Hagar

Hagar is the abandoned mother whose search for water ends in survival when Gibreel reveals Zamzam Spring. In Gibreel Farishta’s visions and in Jahilia’s account of its annual feast, her story turns on a sharp contrast: a woman’s desperate effort to keep herself and her child alive becomes, in public celebration, a reason to honor Ibrahim.

Identity and Background

Hagar is identified as Egyptian and as the mother of Ismail. In the account recalled during Gibreel’s visions, Ibrahim brings her and their son into a waterless wilderness and leaves them there. Her question about whether this abandonment can be God’s will receives no reassurance: Ibrahim says that it is, and departs.

Abandonment and Survival

After Ibrahim leaves, Hagar nurses Ismail until her milk runs out. She climbs first Safa and then Marwah, moving between the two hills in search of a tent, a camel, or another person. Finding no one, she is in danger of perishing in the wilderness. Gibreel comes to her and shows her the waters of Zamzam Spring; Hagar survives. The narrative presents the spring not as a reward for a secure or easy journey, but as the intervention that answers an immediate struggle for life.

Zamzam in Gibreel’s Visions

Hagar’s rescue recurs in Gibreel Farishta’s dreams of his angelic role. He sees himself revealing Zamzam Spring to Hagar after Ibrahim has abandoned her with their child. The visions also carry the spring’s history forward: after Jurhum fills it with mud and golden gazelles and it is lost for a time, Gibreel appears again to point it out to Muttalib. This recurrence links Hagar’s survival to a place whose visibility and loss shape later generations’ memories.

Memory and the Festival in Jahilia

Jahilia’s Feast of Ibrahim gathers pilgrims to commemorate Ibrahim’s visit to the valley. The account pointedly distinguishes this public observance from Hagar’s story: the pilgrims are not assembled to celebrate her survival, but to honor the valley’s association with Ibrahim. They worship, drink date-palm wine, and spend at the fair. Hagar’s ordeal thus stands beside a communal celebration that gives priority to the patriarch’s visit, even though her struggle and survival are what make the valley’s water story so consequential.