the women as opposing covenants of law and promise.” Hagar is no longer simply a slave, a foreigner and a threat to Sarah she is now also a “…Jewish Christian opponent, a slave to the Jewish law and a threat to freedom in Christ.” (p.72) Paul wants her, or what he has made her stand for, driven out of the church. Hagar is doubly condemned. And so Christians receive the message, in contradiction to the freedom proclamation of Paul in chapter 3, that Hagar’s story is a story of bad behavior, bad social status, and even worse, bad belief.
What strikes me in this is how this twisted allegory has become the shadow by which we interpret the Hebrew Scripture story of Hagar and Sarah. It is my contention that Christians cannot read the story in Genesis without being influenced by the allegory of Paul. What do you think?