Isma'eel is the "father of the Arabs"? The confused and confusing Quranic exegesis.

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jun 30, 2020 at 07:13

The author of the Qur'an assumes that the reader of the Qur'an must be familiar with the Biblical narratives. In the case of the Abraham/Ibrahim narratives, the Qur'an does not tell us much about who is the subject of the sacrifice or even who is really Israel.

Now, Q37:101 it says: فبشرناه بغلام حليم and this can be rendered as: And we (Allah) gave him good news about a child haleem (i left the word untranslated because it does not have a clear meaning. The root of the word in H-L-M as in dreams (compare to Syriac ܚܠܡܢܐ or Khalmana)

The question here is: Who is that child? Early on in the 3rd century of Islam al-Tabari tells us that the child is Ishaq (Isaac) and this is what he wrote: ان الغلام الذي بشر الله به ابراهيم اسحاق and this can be rendered as: Truly the child that Allah informed Ibrahim about was Isaac (Ishaq)

Now, 600 years later ibn Kathir tells us without any hesitation: وهذا الغلام اسماعيل or: And this child is Isma'eel

So you can see that the story has changed. Why? Muslims wanted a different link to the OT and an "Arab" character same as the Biblical Isaac. This character is Isma'eel. The so called اسماعيل ابو العرب or Isma'eel the father of the Arabs and the Arabs are ابناء اسماعيل or the sons of Isma'eel. (Compare with Syriac ܒܢܘܢܐ ܐܝܫܡܥܝܠ or Binuna Ishma'eel)

The question that the Muslim mufasereen fail to answer: In the Islamic tradition a child belongs to his father. So how can an "Arab" (Isma'eel) be the son of an Aramaic speaker from Mesopotamia and a mother (Hagar) from Egypt? It does not make sense and more so because we are told that Isma'eel learned to speak Arabic when he was 14 or 15 years old from the Arabs!

The whole story does not make sense!

et voila, we have another "Arab" in the OT

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