The Epic Story Behind the World's Largest Annual Journey
By Daisy Khan
In the landscape of religious scholarship and women's empowerment, few voices carry the authority and insight of Daisy Khan. As a respected Islamic scholar, author, and founder of multiple organizations dedicated to advancing women's rights within Muslim communities, Khan brings decades of study and activism to her exploration of faith's most significant figures. Her work spans continents, from her advocacy efforts in Afghanistan to her leadership development programs across the United States, establishing her as a bridge between traditional Islamic scholarship and contemporary social justice movements.
Khan's latest episode of Wise Women with Daisy Khan tackles one of history's most overlooked yet influential figures: Hagar, the Egyptian noblewoman whose story intertwines with the foundations of three major world religions. While most people recognize Abraham as the father of many nations, fewer understand the central role played by the woman who would become the matriarch of Mecca. Through meticulous research and passionate storytelling, Khan reveals how a single mother's desperate search for survival in the Arabian desert became the blueprint for the world's largest annual pilgrimage, drawing over 2.5 million people to retrace her exact footsteps.
This isn't merely a religious history lesson. Khan's exploration of Hagar's legacy exposes fundamental questions about leadership, resilience, and the often contradictory ways we honor strength in stories while restricting it in reality. At its core, this narrative challenges us to examine how we define capability, courage, and the space we create for others to flourish. The story of Hagar offers a masterclass in leadership under impossible circumstances, providing lessons that transcend religious boundaries and speak to anyone facing their own wilderness moments.
Hagar - The Woman Who Founded Mecca
The story begins 4,000 years ago when Abraham, described as a Hanif—someone with pure faith devoted to the one God—receives a divine command to teach monotheism throughout the known world. His journey takes him to Egypt, where Pharaoh, impressed by Abraham and his wife Sarah, gifts them a princess from his court: Hagar. Some accounts suggest this was a strategic move by Pharaoh, hoping Hagar might influence Abraham toward Egyptian religious practices. Instead, Abraham welcomed her into his family, setting in motion events that would reshape the spiritual landscape of the world.
The complexity of Hagar's position becomes clear when examining different scriptural accounts of her story. While some traditions describe her as Sarah's servant, meant to bear Abraham a child during Sarah's struggles with infertility, other versions present a more nuanced picture where Sarah herself encourages Abraham to marry Hagar so they might finally have a family. Regardless of the exact circumstances, what emerges is a woman thrust into an extraordinary situation, bearing the weight of divine promises and family tensions that would ultimately scatter across centuries.
When Hagar finds herself in distress, an angel appears with a message that reverberates through Islamic tradition: her son Ishmael will have descendants beyond counting. This promise carries special significance for Muslims, who see it as foreshadowing the coming of Prophet Muhammad, demonstrating how Hagar's story connects ancient narratives with future faith communities. Her experience illustrates how individual struggles often serve purposes far greater than immediate circumstances suggest, positioning her not as a secondary figure in someone else's story, but as a central architect of religious history.
The Birth of a Holy City
The most testing moment of Hagar's journey arrives when family tensions force Abraham to make an agonizing decision. Under divine instruction, he takes Hagar and young Ishmael into the Arabian desert, leaving them in what appears to be complete desolation. As Abraham disappears beyond the dunes, Hagar calls out desperately, asking if his Lord commanded this abandonment. When Abraham confirms this divine instruction, her response becomes legendary: "Then He will not abandon us." This moment captures the essence of faith under pressure—not passive acceptance, but active trust in divine provision despite impossible circumstances.
Reality soon tests this faith as their meager supplies of dates and water run out, and Ishmael begins suffering from dehydration under the merciless desert sun. Rather than surrendering to despair, Hagar takes action. She begins running between two hills, Safa and Marwa, desperately scanning the horizon for any sign of water, people, or hope. She makes this desperate sprint seven times, her feet burning on the scorching sand, driven by maternal instinct and unwavering belief that abandonment is not the final word in their story.
At the moment when despair threatens to consume the valley, divine intervention arrives. Angel Gabriel strikes the ground at Ishmael's feet, and pure water gushes forth from the barren earth—the spring of Zamzam. This miraculous water still flows today, 4,000 years later, nourishing millions of pilgrims who drink from it seeking healing and spiritual renewal. The appearance of water attracts birds, signaling to desert travelers that life-sustaining resources exist below. The Jurhum tribe discovers this oasis, negotiates with Hagar to settle there, and thus the city of Mecca is born—not through conquest or royal decree, but through a woman's refusal to surrender in the face of impossible odds.
The Modern Pilgrimage - Retracing Hagar's Footsteps
Today's Hajj pilgrimage serves as a living monument to Hagar's story, with specific rituals directly commemorating her actions in the desert. The pilgrimage begins with the Ihram, where people from every corner of the world shed their worldly garments and don simple white cloth, erasing all distinctions of wealth, status, and nationality. Kings and street cleaners become indistinguishable as they cry out the same words that echoed from Hagar's lips: "Here I am, O Lord, answering your call." This uniform of humility creates a preview of spiritual equality that transcends earthly hierarchies.
The central ritual involves circling the Kaaba seven times clockwise, symbolizing the cosmic order where all creation orbits around the divine. The Kaaba itself stands as a testament to intentional simplicity—completely empty inside, serving as a stark reminder that humans should bow to nothing except their Creator. Pilgrims also retrace, Hagar's desperate search by running seven times between Safa and Marwa, the same hills where she sought salvation for her son. This isn't leisurely walking but urgent movement, pushing their bodies to honor one woman's fight for survival.
The scope of this modern pilgrimage staggers the imagination. During Hajj season alone, 2.5 million people participate, with 25 million arriving annually for various pilgrimages. Saudi Arabia manages this unprecedented gathering with cutting-edge technology: crowd control systems, aerial monitoring, air-conditioned marble floors to prevent burning feet, and water stations throughout the sacred pathways. Yet at the center of all this modern orchestration sits the simple cube that has anchored faith for millennia, housing the celestial Black Stone that connects pilgrims to something beyond earthly understanding. The pilgrimage culminates with drinking Zamzam water—the same spring that saved Ishmael, carrying forward a 4,000-year-old promise that divine provision never fails those who trust.
Celebrating Strength While Restricting Freedom
Perhaps the most striking aspect of Hagar's legacy lies in the contradictions it exposes in contemporary attitudes toward women's capabilities. Khan observes a troubling irony: some of the same men who ardently reenact Hagar's fearlessness and courage during Hajj simultaneously consider women the weaker sex in daily life. They honor her desperate sprint between mountains while forbidding their wives from walking too quickly, claiming such movement is immodest. They commemorate her independent survival in the desert while insisting women cannot defend themselves or make decisions without male guidance.
This disconnect reveals a broader pattern of celebrating strength in historical narratives while discouraging it in present reality. We praise resilience when it's safely contained in stories but question capability when it appears in our communities. The very men who complete the Sa'i—running between Safa and Marwa to honor Hagar's courage—sometimes restrict the women in their lives from exercising similar determination and independence. This contradiction suggests that we often prefer our heroes at a comfortable distance, honoring their qualities in ritual while avoiding the implications of those same qualities manifesting around us.
Khan's work in Afghanistan provides stark context for these observations. When she encounters restrictions on women's movement and decision-making, justified by claims that women need male protection, she consistently asks whether those imposing such limitations have truly considered Hagar's story. Here was a woman deliberately left alone without male protection, who not only survived but founded the holiest city in Islam and shaped the destiny of billions. Her example challenges fundamental assumptions about women's capabilities and raises uncomfortable questions about whether our protective instincts sometimes serve to limit rather than liberate. The solution lies not in abandoning care for one another, but in recognizing that true leadership creates space for God-given strengths to flourish rather than protecting people from their own potential.
Lessons from Hagar's Journey
Hagar's story offers timeless leadership principles that transcend religious and cultural boundaries:
Faith in action during crisis - True faith responds to impossible circumstances with both trust and decisive action
Persistence through repeated failure - Running seven times between the hills demonstrates the power of refusing to quit after initial attempts fail
Turning survival into legacy - What began as a desperate maternal instinct became the foundation for millions of future pilgrims
Leading without formal authority - Hagar had no title or position, yet her choices influenced the direction of entire civilizations
Creating value from nothing - She transformed a barren valley into a thriving city through resourcefulness and determination
Maintaining hope despite abandonment - Her response to being left alone modeled how to find strength in divine connection rather than human support
Embracing Your Own Pilgrimage
Hagar's story ultimately calls us to examine our own response to wilderness moments—those times when circumstances strip away our comfortable assumptions and force us to discover what we're truly made of. Her legacy suggests that our struggles aren't detours from our destiny but preparation for it.
Whether you lead a team, raise a family, or simply navigate your own challenges, Hagar's example provides a blueprint for leadership under pressure. Her story reminds us that true leadership isn't about protecting others from their capabilities but creating space for their God-given strengths to flourish.
Take time to reflect on your own pilgrimage. What wilderness seasons have shaped your character? Where might you be unconsciously limiting others' potential while simultaneously celebrating similar qualities in historical figures? Consider how you can honor the Hagar-like courage in the people around you—not just in stories, but in the real choices and challenges they face today. Your response to these questions might just reveal the next chapter of your own leadership journey.
This is Wise Women with Daisy Khan – because every woman's story matters. The journey ends not with what we acquire but with what we become. The qualities that sustain us through difficulty often become the very gifts we offer to the world. For more such inspiring stories and discussion, like, follow, and connect with Dr Daisy Khan
Website: daisykhan.com
LinkedIn: @drdaisykhan
Podcast: Wise Women with Daisy Khan
Instagram: daisykhan.nyc
Twitter: DaisyKhan
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