account of the sacrifice (see Sura 37:100–112).
- What is Islam’s view of the Jewish people?
Muslims consider the Jewish nation to have been
chosen especially by Allah: ‘‘O Children of Israel! Call to
mind the [special] favor which I bestowed upon you, and
fulfill your covenant with Me as I fulfill My Covenant with
you, and fear none but Me’’ (Sura 2:40).
However, the Jews lost this position to the Muslims,
and as we have seen, were transformed into detested ‘‘apes
and swine.’’ In line with this, many Muslims today claim
that Ishmael was the ‘‘righteous son’’ whom Abraham
almost sacrificed. However, this idea makes nonsense of the
divine promises (which appear in Islamic as well as in
Christian sources) that the birth of this son would be
miraculous. For most Muslim tradition holds that while
Abraham was old when Ishmael was born, the boy’s
mother, Hagar, was a robust twenty four years of age. But
where is the miracle in a twenty four year old woman
conceiving a child, even if the father is old? Only if the
sacrificial son were Isaac, the son of the aged Sarah, would
these traditions of a miraculous birth (common to Muslims,
Christians, and Jews) make sense.
In addition, the Islamic view creates historical
problems: if the Jews lost their special position before
Abraham’s sacrifice, so that Ishmael was the chosen son
instead of Isaac, what of Moses and the other Jewish
prophets that Islam acknowledges? Clearly the Muslim idea
that Ishmael supplanted Isaac is an anachronistic