The Children of Abraham According to the Bible, G-d made a promise to Abraham about his descendants: I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your G-d and the G-d of your descendants after you.[Genesis 17:7] In this verse we see G-d promising Abraham that He will have a covenant with his descendants. This covenant was fulfilled by G-d by sending Prophets from the descendants of Isaac to the Jews (e.g Daniel, Jacob, Jesus etc.). But the promise that was made to Abraham by G-d was to all of his descendants, so it makes sense that Prophets would also be sent from the descendants of Abraham’s other son Ishmael. In the Old Testament, G-d singled out the descendants of Ishmael (the Arabs) for a particular blessing: And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. [Genesis 17:20] According to the verse above, G-d tells Abraham about a “˜Great Nation’ to come from Ishmael. This is another reason why G-d would send Prophets amongst the Arabs, how could G-d call a nation great if they were to be unbelievers? Their greatness is defined by their belief and obedience to G-d. We see that Muhammad (pbuh) fits the description of a Prophet from the descendants of Ishmael, who called people back to the religion of Abraham. Muhammad (pbuh) did indeed come from that nation of rulers mentioned in Genesis 17:20. The book of Genesis tells us that Abraham left his wife (Hagar) and Ishmael to settle in “˜Paran’ (Genesis 21:21), which according to historians is in Arabia. Ishmael grew up and settled in Arabia and had twelve sons one of whom was called “˜Kedar’ (Genesis 25:13). Isaiah 21:13-17 confirms that the descendants of Kedar were in Arabia. It is well known that Muhammad (pbuh) was a direct descendant of Kedar. In the Davis Dictionary of the Bible it is stated that Kedar is “˜…A tribe descended from Ishmael … The people of Kedar were Pliny’s Cedrai, and from their tribe Mohammed ultimately arose’[2]. There were Jewish tribes in Medina (the city that Muhammad (pbuh) migrated to) who had settled there because they were awaiting the arrival of a Prophet. In fact, Ben Shalom the Chief Rabbi of Medina embraced Muhammad (pbuh) as the Prophet whose arrival was foretold in their scriptures.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 05:38:49 +0000
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