Isaac is the son who inherits prophethood from his father and the Divine covenant. Ishmael is ethnically impure, born from an Egyptian slave-girl. He is cast into the wilderness and depicted as a "wild man" (Genesis 16.12). The descendants of Isaac become the chosen people while the descendants of Ishmael become a lost race steeped in ignorance and paganism. But from the seed of Ishmael arises the final vindication of the rejected and the despised. From the unchosen people arises the Chosen One and the Seal of the Prophets. صلى الله عليه و سلم.
"Not one but two great nations were to look back at Abraham as their father"
- Dr. Martin Lings.
Notes
* Ishmael had grown to manhood by the time Abraham came to visit him in the wilderness. Together they set about building the House of God, the Ka’aba. When Abraham completed his task, never to return and never to see his son again, he blessed the valley of Mecca and prayed: ‘Our Lord, I have settled a part of my progeny in a barren valley close to Thy sacred House….’ (Quran 14:37); and he prayed also: ‘Our Lord, raise up in their midst a Messenger from amongst them, who shall recite to them Thy revelations and teach them the Scripture and Wisdom, and purify them’ (Quran 2:129)
The Bible has no record of this account since it is only concerned with the story of Isaac and his descendants.
Writer Katheryn Pfisterer Darr questions whether the Biblical understanding of Ishmael and his mother (Hagar) may have been misjudged. God does not leave them to perish in the desert without leaving a trace. Darr cites recent Biblical scholarship that speaks of Hagar as an important person (the only woman in the Bible - along with the Virgin Mary - to be visited by an angel). Upon the request of Hagar, God not only saves Ishmael’s life in the desert, but promises that the descendants of Ishmael will - one day - make a great nation. In the words of Genesis:
“And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of Heaven and said to her: what aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise and lift up the lad and hold him in thy hand, for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.” - (21:17-19)
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