Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (7)

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (7)

By the time of the prophet Muhammad, the assimilation of the Abrahamic legacy into the regional polytheistic systems was such that only a distant echo had remained in their minds from their spiritual connection to Abraham. Just as happenned to the Temple of Jerusalem that slowly became transformed into a pagan shrine and idols were introduced in it 2kings21 the prime symbol of monotheism in Mecca became thus radically transformed through pagan influence. As the Ishmaelites, like the Israelites throughout their history, drifted from the original path of monotheism, the Hajj pilgrimage became a celebratory occasion, and the Kaaba was stocked with idols and false deities supposed to bring the worshipers closer to the One God, Allah, whom they believed in. Men and women would run naked throughout the holy precinct. Merchants from all over would travel to the Kaaba and set up shop during the pilgrimage. People and tribes from all over Arabia would make the journey to Mecca to take part in the festivities. But this annual pilgrimage was in greater parts disconnected from the Abrahamic practice 22:26-7. It was simply a time to make money instead of being charitable, drink alcohol, and commit immoral acts.

The importance of the annual event perdured despite the corruption. It was maintained by those that settled in Mecca, and the Arabs of the entire peninsula that got attracted to it with time. These are the points brought to attention in 2:196-7. And then until v203 great stress is laid on the spiritual dimension, forgotten and neglected, of that occasion. No other nation can be compared to the Ishmaelites' handling of their spiritual legacy and sacred shrine, than their own Israelite brothers.

They could not maintain the way of their forefathers despite the constant sending of prophets to them to bring them back to the right path. When the Arabs were admonished and urged to reform, they qualified the warnings as 

16:24,27:68"stories of the ancients".

These Ishmaelites vaguely recalled the Abrahamic ways, but found no other constructive argument in their opposition but by denigrating it as old and useless stories, based on its ancienty and supposed obsolescence, inaplicability to the current circumstances. They never qualify these stories as "false". It was in fact one of the Quran's oft repeated functions, to "remind" the people of the truth they were still somewhat aware of but that had been supressed by falsehood. The Quran openly states that

26:196"most surely the same is in the scriptures of the ancients".

It repeats, time and again, its role as the guardian and preserver of the truth present in the past scriptures. Along with Abrahamic and monotheistic practices known in pre-islamic days, going back to previous prophets, was the Zakat which the people knew they had to give away to the poor but rarely practiced or misused 19:30-31,54-55,70:24,Deut14:28-29,26:12-14, fasting 2:51,183-187,7:142,Deut9:9,Ex24:18,34:28,Matt4:2,Lk5:33-6 prayer that continued after Ibrahim established it in the settlement of the Kaaba 14:37,19:55,Dan6:10,Ps55:18,1Chr23:30 until it was disfigured 8:35, animal sacrifice, circumcision.

Other concepts propounded by previous prophets and which the Quran was reminding its addressees of, include the Resurrection, day of Judgement and accountability Matt13:24-43,1Kings17:17-24,2Kings4:17-37,13:20-1,1Sam2:6,Isa2:17,26:19,66:14,Ezek37:1-28,Ps71:20,Prov6:22,Prov31(see Rashi),Dan12:1-2,Quran29:36,54:36-9.

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (6)

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (6)

Pre-Islamic oral tradition has preserved names of the non-polytheistic remnants in their midst, some of them already mentionned above. The Quran cites some of them, Luqman, as an example of wisdom, righteousness and gratefulness to the One God 31:12-13. This pure way of the hanif, the hanifiyya, Abraham's way, was something that none could contend with, whether Jew, Christian and even the Arab polytheists who knew him, his history and never denied that his "Way" was the Right Way.

None denied he founded the Kaaba which he dedicated to Allah alone. That is why the pagans would simply argue that their idols did not supplant Allah, rather were merely intercessors 43:9,87,29:63,10:31,17:67,31:25. The complacency they felt as time went on made them believe that had they been doing anything wrong in their worship of Allah, then Allah himself would have already chastised them for it 16:35,6:148. The Quran therefore would repeat Abraham's life story while laying great stress on his antagonism to polytheism, as well as him not being part of any later group that claimed spiritual closeness to him, like the Jews and Christians. This was an admonishment, on one hand to the Arabs and the Quraish in particular. They regarded themselves as his spiritual and physical descendants. The people of the book and more particularily the Jews, thought the same and are told that Abraham instead was a pure submitter (lit. hanif muslim) as demonstrated throughout his upright life and unconditional submission to God

3:67"Ibrahim was not a Jew nor a Christian but he was a hanif, a Muslim, and he was not one of the polytheists".

In such background, the Quran would interpel Ismail's descendants and kept asking them to bring proof for their innovations 35:40-1, kept reminding them again and again about the One, supreme, all powerful Creator they readily professed belief in, yet placed interceding idols next to Him.

In the pre-Islamic poems of the likes of Jiran al-'Awd or Umayyah ibn Abi as-Salt, the hanifiya, "the way of Ibrahim" as he said, is mentioned by name and Ibn Ishaq quotes it in connection with the Yemenite ruler Abraha's attack on the Kaaba. Sirmah ibn Anas of the Banu Adyy ibn Al Najjar was another hanif, per the work of Isabah, that renounced idolatry and became a hanif and that he worshipped only the God of Abraham. There are countless sources that connect Abraham with the Arabs and those that desired to return to his ways, without any connection to Jewish and Christians ways, were considered hanifs. None among the Arabs ever contended with such facts.

This whole tradition revolved especially around the legacy of the Kaaba. The ARAB (although later transmitted by Muslims) tradition on this point is so strong and of such old standing that the Quran every now and then refers to it as a matter of undoubted history, and the Arabs never contended with it. There isnt any trace of the Arabs tracing their genealogy to anyone else than Ismail. Islam didn't show up and made them believe this massive conspiracy by first causing a general blackout. The onus is on the revisionists and critics of Islam to establish that what the Arabs believe is their identity is not true or that they identified themselves as anything else than Ishmaelites prior to Islam. There is a peculiar feature of those Ishmaelites of the Hijaz in that one finds rare occasions of them testifying to their ancestry. Instead it is the non-Muslim writers of the early days of Islam that emphatically do so. This is because these Ishmaelites, contrary to most people of the region and beyond, lived in insularity, rarely in conflict with their neighbors. They did not need to affirm their identity and territorial borders, nor boast of the greatness of their armies and battles they would have fought against invaders. The objections and calumnies of Islam's enemies among the Arabs -whether aimed at the the prophet's personality or his message- are reported and can be seen by anyone today, both in and out of the Quran. No eyebrow was raised as regards the Abrahmic connection to the Kaaba, yet it was the focal point and core of Muhammad's prophetic message. The same is the case concerning the monotheistic origin of some of their most highly revered rituals, although at the time stained with idolatrous practices. It is also interesting noting that although Abraham is clearly pictured as having been to and prayed at the Kaaba where he had settled a place of monotheistic worship together with his son, yet this is never done in a polemical tone against the b‪elievers of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It is thus inevitable that traditions about Abraham relating him to Mecca and its sanctuary were current in the peninsula well before the rise of Islam. As appropriately noted by Goudarzi 

"It is well known that Ishmael did not occupy a prized position in late-antique Jewish or Christian thought. For Jews, he was an outcast, excluded from Abraham’s household and inheritance, a man of the desert who was worthy neither of the land nor of the law that was given to Isaac’s descendants. For Christians, Ishmael was above all the son of Abraham “according to the flesh” but not the spirit, the son of the slave woman who inherited the servile state of his mother, and therefore a type for the spiritually incapacitated Jews toiling under the burden of the law. Jewish and Christian writers depicted Ishmael as a foil for their beloved Isaac, a potential rival who resorted to violence and persecution, a man guilty of idolatry and sexual misconduct— whose menacing ambitions were nipped in the bud thanks to Sarah’s timely intervention".  

All these perverted and corrupt ideas were well established in the historical background of pre-islamic Arabia. The prophet Muhammad, or any Arab prior to Islam, had nothing to win in terms of credibility or eminence in the eyes of Jews and Christians by supposedly inventing family ties to Ishmael. Even the covenant of the land, as stated in the Torah, is open to any non-Israelite convert. Also, nowhere does the HB restrict the covenant of prophethood to the descendants of Abraham, be it Israelites or Ishmaelites. The notion of the Arabs or the prophet resorting to a radical re-shaping of their ancestry to gain any kind of legitimacy in relation to the people of previous scriptures is therefore not only improbable given the scale of the conspiracy but mainly useless and even counter-productive.

The question one should be asking one's self is how could Muhammad actually pass off the Kaaba as being built by Ibrahim, if the Arabs did not already believe it considering that Arab tribes had since antiquity been paying extensive homage to the Kaaba and its rites? It is the height of absurdity to say that in any culture, one would manage to fake not only his own identity but also that of an entire nation without anyone raising an eyebrow. This is worth emphasizing; for nothing was more obnoxious to an Arab than to ascribe a false or imaginary ancestry to him. Arab culture had such pride in its ancestral origins that when the Quran wanted to give a point of reference to how intensely Allah should be praised, it evoked the remembrance of their forefathers which Allah's remembrance must surpass 2:200. Despite the effects of modernism and the loss of oral culture, some Arabs even today still keep their ancient family trees that date to the time of Prophet. The Quraysh, the prophet's own tribe, was respected among the Arabs not only because it ruled over Mecca but also because of the nobility of its lineage. To come and argue that the prophet fabricated it is very unrealistic.

Even if we disregard these facts and suggest that the Arabs had a memory lapse, why would a people who had forgotten their common ancestor, accept the ancestor of another people as their ancestor too because the latter stated so, thus not only puting in question their identity but also compromising their claim on their prime religious site and by extension the economical benefits of being its custodians? Such an illegitimate attack on a people's known identity and its ancestral worship sites would have met with universal resistance, both from the preexisting idolatrous population of Mecca as well as from the Arab tribes.

Critics of Islam ignore these simple observations, forget that the starting point of studies on the Arabs concerning their origin, culture and religious identity should start from their own sources. This is a well-recognized modus operandi in ethno-historical studies of a group of people.

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (5)

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (5)

Even among the polytheist Arabs, like with the hanif previously mentionned, remnants of rites commemorating the Abrahamic legacy were maintained. For example, though they used to sacrifice animals on various idol altars at different places, their sacrificing of animals at Mina at the time of the pilgrimage was only in pursuance of the Abrahamic tradition. It was no sacrificing for any particular idols or their idols in general. Neither any idol nor any altar was there at Mina or Arafat. The ritual of sa'i or running between the two hills of Safa and Marwah is among God's signs. Just like foreign idols were brought to Mecca and integrated into the Kaaba, corrupting the Abrahamic legacy, some idols were placed on these hills. We read in the history books what caused this innovation. When 2 lovers named Assaf and Naila hid inside the Kaaba to be intimate, Allah turned them to stone statues. Associating this with a miracle, the Quraysh placed them each on one of the 2 hills, and as the generations passed, took them for deities.

The association of the site with paganism repulsed some early Muslims, but God told them plainly not to worry, for the Safa and Marwa are among His signs, regardless of how the sinful generations mishandled them

2:158-9"Surely the Safa and the Marwa are among the signs appointed by Allah...Surely those who conceal the clear proofs and the guidance that We revealed after We made it clear in the Book for men, these it is whom Allah shall curse, and those who curse shall curse them (too)".

The re-institution of this location as a monotheistic pilgrimage site comes in the context of patience in adversity and trust in Allah, just as Hagar was as she frantically searched for help, running back and forth between these 2 hills, when she was settled in the location by Abraham, together with her infant child Ismail. The practice of tawaf at the Kaaba, the circlings/circumambulations symbolizes the notion that all human endeavours ought to have the idea of God and His oneness for their centre.

Although the Quran itself does not require a specific number of circumambulations 2:125,22:26 the prophet used to circle the Kaaba 7 times and sometimes more. There is nothing special about the number seven in Islamic rituals and it doesnt even appear in the daily religious practices. It is only if one focuses on a certain number(s) that erroneous conclusions are drawn. The prophet repeated, and asked people to repeat certain things a variety of times, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or even 20, all depending on appropriateness, common sense, educational or preaching purposes, or cultural understanding of his time.

The number seven entails a vast quantity in classical Arabic. This could have been the reason the prophet told his followers to repeat certain hajj rituals 7 times. With this notion in mind, the appropriateness of that number to certain hajj rituals becomes clear. Circling 7 times means that every possible thought and deed should have God at its center. Stoning the devil 7 times implies his casting away from every possible thought and deed. That is also why we refer to him in every day speak as well as in religious contexts, as 

"al shaytan alrajim/the pelted devil".

HE is pelted in thoughts and deeds through one's obedience to Allah. Pelting the stone walls during pilgrimage symbolizes this obedience to God, in contrast to disdain for the devil. With every stone that is disdainfully thrown, in contrast, a remembrance of Allah's greatness is uttered. The traditions speak of the devil appearing to Abraham as he was on his way to execute God's vision in regards to Ismail. Jibril instructed him to pelt the devil, who retreated then reappeared 3 times in total and every time Ibrahim listened to God's command to stone him. The pilgrims follow this example of Ibrahim, symbolizing their casting away of the devil by pelting 3 stone walls. Running 7 times between safa and marwa symbolizes trust in God despite the hardships of life, just as Hagar demonstrated in that same place, again, with the number 7 implying intensity of the trials of life, just as Hagar went through a difficult trial there.

As regards this number 7 by the way, what transpires from the HB Bible is that it is YHWH himself who attaches particular importance to that number, which was by the way, his day of rest following the difficult task of creating the world. In Josh6:1-8 prior to helping the Israelites with a miracle, YHWH insists that several deeds should be done 7 times precisely.

It is important noting, the Quran itself, throughout the verses laying out the hajj rituals 2:196,5:95-6,22:26-37etc doesnt link these rituals to Ibrahim, although it gives credit to Ibrahim for having initiated worship at the site and instaured the pilgrimage. This was part of the Quran's denationalization test of the Kaaba, placing it above any national pride, making its primary purpose to be a location where the one God is praised by all of humanity indiscriminately. These rituals should be done in God's name only. Every capable Muslim is bound to perform them at some point 3:97 with an upright state of mind before and during the journey 2:197.

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (4)

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (4)

The history records this legacy of Ibrahim and Ismail, especially with the hanifs, a term used first and foremost as an uncompromising opposition to polytheism 10:105,22:30-1,98:5. It also describes mankind's original predisposition to uprightness 30:30. Hanif stems from H-N-F, which is lexically very interesting. It means the foot that is tilted inwards so that the sole is exposed. In the highly metaphorical language of the Arabs, it became used for the one that exposes his inner self, his secrets, has nothing to hide due to his uprighteness, rectitude. The opposite of hanaf is janaf, indicating the outward inclination of the feet. It is used to imply crookedness of intent in 2:182. As to hanaf, a
 water tap is called hanafiya, from the same root, because of the straight manner that water comes out of it. A person born with a condition that made both feet point to eachother when walking was referred to as rajulun "ahnaf" because that person walks in a straight manner and can only change direction with difficulty. The common denominator to all these subtle meanings, is straightness, rectitude.
Because to the pre-islamic Arabs, their forefather Ibrahim's spiritual way was independant of all belief systems of the time, be it the loathsome distortions of Judaism and Christianity or Idolatry, it was considered as close to man's original upright predisposition as one can be, and thus the word became associated with those seeking to emulate him 3:67,6:161. They were a minority that tried preserving the original monotheism of Ibrahim. They neither wanted to belong to Christianity with its notion of dying god incarnate nor to Judaism and its ethno centered deity.

These hanif remnants and keepers of the way of Ibrahim, like their forefather, severed their ties with their community and kinsfolk whom they found walking an erroneous path 

43:26-9"And when Ibrahim said to his father and his people: Surely I am clear of what you worship, Save Him Who created me, for surely He will guide me. And he made it a word to continue in his posterity that they may return.".

These small groups of Meccan men and women detested the use of the Kaaba by the polytheists and kept their practice of religion monotheistic. They affirmed that the Abrahamic legacy had been distorted beyond recognition, whether by the Jews, Christians or Ishmaelites brethren, and these personalities were seeking a return to the pristine religion. The traditions mention their names and how their ways of life would lead them to harassement by the Idol worshipers. They include names like Uthman ibn Huwayrith, Ubaydullah bin Jahsh, Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nawfal Al-Nabighah al Ja'adi etc, as well as Muhammad the orphan whom they all knew and hence couldnt accuse him of change of heart

10:16"I have lived a lifetime among you before it".

Muhammad essentially raised himself, never worshiped the idols, never entertained the idea of doing so in the past 109:1-6. He would retreat away from the pagan environement to contemplate as some of his forefathers did, such as his great grand father the hanif, Hashim ibn Abd al-Manaf. He would remain in such wandering perplexity until his prophetic call came unexpectedly. His firm stance against associating with God and polluting the Kaaba reached its peak then, despite his opponents' demands to compromise his message with their beliefs 68:9.

The Hanif rejected the consumption of meat slaughtered in the name of idols as well as other pagan rituals and abominable practices like the burrying of infants alive, which they openly decried. They performed circumcision and rites that were similar to the Israelite rites of the altar sacrifice even before the coming of Muhammad. Josephus in his Antiquites speaks of the Arabs as Ishmael's descendants, way before the time of Muhammad, almost 500 years, saying they circumcized their children at 13 years old, as was still done in the times of the prophet, to commemorate their forefather Ishmael. 

Uri Rubin (Professor, Tel Aviv University) "The pre-Islamic Abrahamic sacredness of the Kaaba is clearly demonstrated in the belief that Abraham's footprints could be seen on one of its sacred stones. This belief is reflected in the very early verses attributed to Abii Talib in which numerous pre-Islamic places of worship are described in a manner which is totally independent of the phraseology of later Islamic sources. The verse referring to Abraham's' footprints reads "wa-mawtii Ibrahima fi l-sakhri ratbatun 'ala qadamayhi hafiyan ghayra na'ili/By Abraham's footprint in the rock still fresh / with both feet bare, without sandals". Later on, Muslim tradition applied to the stone bearing Abraham's footprints the Quranic epithet "Maqam lbrahim". Even the view that the haram, i.e., the sacred territory of Mecca, was founded by Abraham may be regarded as pre-Islamic in origin. Muhammad b. Habib (d. 245H/859), has recorded in his Munammaq a remarkable report saying that Quraysh once asked Thaqif to become their partners in the Meccan haram, in return for equal partnership of Quraysh in the territory of Wajj which was owned by Thaqif. Thaqif refused saying: "How can you be partners in a land in which our father settled, and dug it out of the rocks with his bare hands, without iron tools. And you have not founded the haram by yourselves. It was Abraham who founded it". In other words, Thaqif maintained that Quraysh had no right to make transactions with the Meccan land due to its Abrahamic sacredness. Later on, Muhammad established the haram of Medina on the model of the Abrahamic haram of Mecca".

There is a reason why virtually every non-Muslim writer that witnessed the rise of Islam, from polemicists the likes of John of Damascus that had every reason to refute Muslim claims, to Sebeos in Armenia and beyond, regardless of precise dating and authorship of the works attributed to various Judeo-Christian elite accross the region, almost all of them refer to the Abrahamic ancestry of Muhammad and the Muslims.

In a short Nestorian chronicle, the Khuzistan Chronicle written around 660, in the section concluding the death of Heraclius, the writer says

"the victory of the sons of Ishmael who overpowered and subdued these two strong empires, came from God."

The chronicler further observes

"Regarding the dome of Abraham, we have been unable to discover what it is except that, because the blessed Abraham grew rich in property and wanted to get away from the envy of the Canaanites, he chose to live in the distant and spacious parts of the desert. Since he lived in tents, he built that place for the worship of God and for the offering of sacrifices. It took its present name from what it had been, since the memory of the place was preserved with the generations of their race. Indeed, it was no new thing for the Arabs to worship there, but goes back to antiquity, to their early days, in that they show honour to the father of the head of their people. Hasor, which scripture calls "head of the kingdoms" (Joshua 11:10), belongs to the Arabs, while Medina is named after Midian, Abraham's fourth son by Qetura; it is also called Yathrib. And Dumat Jandal [belongs to them], and the territory of the Hagaraye, which is rich in water, palm trees and fortified buildings. The territory of Hatta, situated by the sea in the vicinity of the islands of Qatar, is rich in the same way; it is also thickly vegetated with various kinds of plants. The region of Mazon also resembles it; it too lies by the sea and comprises an area of more than 100 parasangs. So [belongs to them] too the territory of Yamama, in the middle of the desert, and the territory of Tawf, and the city of Hira, which was the seat of king Mundar, surnamed the "warrior;" he was sixth in the line of the lshmaelite kings".

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (3)

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (3)

One interesting historical narration is that, per Ibn Kathir, the horns of the ram sacrificed in substitution of Ismail were religiously preserved in the Kaaba and handed down from generation to generation, upto the times of Abdullah bin Zubair. When Hajjaj besieged the Kaaba in 692, and destroyed part of it, the horns too were destroyed (as a quick side note, inscriptions dated to 78AH attesting to the reconstruction and remodelling of the Kaaba have recently been found, thus providing an independent documentary verification of the event). Ibn Abbas and Sheibi both had seen the horns. Another narration attests to the pre-islamic Abrahamic connection and how falsehood was mingled with truth 

"When Allah's Messenger came to Mecca, he refused to enter the Ka`ba with idols in it. He ordered (idols to be taken out). So they were taken out. The people took out the pictures of Abraham and Ishmael holding Azlams in their hands. Allah's Messenger said, "May Allah curse these people. By Allah, both Abraham and Ishmael never did the game of chance with Azlams." Then he entered the Ka`ba and said Takbir at its corners but did not offer the prayer in it".

Abdul Muttalib, during the siege of Mecca by the Yemenite ruler Abraha, recited a prayer which clearly acknowledges that they recognized the House as belonging to Allah alone:

"O Lord/Allah! A man protects his family, so protect Your people. Let not their cross and their strength overpower You. If You want to leave our Qibla at their mercy, then do as You please".

Another major relic from the time of Ibrahim is none other than the 'black stone'. It is fixed on one of the pillars/arkan of the edifice. It is one of the original stones Abraham used to build the Kaaba, as he built other altars and places of worship to God throughout his journeys Gen12:6-8,13:4,18. That Abrahamic practice we are told in the HB, was left to his posterity that similarly built places of worship symbolized by stones erected as pillars Gen28:10,18-22.

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (2)

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (2)

When in the Torah, God promises -several times over- to turn Ishmael's progeny into a great nation, and a "great nation” in biblical terminology can never be a nation of idolaters, who among the descendants of Ishmael succeeded in fulfilling this promise? Where is the great nation promised to Ishmael, whose numbers would be as vast as the stars in the sky? Where is that great Ishmaelite nation that rose and then vanished without anyone ever knowing about it? The obvious isnt missed by many rabbis in their comentaries of the verse, as they see the rise of Islam as the fulfillement of the promise.

And that is one of the most outstanding manner in which one can verify the truthfulness of God's words, despite their successive destructions and scattering that almost took the Bani Israel to the brink of racial extinction, they have nevertheless remained and regenerated because they are linked with God by a covenant and so is the case of Bani Ismail, despite having almost entirely, besides the scattered hanif remnants, plunged into a state of spiritual ignorance (jahiliya) for thousands of years, nevertheless maintained their ancestral identity.

 In Gen15 Abraham's progeny is promised to dwell between the Nile and the Euphrates and in Gen37:25-28 we read of

"Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmailites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt". 

The progeny of Ismail settled in the area from Havilah (beginning from around Yemen all the way to the north of the Arabian Peninsula, among the possible extent of the territory according to Biblical scholars) unto Shur (near gulf of Aqabah at the north east end of Red sea) Gen21:21,25:9-18, which essentially is the Hijaz where the descendants of Ismail have always identified themselves in, whether in ancient history or today. In the early 7th century Syriac Chronica Minora, the author remarks that there is nothing unusual for the Arabs to worship at the  "qubta" of Abraham since they have been doing so since ancient times in hommage to their forefather. In the words of the Jewish historian Josephus who wrote in the 1st century, after speaking of the Arabians of his time as practicing male circumcision at 13 in commemoration of their forefathers Ismail and Ibrahim

"When the lad was grown up, he married a wife, by birth an Egyptian: from whence the mother was her self derived originally. Of this wife were born to Ishmael twelve sons: Nabaioth, Kedar, Abdeel, Mabsam, Idumas, Masmaos, Massaos, Chodad, Theman, Jetur, Naphesus, Kadmas. These inhabited all the country from Euphrates, to the Red Sea: and called it Nabatene. They are an Arabian nation, and name their tribes from these: both because of their own virtue, and because of the dignity of Abraham their father".

This Nabatene country extends on a much larger area than the later northern Nabateans. It goes from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. Further, it is known that the later northern Nabateans with Petra as their capital originated from further south within the Arabian Peninsula. This makes the Nabateans in fact Arabs and it is only an arbitrary designation that created this distinction. Nabateans and the Hijazi tribes shared the same deities and the script used by early Quran scribes closely resembled that of the Nabateans.

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (1)

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran Revisited: The Story of Ishmael" (1)

When in the Torah, Ibrahim prayed that Ismail might live "before the Lord", he was asking God that his firstborn and only son at the time be dedicated to His service at the altar. Anyone familiar with that terminology knows that throughout the Hebrew Bible, it applies to dedication to God, besides its use for the offerings made to God. Accordingly, Ibrahim settled his only son in a place where he would live "before the Lord" and worship Him 2:127, right besides the altar of sacrifice. Ibrahim prayed God that this Holy Shrine remain a purified sanctuary for the righteous pilgrims 2:125, that this unforgiving location be turned to a hospitable place for those seeking it 2:126,14:37,28:57 that he and his descendants remain free from worshiping idols

14:36"surely they have led many men astray; then whoever follows me, he is surely of me, and whoever disobeys me, Thou surely art Forgiving, Merciful".

Ibrahim asked that his descendants keep up prayer and be protected until the Day of Resurrection 14:40.

Judeo-Christian apologists often wonder as to the distances involved in Abraham having to travel between Beersheba where he had settled his family through Sarah and Mecca, where the Muslim tradition states he had settled his family through Hagar. From the beginning as he set himself out of his native area, Ibrahim travelled distances surpassing the Beerseba-Mecca distance, which is an approximate 10 days journey.. It was nothing out of the ordinary for frequent travelers, nomads, or traders to undergo 20 or 30 days journeys even in harsh terrains, so why would it be the case for an obedient servant of God whom Judeo-Christian tradition itself admits he was so submissive in his obedience that he set out to sacrifice his son to God. Neither did he hesitate to leave everything behind his native Ur in Chaldea, for a far away and unspecified location, in obedience to God Gen11.
His travels, they happened by foot, donkey's back, and he made many stops along the way, pitching his tent, building worship sites and altars, a practice that continued among his descendants. He used a donkey as he went to prepare the sacrifice of "the only son" Gen22. It is also to be noted that to the ancient, town-dwelling Hebrews the term "wilderness of Beersheba" comprised all the desert regions south of Palestine, including the Hijaz.