58 r Bat-Sheva Garsiel
appears a second time to Abraham and blesses him: “Because you have
done this and have not withheld your son, your favored one, I will bestow
My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the
stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore, and your descendants shall
seize the gates of their foes.”^62
There is an opinion that the description of the binding in the Quran
indeed incorporates some components of the biblical story and the rele-
vant midrashim, but that the Quranic portrayal lacks narrative details and
artistic means. The differences stem from the fact that the Quran’s main
purpose is the message, and conveying the message generally takes prece-
dence over the literary and artistic qualities of the story.^63 In my opinion,
the main difference is due to the different goals of the two traditions. In
the Jewish sources, the binding of Isaac plays a significant role in God’s
promise to multiply the descendants of Abraham and grants them vic-
tory over their enemies and an important status among all the peoples of
the earth.^64 In the Quran, there is no interest in promoting these national
aspects pertaining to Abraham’s seed and the inheritance of the Land of
Canaan. Therefore, the condensed episode serves primarily as another
demonstration of Abraham’s obedience.
The interesting point in the Quran’s story of the binding episode is that
the identity of the son who was to be sacrificed is unclear. The Quran’s
commentators and Muslim scholars express different opinions. Some as-
sume that the bound son is Isaac, while others think it is Ishmael. These
opinions are summed up by Ya ̔qubi, who adds that there are many tradi-
tions that support the different views.^65 Tabari thinks that the bound son
was Isaac. Nevertheless, he encapsulates the two approaches and pres-
ents the varied argumentations. Tabari concludes his review, expressing a
wish: “If only the Quran had stated explicitly which son was bound.”^66
Western scholars, too, are divided about the question of who was the
unnamed bound son. Some of them, like Geiger, think it was Ishmael.^67
Others, like Richard Bell and Firestone,^68 think it was Isaac. Firestone
explains that Muhammad erased Isaac’s name because he did not wish to
extol the sacrifice of Isaac, and possibly he meant by that to diminish the
importance of Isaac as a forefather of the Chosen People.^69 Haim Zeev
Hirschberg, on the other hand, assumes that Muhammad did not know
which son had been bound.^70 Newman adds that Muhammad related the
story of the binding at a period when he still did not know that Ishmael
was the son of Abraham.^71