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Hagar
Also known as: Hajar
Egyptian servant of Sarah who bore Abraham’s first son, Ishmael, when Sarah was unable to conceive. After Sarah later bore Isaac, tensions led to Hagar and Ishmael being sent into the wilderness, where God protected them and promised Ishmael would become a great nation (Genesis 21:18). Highly honored in Islam as Hajar, the mother of Arab peoples through Ishmael; her desperate search for water between the hills of Safa and Marwa is commemorated in the Hajj pilgrimage ritual of sa’i, and the well God revealed became Zamzam. Paul uses her story allegorically in Galatians 4:21-31.
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