This event is remembered during Bakra Id Bakrid. Accept Reject. Update Consent. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email. Economic Times Quick takes, analyses and macro-level views on all contemporary economic, financial and political events. By Devdutt Pattanaik Ibrahim was born 4, years ago in Mesopotamia. Upon arrival in the promised land, God assured Abraham that He would provide the region to his descendants Genesis Her infertility was to be very significant in the development of the modern Middle East.
Fearing the wrath of Sarah, Hagar fled the land after conceiving the first son of Abraham. However, a heavenly word was delivered to Hagar, instructing her to return.
It comforted her that her son would have many children and descendants, although they will live in aversion with the other families and nations. The divinely prophetic words spoken to Hagar are still of great significance today. The wild donkey was the aristocrat of the wild beasts of the desert, the preferred prey of hunters. Fourteen years after the birth of Ishmael, God graced Abraham with a second son, a step-brother to Ishmael conceived with his wife Sarah.
Isaac, in turn, fathered Jacob, also named Israel, the father of the Israelites. After the birth of Isaac, Sarah further resented the presence of Hagar and Ishmael and had them sent away. Genesis states, The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. Islamic Art is generally thought to be aniconist meaning that it shies away from physical depictions, especially that of prophets and close companions of Muhammad.
The artist s has crafted the scene as a peaceful one, with flowers decorating the landscapes and a stream flowing next to the prophet. The figures seem to be wearing contemporary dress appropriate for Shiraz under Safavids. These two representations show a strong insight into their textual traditions, yet both artists have added elements of drama and emotion. These migrants brought with them their religious traditions - significant among these being Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism.
The Arabs of the day were primarily polytheists who worshipped idols. Among them were small groups of individuals who were neither Jews nor Christians, but also professed the monotheism of the Abrahamic tradition and rejected idol worship Ramadan The earliest history of Islam is shrouded in the mists of time.
Much of what is believed of Mohammad's early life is based on tradition, as recorded in the Hadiths. Later Islamic historians, for example, Ibn Ishaq 3 whose work survives only in edited copies or recensions [Donner ] and Tabari, 4 "drew on these three resources and occasionally upon the accounts of Jewish or Christian scholars" Ramadan These sources suggest that the Hanefites, an eclectic mix of Arab people with a large population in Mecca who had abandoned idol worship and were seeking the one true faith, carefully studied what they knew of the traditions of these imported religions against their cultural background of pluralist paganism.
From time to time, they would withdraw to caves in the mountains surrounding Mecca to meditate, pray, study and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these various faiths as they quested for clarity, direction, and perhaps even revelation.
Mohammed would sometimes join the Hanefites in these exercises, but more often would meditate alone Turner ; Ramadan In terms of this article, the exception of course concerns Ishmael.
Surah 37 details the birth and near sacrifice of Ishmael by Abraham, while surah 2 5 speaks to the building of the Kaaba - the edifice located in Mecca Makka that represents the absolute centre of the Islamic faith. Ishmael's birth is narrated in verse of surah Prior to this, in verses , Abraham is depicted as "contending" with pagans who worshipped idols and the stars. Abraham destroyed their pagan idols, for which the pagans rose up against him, but God "brought them that is, the pagans low" Surah and Abraham then sought refuge in God.
Abraham prays: "My Lord grant me a doer of good deeds" Surah and his faith in the one God is rewarded, for God speaks, saying: "So We gave him the good news of a forbearing son" Surah The forbearing son is Ishmael by implication - he is not named in the text. Verses then put us on what appears to be familiar ground: God reveals to Abraham in a dream that he, Abraham, must offer his son - his only son - in sacrifice - except, of course, the son referred to is Ishmael -because, as will be noted later, in Islamic tradition, Isaac is not yet born.
In verse , Abraham tells Ishmael his dream, and Ishmael offers his peaceful acquiescence in verse , saying: "O my father, do as thou art commanded; if Allah please, thou wilt find me patient. Paralleling the biblical account, Abraham and Ishmael are both prepared for the ultimate moment when, dramatically, God intervenes, and a surrogate, a ram caught in a thicket, becomes the sacrifice. As reward for his obedience, it is revealed to Abraham in verse that he will have another son, Isaac.
It is clear from this surah that Ishmael had to be the son to be sacrificed, as Isaac's birth was only promised following this test of Abraham's faith. Instead of presenting him as a significant figure, the Genesis view of the man, while still respecting him as a son of Abraham, places him on a far lower plane than his younger brother Isaac. While there is a possibility of course that this marginalising of Ishmael in favour of Isaac has to do with Hagar's social position - servant and as noted earlier, this is the Jewish and Christian view - there are grounds for disputing this assertion, as will be shown.
Genesis tells us that, when Abram was seventy years old, God instructed him to leave Haran, located in the foothills of the Anatolian plateau of modern Turkey, to go to "the land I will show you Some eleven years pass, and Abram cries out to the Lord that, far from making him a great nation, he remains childless and not only that, in a culture where, it seems, women could not inherit meaning Sarai could not come into Abram's estate , then Abram's servant, Eliezer of Damascus - if we read Genesis , 3 correctly the phrase is enigmatic; Wenham - will be his heir.
Sarai, seeing the distress that her barrenness has created for her husband, has an idea. She will give her maidservant Hagar the Egyptian to him. It is important to note, in this instance, that she says as "wife" Heb. These words are significant. The implication is that Sarai will consider a child born to a surrogate - in this instance, Hagar - and sired by Abram, as her own child. Such a solution appears to have been a typical social custom of the time. Brenneman writes: "Hagar was a surrogate mother whom Sarah was obliged by law to give to Abraham to provide an heir".
It has to be said that Sarah waited a very long time she was 76 years old before acquiescing to what was either law or, more likely, established tradition. On reflection, this is a little strange, for who is to say at this juncture that this child, a son, from Hagar is not God's way of fulfilling His promise to Abram?
Regardless, Sarai sends Hagar away into the wilderness. There Hagar encounters an angel of the Lord who encourages her to return to Sarai and submit to her. The angel further says that Hagar's offspring will be multiplied "that they cannot be counted for multitude" Gen.
Hagar returns to Sarai and submits to her. The child is born. He is called Ishmael, "the Lord has listened". The Bible tells us that he is so named because the Lord has listened to Hagar's complaint - "for the Lord has given ear to your affliction" Gen. But Abram names the child Gen. In doing so, is he not acknowledging perhaps that God has listened to his earlier plea for a child in Genesis , and God's response in Genesis b-6?
He asked God for a son, and now he has one. The Bible is silent on Ishmael's legitimacy; that is to say, his legitimacy is not questioned, which may be because Ishmael's position as son and heir is a given fact arising out of accepted local custom see note 7 above.
This idea is reinforced by the later narratives regarding surrogate motherhood that began with Sarai. Rachel, Jacob's barren wife, invited her husband to "go into" her servant Bilhah, so that she, Bilhah, as Rachel says, "can bear upon my knees and that I too may have children through her", Gen.
Jacob complies and ends up with two sons by Bilhah - Dan and Naphtali Gen. We might even consider mothers who have become barren in the natural course of things: Jacob's other wife, Leah, having ceased childbearing, celebrates the birth of children Gad and Asher by Jacob to her servant Zilpah Gen. Note that, inclusive of Ishmael, no issues of adoption or legitimacy are mentioned in any of the narratives just cited; indeed, absent any commentary to the contrary, the many children born to handmaids and servants appear to be happily absorbed into the various family circles.
While some jealousy is evident, especially on the part of Rachel Gen. In fact, it is whom the father is that determines legitimacy and birth rights: Deuteronomy explicitly prohibits the disenfranchising of the first-born son - regardless of the mother's status - and further provides that he shall receive a double portion of his father's inheritance. While Deuteronomy is generally considered a later contribution to the Pentateuch see 5.
Abraham then asks if Ishmael might also be blessed: "O that Ishmael might live in your sight! God replies: "As for Ishmael, I have heard you", and goes on to say that Ishmael shall father twelve nesi'im the word means "elevated ones", or important persons; most translations read "princes" and become a great nation Gen. No reason for Ishmael, as first-born son, being sidelined or usurped is provided at this point.
If he has sinned against God or Abram and is thus worthy of demotion, we are not told. Notice again that God's promise is that Isaac will father kings, and Ishmael, princes, a clear statement of the intended future superiority of Isaac over his brother.
Nevertheless, it is fourteen years before God's promise to Abraham is fulfilled. Fourteen years during which it seemed entirely reasonable that Ishmael, as first-born, would be the heir of Abraham.
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