There is an important subject I'd like to address to all on this Board. I think it is of merit and pray that many people will read and respond with their thoughts. The nature of the subject is the "Seed" of Abraham and God's promised covenant with him.
Note: PBUH stands for Peace Be Unto Him/Her
PBUT stands for Peace Be Unto Them
Many Christians mistakenly believe that Abraham's descendants through Ishmael (Muhammad (Pbuh)and his ancestors) were excluded from God's covenant with Abraham (pbuh) because Ishmael's mother, Hagar, was not a legitimate wife of Abraham, thus, her son Ishmael (the father of the Arabs) was not a legitimate son of Abraham. Therefore, they conclude that Ishmael(pbuh) and his descendants were not included in God's covenant with the sons of Abraham (pbuh) and that this covenant was exclusive to Abraham's second son, Isaac.
In what follows we will disprove each of these claims, in addition to showing evidence of human tampering with the text of the Biblical verses.
The story of Ishmael according to the Bible is as follows: Abraham married Sarah (pbut). Sarah was a barren woman and bore him no children (Genesis 16:1). God then made a great promise to Abraham even before any children were born to him.
"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
Genesis 12:2-3
Not long after, Sarah gave Abraham her handmaid, Hagar, to be his wife according to the legal Jewish custom of polygamous marriages (customary in the Bible among Israelites and many of their prophets).
"And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.."
Genesis 16:3
In Genesis 16 we are told that after Hagar (pbuh) became pregnant with Ishmael, Sarah (pbuh) felt that Hagar despised her, so she dealt with her harshly until she was forced to escape from this harsh treatment
"And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her face"
Genesis 16:6.
The angel of God then appeared before Hagar and told her to return to Sarah and submit herself to her will and that "the Lord has heard thy affliction" and would reward her with a son called "Ishmael" (God hears) and would multiply her seed exceedingly. Hagar willingly bowed to the command of her Lord and returned and submitted herself to Sarah. In A Dictionary of Biblical tradition in English literature, we read:
"The Jewish Haggadah identifies Ishmael as one of the six men who were given a name by God before their birth (Ginzberg, LJ 1.239)."
Abraham was eighty six years old when Ishmael was born (Genesis 16:16). When Abraham reached ninety-nine years of age, Ishmael was thirteen years old and remained the only son of Abraham. Now, God promises to establish his covenant with all of Abraham's "seed" without exception:
"And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.."
Genesis 17:7-8.
God now informs Abraham that his covenant shall be given through circumcision, so Abraham immediately circumcises himself and Ishmael, the father of the Arabs (Genesis 17:23), thus establishing God's covenant with Ishmael.
To this day, all Muslims practice circumcision. The "sign and seal" (Romans 4:11) of the Abrahamic covenant.
We notice that God's covenant was promised to be with Abraham's "seed." But if we read Genesis 21:13 we will find that Ishmael is Abraham's "seed":
"And also of the son of the bondwoman......he is thy seed."
The same arguments can be made for God's covenant with Abraham
"the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates."
Genesis 15:18
As we can see, this covenant was intended to be of the same generality as God's covenants with Noah (Genesis 9:8-17), and David (2 Samuel 7; 23:5). God's covenant was intended to be a covenant with those who are obedient to Him and follow his command.
When Abraham reached one hundred years of age, God blessed him with a second son, Isaac (Genesis 21:5). Isaac was born to him through his first wife, Sarah. The Bible tells us that because of Sarah's jealousy that Ishmael may inherit with her own son Isaac (Genesis 21:10), she had Abraham cast out Hagar and Ishmael and send them to the wilderness of "Paran" (genesis 21:21). We are told that she was particularly angry with what she considered to be a mockery on the part of Ishmael towards her own son Isaac. This incident is alleged to have occurred after Isaac was weaned (remember this) as narrated in Genesis 21:8.
Sarah now allegedly ordered Abraham to cast Hagar and Ishmael out, (apparently, in Abraham's tribe, children who mock their brothers and sisters are to be thrown out in the nearest desert along with their mothers) Abraham obeyed Sarah and cast the "bondwoman" and her son in the desert and was blessed by God who told him to "hearken unto her voice." Abraham gave Hagar provisions and water and put her child "Ishmael" upon her shoulder and left them in the wilderness of Beer Sheba in Southern Palestine. When they ran out of water, an angel appeared and conveyed to her the words of God: "Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation." God then showed her a well of water and they drank. Ishmael dwelt in the wilderness of "Paran" and begat twelve sons one of whom was called "Kedar." The Arabic form of the word Paran is Faran or Pharan. It means "two who migrated." It appears that the place took it's name from Hagar and Ishmael who came there as two refugees.
Muslims have a very similar narration of the same sequence of events in the Qur'an. However, in the Qur'an, the details differ from the narration of the Old Testament. Muslims respect Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, and Ishmael (pbut) as very decent, moral and pious people. Muslims believe that the prophet Abraham (pbuh) received a revelation from God to take Hagar and her BABY, Ishmael, to a barren desert in Northern Arabia (Paran), more specifically to the future location of Mecca, and to leave them there. When Abraham began to leave, Hagar called out to him "where are you leaving us?" After repeating the question three times she asked him "Did God command you to do this?" Abraham answered "yes." So Hagar said: "Then He will not forsake us." When Hagar and her baby ran out of water she began to fear for her baby's life and took to running back and forth between the two hills searching for water. Meanwhile, God sent an angel who caused water to gush out of the earth for them. This became the water of the well of "Zamzam" which the pilgrims of Mecca drink from today. Once water was found in this place the Bedouins began to settle there and it became the city of Mecca. Centuries later, Muhammad (pbuh), the prophet of Islam, was born to the descendants of Ishmael.
The major differences in the Biblical and the Qur'anic narrations are that the OT claim that Hagar was (originally) left in Beer Sheba and not Paran as stated by the Muslims, and that this occurred when Ishmael was not a baby, but a fully grown teenager.
This Old Testament narration can be found to contain obvious modifications from the following analysis:
According to the Bible, Abraham was eighty six years old when Ishmael was born (Genesis 16:16). He was one hundred years old when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5). This makes Ishmael fourteen years older than Isaac. The above expulsion of Ishmael and his mother is alleged to have occurred after Isaac was weaned (Genesis 21:8). Muslims wean their children after two years. Biblical scholars tell us that babies were weaned about the age of three. This makes Ishmael at least seventeen years old at the time of the alleged mockery and expulsion. The profile of Ishmael in Genesis 21:14-19 however, is one of a small baby and not that of a full grown teenager of seventeen years. Let us study it.
1) According to the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible which was compiled from manuscripts more ancient than those of the King James Version of the Bible, the verse of Genesis 21:14 reads "..putting [it] on her shoulder, along with the child." Did Abraham put a seventeen year old boy on Hagar's shoulder? It would be more logical for him to put Hagar on Ishmael's shoulder if he were, as claimed, seventeen years old at the time. So Ishmael must have been a baby at the time.
2) In Genesis 21:15 we read "and she cast the child under one of the shrubs." Did Hagar "cast" a seventeen year old teenager under a shrub? This too is consistent with a baby and not a full-grown teenager.
3) We read in Genesis 21:16 that Hagar sat far away from Ishmael so as not to see him die before her own eyes. Is this the profile of a full-grown teenager who should, more appropriately be worried about his mother or of a helpless baby?
4) In Genesis 21:17 we read the angel's command to Hagar: "Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand;" Who would be more capable of lifting the other up, Hagar or her seventeen year old teenage son? This too is the profile of a little baby.
5) Throughout this story we are drawn a picture of Hagar doing this, and Hagar doing that, and Hagar worrying, and Hagar weeping, and so on while Ishmael sits where he was "cast," under the shrub. Would a full grown teenager of seventeen sit under a shrub and wait for his mother and himself to die while his mother looked for water for him, or would he have her sit in the shade while he went in search of water?
6) Even the angel did not address both of them but only Hagar, the only one who would understand. Once again the profile of a baby and not a seventeen year old teenager.
7) Ishmael is always referred to as "the child" and "the lad" in the story. Do people usually refer to seventeen year old teenagers as "child" and "lad"?
8) In Genesis 21:20 we read that after this incident, "God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer." Is this a profile of a fully developed teenager or a child who is growing up, learning, and developing?
The above analysis clearly exhibits evidence of human modification to the text of this story. The claim that Ishmael mocked Isaac and that this had anything to do with Hagar's journey is an obvious fabrication since Isaac was not even born yet when this story occurred (Ishmael was still a baby). The reason for Hagar's journey was not Sarah's jealousy, Ishmael's mockery, or the racial superiority of Sarah. It was only the command of God, pure and simple. In an effort to keep all prophets of God Israelites, even God himself is alleged to have submitted to, and even blessed the alleged jealous whims of Sarah. Further, if such elaborate additions to the story could be inserted into the text, then how much simpler to change the original journey to Paran to take a detour into Beer Sheba.
The Interpreter's Bible compares the texts of Genesis 21:14-19 with Genesis 16:1-16 and draws the following conclusion:
"The inclusion in Genesis of both stories so nearly alike and yet sufficiently different to be inconsistent, is one of the many instances of the reluctance of the compilers to sacrifice any of the traditions which has become established in Israel."
As damaging and conclusive as this proof of the modification of the Old Testament is, still, it pales to insignificance before the much more devastating proof of this same fact as contradictions that I have posted here on a number of occasions.
Someone may now object: well then, the verses stating Abraham's age must be the ones which have been (unintentionally) modified. This is a valid theory, however, the problem with this theory is that first of all, these numbers were spelled out in letters and not written using numerals. Second, the transmitters of the Old Testament (the Jews) claim that every word and every letter was faithfully counted and preserved and thus, they can confidently claim that it would be impossible for unintentional errors to creep in, even by accident.
We also notice that even in the New Revised Standard version of the Bible, Genesis 16:16 and 21:5 state the same ages mentioned above. Is this not proof of the Qur'an's claim that the previous books of God were tampered with by the hands of the unscrupulous few?
It now becomes evident that sometime after God sent down the Old Testament, someone decided that they did not want the Arab descendants of Ishmael to be included in God's covenant with Abraham. Therefore, the Old Testament was "corrected" and Ishamel's lineange entirely removed.
Some people will claim that even though Ishmael was Abraham's "seed," still, "seed" is a lesser designation than "son," and only Isaac was Abraham's "son." However, the Bible also bears witness to the fact that Ishmael was Abraham's "son":
"And Abraham took Ishmael his son."
Genesis 17:23
Not only that, but the Bible tells us that Ishmael remained the legitimate son of Abraham until even after his death,
"Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full [of years]; and was gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah"
Genesis 25:8-9
So was Ishmael a lesser "son" than Isaac because Isaac's mother was Abraham's wife while Hagar was not? Once again, let us read the Bible:
"And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid....and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.."
Genesis 16:3
So the Bible also bears witness that Hagar was Abraham's legitimate wife. In fact, if this were not the case then we would be labeling prophet Abraham an adulterer. A serious accusation indeed.
Once the legitimacy of Hagar as Abraham's wife and Ishmael as his son has been established, now the objection of many becomes that Isaac was a better and truer son of Abraham because he was the son of the free woman not the bondwoman. However, this claim is not supported by the law of the Old Testament. According to this law, the first born son was to have double portions of honor, and even inheritance, and this right could not be affected by the status of his mother.
"If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, [both] the beloved and the hated; and [if] the firstborn son be hers that was hated: Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit [that] which he hath, [that] he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, [which is indeed] the firstborn: But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated [for] the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he [is] the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn [is] his."
Deuteronomy 21:15-17
As we have already seen, God's covenant was with the "seed" of Abraham (pbuh), among whom was Ishmael. Secondly, there are many verses which specifically single out Ishmael for God's blessing. After the birth of Ishmael and before the birth of Isaac, God repeats his promise to Abraham to bless all the earth through his progeny.
"As for me, behold, my covenant [is] with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations."
Genesis 17:4
Also, "And also of the son of the bondwoman (Hagar) will I make a nation, because he [is] thy seed. ......... I will make him a great nation."
Genesis 21:13
I'd like to end with a verse from the Qur'an
"And (remember) when Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the House (the Ka'aba in Mecca), (praying): Our Lord! Accept from us (this service). Verily! You, only You, are the Hearer, the Knower. Our Lord! And make us submissive unto You and of our offspring a nation submissive unto You, and show us our ways of worship, and relent toward us. Verily! You, only You, are the Relenting, the Merciful. Our Lord! And send among them a messenger from among them who shall recite unto them Your verses, and shall instruct them in the Book and in wisdom and shall purify them. Verily! You, only You, are the Mighty, the Wise. And who desires other than the path of Abraham except he who befools himself? Truly, We chose him in this world, and Verily! In the Hereafter he shall be among the righteous. When his Lord said unto him: Surrender! he said: I have surrendered to the Lord of creation. The same did Abraham enjoin upon his sons, and also Jacob, (saying): O my sons! Verily! God hath chosen for you the (true) religion; therefore die not save as men who have surrendered. Or were you witnesses when death came to Jacob? When he said unto his sons: What will you worship after me? They said: We shall worship your God and the God of your fathers, Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac, One God, and unto Him we have surrendered. That was a nation which has passed away. They shall receive the reward of that which they earned, and you of what you earned. And you will not be asked of what they used to do. And they say: Be Jews or Christians, then you will be rightly guided. Say: Nay, rather the religion of Abraham, the upright, and he did not associate partners (with God). Say: We believe in God and that which was revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve sons of Jacob, and that which was given to Moses and Jesus, and that which the Prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered. And if they believe in the like of that which you believe, then they are rightly guided. But if they turn away, then they are in discord, and God will suffice you against them. He is the Hearer, the Knower. The religion of God!, and which religion can be better than God's? and we are His worshippers. Say (unto the People of the Scripture): Do you dispute with us concerning God when He is our Lord and your Lord? Ours are our works and yours your works. And we are sincere in worship to Him(alone). Or do you say that Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the sons of Jacob were Jews or Christians? Say: Do you know best, or does God? And who is more unjust than he who hides the testimony which he has from God? And God is not unaware of what you do. That was a nation which has passed away. They shall receive the reward of that which they earned, and you of what you earned. And you will not be asked of what they used to do."
The noble Qur'an, Al-Baqarah(2):127-141
Peace,
Ray |
