You know that Muslims claim to be descended from Abraham, through Ishmael. They say that the “son of promise” is Ishmael. I am going to present some studies on Islam in the next couple of weeks but here is a preliminary study…
The Koran mentions Ishmael a dozen times. You can check out (even listen to) the Koran online at https://quranonline.net. That makes it easy to do word searches as we often do with the Bible. We also have in our possession a copy of The Study Qur’an which, like study Bibles, helps explain the background of various texts. The Study Qur’an follows the same versification as Saheeh International from quranonline.net.
Ishmael is mentioned 12 times in the Koran. At 2:125 and 2:127 in the Saheeh international translation (2:119, 121, respectively in my translation by Rodwell) Ishmael helped Abraham build the house of worship, the Ka’bah, in Mecca.
In 2:133 (2:127, Rodwell), Jacob asks his sons if they will worship the God of “Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac.” Muhammed calls his Arab neighbors to become Muslims (2:136; 2:130 in Rodwell), to believe what has been sent down “to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes; and that which hath been given to Moses and to Jesus…” Yes, the Koran mentions Jesus quite often, 33 times; by way of comparison, “Muhammed” is mentioned 100 times in the Koran. Yet, most of those times are in brackets, supplied by the translator(s). Only one of those occasions are not in brackets. Again, by way of contrast “Jesus” is found in the NT, a little larger than the Koran, 987 times!
At 2:140 (2:134), Muhammed asks if “Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac” were Jews or Christians? His response is that they were not; they were “Muslims” or “submitters.” Of course, Muhammad was right; Abraham was not a Jew, the song “Once There Were Three Wondering Jews,” not withstanding. Both the designation “Israelite” and “Jew” post-date Abraham. Of course, he also was no Muslim.
At 3:84 (3:78), Muslims believe in what has been sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, etc. Those who submit to what has been sent down are “Muslims.” The same idea is found at 4:163 (4:161). In 6:86 (same verse in Rodwell), Ishmael is listed among great men of the OT and NT: Noah, David, Solomon, Job, John (the baptist), Jesus, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Lot and others.
In 14:39 (14:41), Abraham thanks God for giving him Ishmael and Isaac. In 19:54 (19:55), the text calls on Muslims to “commemorate” Ishmael, as well as others from the Bible, who was “true to his promise, and was an apostle (“messenger” in Saheeh), a prophet.”
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In 21:85 (same), Ishmael is praised for his patience. The last verse which mentions Ishmael in the Koran is 38:48 (same), where he is praised for his justice.
Just as we normally do with the Bible, we have now looked at all the verses in the Koran which mention Muslims’ “forefather,” Ishmael. And we don’t learn much. It is clear that the Koran presumes much of the narrative from the book of Genesis (as well as the whole OT). Otherwise, the Muslim would know nothing about Ishmael.
We also observe that there is no connection in the Koran between Muslims and Ishmael. Every Bible student knows how important genealogies are in the Bible, especially the lineage of Jesus Christ (Matt. 1 and Luke 3). But there is no genealogy in the Koran. While ancient Arabs could claim descent from Ishmael, I am extremely skeptical that any modern Arab could prove such a claim, with all the wars, invasions, and intermarriages which have happened over the past several millennia. Don’t you think the reason there is no genealogy in the Koran is because when it was “revealed” in the 600s A. D., there were too many people still alive who could prove it was fake?
Finally, let’s not use Genesis 16:11-12 to show that the Bible predicts the animosity between the Muslims and the Jews and/or Christians and/or the rest of the world. The Muslims are not a subject of biblical prophecy at all. They don’t fit into biblical prophecy for any purpose. The fulfillment of the prophecy from 16:11-12 is at Genesis 25:18. Notice specifically the text “and he will live to the east of all his brothers” (16:12; NASV) in the Hebrew (וְעַל־פְּנֵי כָל־אֶחָיו) compared with 25:18, “he settled in defiance of all his relatives” (עַל־פְּנֵי כָל־אֶחָיו). You can see the phrases are the exact same. I believe the evidence shows 25:18 is the fulfillment of 16:12 and modern Muslims are not the subject of biblical prophecy at all.
We have more to say in the near future.
Paul Holland
