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Is what was mentioned true regarding Sarah's jealousy of Hagar and her vow to cut off one of her body parts, and that Abraham commanded her to pierce her ears to fulfill her vow, thus making it a sunnah? And was jealousy the reason?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Ibn Abd al-Hakam, al-Bayhaqi, and Ibn Asakir narrated from Ali ibn Abi Talib that when Sarah gifted Hagar to Abraham and then became jealous of her, she swore to alter three things about her. So Abraham commanded her to shorten (her garment) and pierce her ears. This isnad (chain of narration) might be authentic if Abu Ishaq heard it from Haritha, but Abu Ishaq was a mudallis (one who practices tadlis, a form of deception in narrating hadith) and narrated it using the 'an'anah (from so-and-so) method, which weakens the isnad according to the principles of hadith methodology. Ibn Asakir also narrated a similar story with a very weak isnad from al-Waqidi, who is accused of lying. A number of scholars mentioned this story without definitively affirming its authenticity or the soundness of its isnad, and nothing has been transmitted about it from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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