THE SEED OF ISHMAEL - ISHMAELITES

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THE SEED OF ISHMAEL - ISHMAELITES

Genesis 15:18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

Genesis 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

Genesis 21:1 And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. 6 And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, [so that] all that hear will laugh with me. 7 And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born [him] a son in his old age. 8 And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the [same] day that Isaac was weaned. 9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. 10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, [even] with Isaac. 11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. 12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. 13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he [is] thy seed. 14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave [it] unto Hagar, putting [it] on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

More Old Testament scripture on Yahweh's everlasting covenants with the seed of Isaac is explored at IsraelinBibleProphecy.com. As confirmed in the New Testament:

Romans 9:7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

Galatians 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he [who was] of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman [was] by promise. 24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

It would seem the seed of Ishmael today are just as prophesied:

Genesis 16:11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, [Hagar] Behold, thou [art] with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. 12 And he will be a wild man; his hand [will be] against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

Can it be reasonably argued, as we review the "JIHAD AND ISLAMIC TERRORISM" page, and those who proclaim themselves to be of the seed of Ishmael?

Surah 9.29 Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. 30 The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!

A repeat, but this time with the emphasis on geography:

Genesis 21:14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave [it] unto Hagar, putting [it] on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

Please note the approximate location of the wilderness of Beersheba on the map.

Map (prior to modification) attributed to the Wikimedia uploader at this link.

Then while Hagar was wandering in the wilderness of Beersheba:

Genesis 21:19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. 20 And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. 21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

Does it make sense that the "well of water" Hagar "saw" was in Beersheba, near Abraham's home in Hebron and not far from the wilderness of Paran, where she and Ishmael eventually settled? Or is it more reasonable to believe that Hagar and her (infant according to Islam) son Ishmael wandered across 1,200 kilometers of harsh, barren, uninhabited, uncharted, unknown Arabian desert wasteland (to where Mecca was eventually settled in the 4th century AD), before Hagar ever spotted that well? What did she drink on her journey?

Islamic "Tradition" (URL)

Here's a typical account, of Islam's unhistorical "tradition", from the website "The Key to Understanding Islam":

"Abraham took Hagar and her son, Ishmael to a place near the Kabah; he left them under a tree at the site of Zamzam. No one lived in Makkah back then, yet Abraham made them sit there, leaving them with some dates, and a small water-skin. Thereafter he set out towards home."

Does that site provide a "key to understanding" what Islam is really all about?

Consider again the map above, as the site suggests that Abraham was supposed to have abandoned his wife Sarah and son Isaac (whom God made his everlasting covenant with) in Hebron.

Then he wandered with Sarah's bondservant Hagar and her (infant according to Islam) son Ishmael, across 1200 kilometers of harsh barren, unexplored, untraveled desert, a thousand years before the actual historical record informs us a caravan route was established along the Red Sea.

Then Abraham was supposed to have abandoned Hagar and Ishmael in an uninhabited desert place, with no food except some dates, and no water except that in a small water-skin he gave them - in other words he left them with no chance for survival - and then Abraham set out to wander the 1200 kilometers back to his home in Hebron! Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? So did he leave them the water that was left in the "small water-skin", that they didn't drink during their 1200 kilometer journey? What did he drink on his way home? What did any of them eat?

As for the well that the scriptures inform us Hagar spotted, which would have been in the wilderness of Beersheba, that Islamic website further describes:

"Ibn Ab'bas said: The Prophet said, 'This is the origin of the tradition of Sa'ee (walking and running) between the hillocks of as-Safa and al-Marwa. When she reached al-Marwa (for the last time) she heard a voice and she calmed herself and listened attentively. She heard the voice again and said, 'O, (whoever you may be)! You have made me hear your voice; have you got something to help me?' And behold! She saw an angel at the place of Zamzam tapping the earth with its wing till water gushed from that place. Hagar quickly contained the water by making a barrier around it. She filled her water-skin. The Prophet added, 'May Allah bestow mercy on Ishmael's mother! Had she let the Zamzam flow without trying to control it or had she not scooped from that water to fill her water skin, Zamzam would have been a stream flowing on the surface of the earth.' (Bukhari)"

Come on, really??!! So Hagar didn't see a well as scripture informs us, but instead another 7th century Islamic fiction is advanced, to further embellish a geographically impossible history of Mecca, as a substitute for the perfectly reasonable historical account that we are given through scripture - that is entirely consistent with physical geography as mapped out above. It should come as no surprise then that the actual historical record informs us, that what became the Islamic tradition of the Sa'ee - or running back and forth between al-Safa and al-Marwah seven times - was actually a ritual of Arabian jinn-devil worship that was practiced before Muhammad was ever born, when two idols occupied the two hills, that represented the most venerated priest and priestess of the Arabian jinn-devil worship religion.

Yet even as scripture explains that Yahweh's covenants are with the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that the seed of Hagar are in bondage to the flesh and specifically not included in the covenants Yahweh made with His people, many Muslims proudly proclaim to be of the seed of Sarah's bondservant Hagar's son Ishmael who was cut out of those covenants!

However Yahweh did console Abraham by saying he would make a large nation of the seed of Ishmael, even though Ishmael was not to be an heir and was specifically cut out of the covenants Yahweh made with the seed of Isaac:

Genesis 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

Genesis 21:13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he [is] thy seed.

Genesis 25:13 And these [are] the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, 14 And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, 15 Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah: 16 These [are] the sons of Ishmael, and these [are] their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations. 17 And these [are] the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people. 18 And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that [is] before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: [and] he died in the presence of all his brethren.

The tribes of Ishmael inhabited a region "... from Havilah unto Shur, that [is] before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria..."

Map (prior to modification) attributed to the Wikimedia uploader at this link.

The territory is described "....as thou goest toward Assyria..." that is, between those two points, but "toward Assyria".

This is a direction specifically away from where Mecca was eventually settled in the 4th century AD. Thus the Ishmaelites most likely inhabited the lower portion of the "fertile crescent":

Map (prior to modification) attributed to the Wikimedia uploader at this link.

Inhabiting an area north of the harsh Syrian and Arabian deserts.

Photo attributed to the Wikimedia uploader at this link

Particularly since the Ishmaelite tribes of Kedar and Nebaioth were known for their flocks of sheep.

Isaiah 60:7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.

Abraham's journey was also within the Fertile Crescent where civilization, as well as essentials for survival were available, like water!

So did Ishmael and Abraham ride back and forth from THE Holy Land to Mecca on flying donkey-mules, as Ibn Ishak embellished, in an effort to explain away the geographical impossibility of Islamic so-called tradition?

From Wikipedia: "The Buraq was also said to transport Abraham (Ibrahim) when he visited his wife Hagar and son Ishmael. According to tradition, Abraham lived with one wife in Syria, but the Buraq would transport him in the morning to Mecca to see his family there, and take him back in the evening to his Syrian wife.[5]"

Did he leave his brethren to wander across 1,000 kilometers of unexplored, uncharted, uninhabited Arabian desert? How could Ishmael have been associated with Mecca, a couple thousand years before it was settled, and 1,200 kilometers away from where his brethren lived in THE Holy Land of the prophets and patriarchs?

Genesis 16:11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, [Hagar] Behold, thou [art] with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. 12 And he will be a wild man; his hand [will be] against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

How did Ishmael travel across 1200 kilometers of harsh barren Arabian desert, to Hebron, in time to join Isaac in buring their father Abraham?

Genesis 25:9 And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre;

The historical record informs us there was no overland connection between northern and southern Arabia prior to about the 7th century B.C., let alone that Medina wasn't even established until the 6th century B.C., over a thousand years after Abraham roamed the earth.

The Tribe of Nabajoth

A couple thousand years after Ishmael roamed the earth and 1200 kilometers away from the Holy Land of the prophets and patriarchs, a Meccan named Ibn Ishak, the earliest reporter of Muhammad's life, declared that Muhammad came from the Ishmaelite tribe of Nabajoth. While many of Muhammad's Middle Eastern followers may have traces of the seed of the lost tribes of Ishmael in their ancestry, since Muhammad's tribe the Quraish migrated to Mecca from Yemen, Muhammad himself was more likely Hamitic or Cushitic, since the historical and linguistic evidence suggests that Southern Arabia was settled by migrants from Ethiopia that traveled across the strait to Yemen.

Let alone that Muhammad himself said that anyone who genealogized him past his relative al-Nather bin Kinaneh lied:

Amru bin al-As wrote: 'Mohammed genealogized himself regarding his ancestors until he reached al-Nather bin Kinaneh, then he said 'anyone who claimed otherwise or added further ancestors, has lied.'"

For more on Muhammad's genealogy please visit the dedicated page "MUHAMMAD'S ANCESTORS".

From soyouwanna: "Like all other Semitic languages, Arabic is the descendant of a so-called "Proto-Semitic" language, which is currently believed to have developed in East Africa and which never evolved in a written form. Arabic and Amharic, the two most recent Semitic languages, both arose in the mid-300s."

Tribe of Kedar (URL)

Muhammad's followers will sometimes lay claim to Kedar, but from investigation of the Kedarites it may not be anything to boast. From The Twelve Lost Tribes of Ishmael:

"Nehemiah's opponent, 'Geshem the Arab' has been identified as one of the kings of Kedar from the mid fifth century BC. (based on a number of North Arabian inscriptions)

Regarding their religion, Assyrian inscriptions tell us that Sennacherib captured of several Arabian deities in the Kedarite city of Dumah. The chief deity was Atarsamain, or the morning star of heaven. (the counterpart of Mesopotamian Ishtar). The tribal league led by the Kedarites was known as "the confederation of Atarsamain, and their cult was led by a series of queen-priestesses in Dumah. The rest of their pantheon of gods consisted of Dai, Nuhai (Nuhay), Ruldai (Ruda), Abirillu, and Atarquruma. Rock graffiti in the Thamudic language reveals that Ruda was known as the evening star, and Nuhay was the sun-god, and they were worshiped in addition to Atarsamain 'the morning star.' Herodotus, in the fifth century BC identified two deities worshiped among the Arabs, as a fertility god called Orotalt (perhaps Ruda, as identified by Macdonald in North Arabian in the First Millennium BC, 1360), and a sky goddess know as Allat. (Herodotus III,3.) Later Allat became referred to in the masculine form as Allah)"

Once again exposing Islamic so-called "tradition", that masquerades as thousands of years of pre-Muhammad history, the entirety of which was put to the pen in the 7th through 10th centuries AD, without reference to any actual historical record from before the 6th century AD. Yet Muhammad's followers believe it as though it were actual history - even including notions like Muhammad's unwitnessed night journey - even though a bunch of 7th - 10th century SW Arabian desert dwellers could not have had the first clue, as to what went on thousands of years before them, and over a thousand kilometers away, in the Holy Land of the prophets and patriarchs.

It isn't too late. You can begin a relationship with the one true God of love YHWH, as He expressed Himself through His Messiah like these former followers of Muhammad, who simply asked God for the truth. All you have to do is ask Yeshua (which means Yahweh saves), Jesus Christ, to come into your heart and into your life today!

Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Why not watch a few videos on the Muslim Journey to Hope website, of folks that have come to know the love of the one true God Yahweh, through a relationship with Yeshua, the Christ? If you have some apprehension of doing so, might that indicate a fear of truth?

What could make the bondage to the flesh of the seed of Ishmael more apparent than prostrating and praying toward the Quraish pagan's black stone idol in Mecca five times a day, and engaging in the adopted, adapted and thinly veneered Quraysh pagan moon, sun, star and jinn devil worship rituals of the Hajj and Umrah?

Indeed the pagans and Muslims performed these rituals side by side until the year before Muhammad's last Hajj when the pagans were kicked out of their own rituals.

Sahih Bukhari Volume 2, Book 26, Number 689: Narrated Abu Huraira: In the year prior to the last Hajj of the Prophet when Allahs Apostle made Abu Bakr the leader of the pilgrims, the latter (Abu Bakr) sent me in the company of a group of people to make a public announcement: 'No pagan is allowed to perform Hajj after this year, and no naked person is allowed to perform Tawaf of the Kaba.'

Muslims pray repetitive prayers five times a day, practice ablution, wear long white robes, and fast during the month of Ramadan, as the record suggests the Sabians did. Even more amazingly, Muhammad's followers are taught that the reason they pray five times a day, because Muhammad claimed he learned the ordinance on a trip up to "paradise" one night while riding on a flying donkey-mule. Yet the scriptures instruct how to pray:

1Th 5:17 Pray without ceasing.

Which describes relationship, not ritual. The scriptures also warn about specifically how not to pray:

Matthew 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [do]: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Perhaps not coincidentally to Muhammad's flying donkey-mule, the Zoroastrians believed their fabled prophet rode on a mythical flying steed, or "baraq", to the dwelling place of his immortal ancestors as well. Since Zoroastrianism was widespread by the 7th century, was it really a great leap for an illiterate SW Arabian desert dweller, to make the claim that he himself did the same? Did it even require imagination?

Yet Muslims believe Muhammad's tall tale purely because Muhammad claimed it, without a single witness to his flying steed, let alone his journey. This while history tells us that the "mosque" or temple that he claimed he prayed in, in Jerusalem, had been torn down over 500 years before Muhammad's claim of having prayed in it. Even most of the hundred or so illiterate SW Arabian desert dwellers Muhammad was able to attract in the first 13 years of Islam, left his "religion", after he told this tall tale. So what's with his followers in this 21st century information age?