The Origin of Palestine and the Palestinians

James F. Gauss, Ph.D.

October 15, 2023

Excerpted from the author’s book, Understanding Islam in the Light of Christianity, Leaders and Teachers Edition ©2019, 2020, 2023.

NEW RELEASE! Israel and the Middle East: Will There Ever Be Peace? See the end of this post for details.

Prior to 1920, an Arab people known as the “Palestinians” living in “Palestine” did not exist (Pipes). No one from the Arab community in the Middle East referred to the region as Palestine. To do so would imply a Jewish and Christian possession. The concept of Arab nation-states did not occur until Iraq gained its independence in 1936 after the British Mandate of 1920 ended. In 1932, Saudi Arabia became an independent country, followed by Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria in 1946. Smaller Arab nation-states eventually followed, with Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, and United Arab Emirates in 1961, 1967, 1970 and 1971, respectively.

Origin  of  the  Name  “Palestine.” As indicated in the above enclosure, prior to 1948, when the term “Palestinians” was used, it referred to the Jews in the Holy Land, not the Arabs. “Arabs never referred to themselves as ‘Palestinians’” noted Joseph Farah, founder and editor-in- chief of WorldNetDaily (Farah). It was not until a few years after Israel’s “Six Day War” with the Arabs in 1967 that the Egyptian, Yasser Arafat, who founded the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1964, in an attempt to legitimize the PLO movement, decided to identify the Arabs living in the Holy Land as “Palestinians”.

The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism. Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity exists only for tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.

Zuheir Mohsen, Executive Committee Member of the PLO March 31, 1977

Source: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zuheir_Mohsen

“Palestine has never existed—before or since—as an autonomous entity,” Farah, an Arab- American, proclaimed.   “It was ruled alternately by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by the Ottoman Empire and, briefly, by the British after World War I. The British agreed to restore at least part of the land to the Jewish people as their homeland.

“There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc.

“Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of 1 percent of the landmass.”

Though the definite origins of the word Palestine have been debated for years and are still not known for sure, the name is believed to be derived from the Egyptian and Hebrew word peleshet. Roughly translated to mean rolling or migratory, the term was used to describe the inhabitants of the land to the northeast of Egypt—the Philistines. The Philistines were an Aegean people—more closely related to the Greeks and with no connection ethnically, linguisticly [sic] or historically with Arabia—who conquered in the 12th Century BCE the Mediterranean coastal plain that is now Israel and Gaza.

A derivative of the name Palestine first appears in Greek literature in the 5th Century BCE when the historian Herodotus called the area Palaistin? (Greek – Παλαιστ?νη). In the 2nd century CE, the Romans crushed the revolt of Shimon Bar Kokhba (132 CE), during which Jerusalem and Judea were regained and the area of Judea was renamed Palaestina in an attempt to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel.

Under the Ottoman Empire (1517-1917), the term Palestine was used as a general term to describe the land south of Syria; it was not an official designation. In fact, many Ottomans and Arabs who lived in Palestine during this time period referred to the area as Southern Syria and not as Palestine.

After World War I, the name Palestine was applied to the territory that was placed under British Mandate; this area included not only present-day Israel but also present-day Jordan.

Leading up to Israel’s independence in 1948, it was common for the international press to label Jews, not Arabs, living in the mandate as Palestinians. It was not until years after Israeli independence that the Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were called Palestinians.

The word Palestine or Filastin does not appear in the Koran. The term peleshet appears in the Jewish Tanakh [Hebrew Bible or OT] no fewer than 250 times (Israel: Origins of the Name “Palestine.” Jewish Virtual Library).

Before the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) when the Ottoman rule ended (1517-1917), Palestine’s political borders as we know them today did not exist, and there was nothing called a Palestinian people with a political identity as we know today, since Palestine’s lines of administrative division stretched from east to west and included Jordan and southern Lebanon, and like all peoples of the region [the Palestinians] were liberated from the Turkish rule and immediately moved to colonial rule, without forming a Palestinian people’s political identity.

Abd Al-Ghani Salameh, Arab historian Official PA TV, Nov. 1, 2017

The Balfour Declaration of 1917. On November 2, 1917, a full year before the end of World War I, the British government voted to re-establish a Jewish homeland in what was then referred to as “Palestine” by the British. Under a League of Nations mandate the British were to administer the re-settlement of Jewish people in the region that became known as Palestine or the national homeland for the Jews (Balfour Declaration Encyclopaedia Britannica). By 1939 the British wanted to limit Jewish migration to the region to 75,000 per year and stop migration of the Jews altogether by 1944 unless Arabs in the region consented to further immigration of Jews. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Jewish migration became a moot point and the State of Israel was established in 1948.

Balfour Declaration

(Balfour Declaration: Text of the Declaration, Jewish Virtual Library)

Foreign Office November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you. on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours,

Arthur James Balfour

In 1922, the newly established League of Nations, set the borders for Israel of the Jordan River on the east, the Mediterranean Sea on the west, Lebanon on the north and Egypt on the south (see the map to follow). Although the original Mandate included a significant land mass east of the Jordan River, the British were given the administrative option of adjusting the territory. In an effort to appease Arabs in the region, the British decided to carve off the land east of the Jordan River—77% of the total mandated—and gave it to the Arabs in the region, dubbing it Trans- Jordan (Israel’s Legal Borders in International Law). This left the Jewish people with only 23% of the land originally mandated for their homeland.

The 1922 League of Nations sub-division. Image courtesy Eli E. Hertz.

The Two State Solution.  In 1946, the League of Nations was absorbed into the newly organized United Nations. Article 80 of the UN Charter specifically recognizes the original mandate for Palestine:

As a direct result of Article 80, the UN cannot transfer these rights over any part of Palestine, vested as they are in the Jewish People, to any non-Jewish entity, such as the ‘Palestinian Authority’ (Israel’s Legal Borders in International Law).

However, not content with stripping away three-fourths of Israel’s new homeland, the concept of a “Two State” solution, dividing up Israel’s homeland to accommodate Arabs (now referred to as Palestinians) was devised in the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan. This chopped up Israel to the point it was not only unrecognizable, but administratively unattainable and indefensible (see the following  map).

The 1947 UN Partition Plan.

Courtesy of: http://www.factsaboutisrael.uk/israels-legal-borders/

Interestingly, it was not the Jews in Israel that rejected the “Two State Solution”, but the Arabs resisted it. The Arabs in the region rioted in protest. On May 14, 1948, Israel proclaimed itself to be an independent State of Israel and the British withdrew from Palestine.

. . . the only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.

That is in Israel’s interest, Palestine’s interest, America’s interest, and the world’s interest. That is why I intend to personally pursue this outcome with all the patience that the task requires.

President Barack Hussein Obama Cairo, Egypt speech June 4, 2009

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html

The Oslo Accord (The Oslo Accords and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process). On September 13, 1993, there was reason for hope and optimism as Israel’s Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Negotiator, Mahmoud Abbas met at the President Clinton White House to sign the “Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements” otherwise known as the “Oslo Accord”. (Abbas would later be elected the Chairman of the PLO in 2004 and the President of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian National Authority in 2005).

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is undoubtedly one of the most infamous terrorist organizations around the world. Created in 1964 during the Arab League Summit in Cairo, the PLO’s originally-stated goal was the “liberation of Palestine” through armed struggle while seeking to destroy the existence of Zionism in the Middle East. . . .

By 1967, the PLO had decided that their primary goal was the destruction of the State of Israel. Over the next ten years, this goal was the primary focus of the massive terrorist campaign by which their reputation was formed. This terror war caused hundreds of casualties, on both sides, with very little to show in return for the Palestinian cause.

Source: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-plo

Both Israel and the PLO, as representative of the Palestinians, “agreed that a Palestinian Authority (PA) would be established and assume governing responsibilities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over a five-year period.” Although the United States facilitated this meeting, it had little to do with establishing the Accord or its ratification. By the time Bill Clinton left office in January 2001, the Accord had collapsed and a new series of violent Israeli-Palestinian conflicts were well entrenched.

After the signing of the Oslo Accord, Israel negotiated a peace treaty with Jordan in October 1994. Once again, although the U.S. did not play a role in the negotiations, President Clinton hosted the signing event between King Hussein of Jordan and Prime Minister Rabin. A few months earlier, in May 1994, Israel and Egypt had negotiated Israel’s withdrawal from most of Gaza and Jericho in what was known as the “Cairo Agreement”. In September 1995, Israel also signed the “Taba Agreement” (“Oslo II”) with the PA, dividing the West Bank into Palestinian and Israeli sectors. This Agreement also “spelled out provisions for elections, civil/legal affairs, and other bilateral Israeli-Palestinian cooperation on various issues.”

Two months later Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by a disgruntled Israeli who disagreed with the Oslo Accords and the ongoing renewal of Hamas terror attacks. With Rabin’s death, the Oslo Accord eventually collapsed, and Israeli-Palestinian conflict reignited with a vengeance. With the election of Abbas in 2005 and his ascension to Chairman of Fatah (largest political faction of the PLO) in 2009, the PA took on a more rigid and violent approach to Israeli- Palestinian relations.

The more I read the Bible, the more clearly I saw this single truth: Loving and forgiving one’s enemies is the only real way to stop the bloodshed.

Mosab Hassan Yousef, “The Green Prince” Author of Son of Hamas, p. 148

With Abbas in control of the PA and his continuous incendiary rhetoric, Hamas rockets and terror attacks have once again become the daily reality for both Israelis and Palestinians.

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Dr. Gauss is the author of Understanding Islam in the Light of Christianity (Abridged Edition); Understanding Islam in the Light of Christianity (Student Edition); Understanding Islam in the Light of Christianity (Leaders and Teachers Edition) and other books on Islam.

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Allah Says that Palestine is for the Jews

James F. Gauss, Ph.D.

October 13, 2023

NEW RELEASE! Israel and the Middle East: Will There Ever Be Peace? See the end of this post for details.

Excerpted from the author’s book, Understanding Islam in the Light of Christianity, Leaders and Teachers Edition ©2019, 2020, 2023.

What does the Bible and the Qur’an say about Palestine and  Palestinians?  In a word: Nothing! The two words do not appear anywhere in the Bible or the Qur’an. The terminology is a fairly recent invention of militant Arabs living in the Jewish Promised Land in an effort to corrupt and hijack both biblical and traditional history.

Throughout Islamic history, Arabic Muslims, following the teaching and example of Muhammad, have relentlessly persecuted the Jews—not only in what Muslims consider Palestine, but throughout the world. The claim of Arabic Muslims is that Palestine—that is, Canaan or the “Holy Land”—was always the inherited land of Muslims and that the Jews have no right to it and are to be driven out. Yet, the Qur’an—and this will be a shocker to both Muslims and infidels—states that Allah promised Moses and the Jews the land of Canaan or the Holy Land.

And when Musa [Moses] said to his people: O my people! Remember the favor of Allah upon you when He raised prophets among you and made you kings and gave you what He had not given to any other among the nations.

O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah has prescribed for you and turn not on your backs [i.e., depart] for then you will turn back losers (surah 5:20-21, author’s emphasis).

Four things are noteworthy in the preceding surah:

First, it is revealed that God (not Allah) did, indeed, promise the Jews that they would occupy the Holy Land or Canaan.

Second, there were no kings ruling over the Jews during Moses’ lifetime. Moses died before the Jews entered Canaan and almost 200 years before the prophet Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of the Israelites.

Third, Allah tells his followers that he gave the Holy Land to the Jews and no other nation among them.

Fourth, God (not Allah) commands the Jews to never give up the land of Canaan that he has prescribed for them. It is important to note that Allah never spoke to the Jews, but the Qur’an claims that he did. Despite this revelation of the Jews’ right to Palestine in perpetuity in the Muslim’s own holy book, Muslims are bent on annihilating or forcing the Jews from their rightful homeland as guaranteed to them by God in the Bible and Allah in the Qur’an. Nevertheless, in surah 7:157, Allah commands his followers to follow that which is written in the Torah and the Gospel.

There is, however, another convoluted possibility when considering Muhammad’s mindset and theology. Remember, Muhammad claims that Allah revealed that all the prophets of the Bible were indeed Muslims. Therefore, in surah 5:20 when Allah is talking about Moses and his people, maybe Muhammad believed that Allah was proclaiming the holy land was for Muslims since Musa (Moses) was a “Muslim.”

When it comes to the Jews, Allah is apparently very changeable. “And certainly you have known those [Jews] among you who exceeded [profaned] the limits of the Sabbath, so We said to them: Be (as) apes, despised and hated” (surah 2:65). This derogatory view of Jews by Allah is repeated in surah 7:166. In surah 5:60, Jews are referred to by Allah not only as apes but as swine, as well, thus giving Muslims the perceived right to habitually dehumanize Jews by referring to them as pigs and monkeys to this day.

Say: Shall I inform you of (him who is) worse than this in retribution from Allah? (Worse is he) whom Allah has cursed and brought His wrath upon [the Jews], and whom He made apes and swine, and he who served the Shaitan [evil spirit, demon, Satan]; these are worse in place and more erring from the straight path.

Surah 5:60

Historical and Archeological Evidence that Jerusalem Belongs to the Jews. Muslims claim that Jerusalem belongs to them just like the rest of the Holy Land, Canaan, or Palestine, whatever they choose to call it. So, if Jerusalem belongs to them, what is their proof?

How many times does the Qur’an mention Jerusalem as belonging to the followers of Allah? NONE! How many times does the Qur’an mention Jerusalem at all? NONE! That’s right, absolutely no mention of Jerusalem occurs anywhere in the Qur’an.

Now, if Jerusalem is supposed to be so important to the followers of Allah and it belongs to them, would not Allah have known that and revealed it to Muhammad?

How many times is Jerusalem mentioned in the Bible? It depends on the translation, but let us take a brief look at several Bible versions.

Translation	Old Testament	New Testament
Geneva	669	150
King James	626	141
New American Standard	647	141
New International	655	146
New King James	664	151
New Living	848	179

The historical and Biblical fact is that Jerusalem has been continuously occupied for over 5,000 years—and not by Muslims—but not by Jews, either. However, historical record outside the Bible indicates that the Jews first fully occupied Jerusalem with the establishment of King David’s dynasty around 1,000 B.C. or 1,600 years before the birth of Islam.

Archeological digs over the years have produced numerous ancient biblical sites and thousands of artifacts that support the Old Testament claims of the Bible, as well as the known history of the Jews in the Land of Canaan (Bassett-Brody).

In the past several years, two important archeological finds support the Jewish claim to Jerusalem. On the hills of Hebron, just south of Jerusalem, archeologists led by Professor Avraham Faust of Bar-Ilan University in Israel unearthed stone structures in 2013 that they believe represent the City of David (Rogers).

Radiocarbon dating of the ruins dated the site at about 1,000 B.C., the era of King David. The ruins appear to be built upon the ancient city of Eglon mentioned in Joshua 15:39. According to Joshua 15, the Tribe of Judah’s inheritance included over 100 cities in the Promised Land of Canaan, including Gaza and Jerusalem. Although the Israelites could not completely dislodge the Canaanite tribe of Jebusites from Jerusalem (Joshua 15:63), King David was able to conquer it in 1003 B.C. and co-habit the city for many generations.

According to Professor Faust, “Hundreds of artifacts were unearthed within the debris, including a wide range of pottery vessels, loom weights, many metal objects, botanical remains, as well as many arrowheads, evidence of the battle which accompanied the conquest of the site by the Assyrians.” Although the name of King David was not associated with any of the findings, Faust insists that the debris discovered is consistent with the cultural changes that occurred during the conquest of the area by King David.

Among the discoveries on the excavated site was a large residence dubbed the “Governor’s Residence.” Since it occupies a prominent position in the Judean foothills and is well constructed, it has been postulated that it could be the home of King David. The structure at the Tel ‘Eton archeological site has been carbon dated at 1000 B.C.

Richard Elliot Friedman, in an article for Aish.com, wrote on the uniqueness of the historical Jewish experience in the confines of Israel.

“In the first place,” Friedman wrote, “the land is filled with Hebrew inscriptions, so I begin with that. These are not just an occasional inscription on a piece of pottery or carved in a wall. Nor should we even start with one or two of the most famous archaeological finds. Rather, there are thousands of inscriptions. They come from hundreds of excavated towns and cities. They are in the Hebrew language. They include people’s names that bear forms of the name of their God: YHWH. This means names like:

• Hoshaiah, which means “YHWH Saved”
• Ahijah, which means “YHWH is My Brother”
• Shemariah, which means “YHWH Watched”

“The inscriptions also refer to their kings. They include stamps and seals from official documents. They come from tombs where that land’s people were buried. They name people who are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. They include wording that also appears in the Hebrew Bible. They reflect a widespread community whose dominant language was Hebrew, who didn’t eat pork and who worshipped a God named YHWH” (Friedman).

In stark contrast, despite Islamic proclamations to the contrary, there is no archeological evidence of an Islamic presence in Jerusalem or within the confines of the Old Testament Holy Land or Canaan or present-day Israel before the 7^th century A.D.

Two exceptional artifacts have been discovered in Israel to further support the Jews’ claim to Israel or what the Arabs refer to as Palestine.

The Tel Dan Stele (an inscribed stone) was discovered in northern Israel in 1993. The inscription on the stele describes the victories over the King of Israel and the House of David (Berkowitz).

“The Tel Dan Stele absolutely one hundred percent proves that King David existed,” stated AnaRina Heymann, Director of Jerusalem Watch. “It refutes any claim that King David was merely a story.”

Early in 2018, the Israel Antiquities Authority put on public display a recovered 2,700-year-old papyrus artifact that had been stolen. The inscription clearly states, “From the king’s maidservant, from Naharta, jars of wine, to Jerusalem.” This demonstrates that Jerusalem was under the control of the Jews 1300 years before the establishment of Islam (Jerusalem Jewish?).

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Will There Ever be Peace in the Middle East?

James F. Gauss, Ph.D.

October 12, 2023

Excerpted from the author’s book, Understanding Islam in the Light of Christianity,

Leaders and Teachers Edition ©2019, 2020, 2023.

Author’s Note:  In 2002, shortly after the 9/11 attack on American soil, I wrote a piece titled, “Israel and the Middle East, Will there ever be Peace?”  Over six years later when I started blogging I posted it on my blog on December 31, 2008. Below is a much enhanced and expanded version that appears in the above book and other versions of the same title.  It is much too long for one post, so it is presented in part here

NEW RELEASE! Israel and the Middle East: Will There Ever Be Peace? See the end of this post for details.

In the Book of Genesis, starting with chapter 15, the story of Abraham (nee: Abram) and Sarah (nee: Sarai) unfold and help us to understand the Islamic claim to being an Abrahamic faith. Abraham was, indeed, the father of the Jews and Judaism, but is he the father of Islam as the Muslims and even some Christians and Jews proclaim today?

Abram (Abraham) Seeks an Heir. We can gain some insight into this generations’ old conflict in the Middle East between Muslims and the Jews; between Israel and the Arab nations, by picking up the story in Genesis 15 where Abraham and his wife Sarah were first known as Abram and Sarai. Abram was 86 years old, and Sarai had never bore him any children, yet God had promised Abram that he would have a male descendent who would bring forth descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven (Genesis 15:3-5).

Frustrated and impatient with the lack of God’s immediate fulfillment of His promise, Abram decided (with Sarai’s encouragement) to take matters into his own hands.

He took unto himself Hagar, Sarai’s Egyptian pagan maidservant, and she bore him a son.

And the Angel of the Lord said to her [Hagar]:

“Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael [viz., God shall hear], because the Lord has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren” (Genesis 16:11-12).

The Destiny of Ishmael and His Descendants.  Several things should be noted at this point about Ishmael and his relationship to Abraham and Abraham’s God.

First, Abram chose to disbelieve God’s promised covenant with him and establish his own covenant by the flesh.

Second, his partner in this fleshly covenant was the pagan, Hagar (meaning one who takes flight), the Egyptian.

Third, it was God, not Abram, who chose the name of Ishmael for this son to be born outside of God’s chosen covenant with His people.

Fourth, it was God who said at Ishmael’s conception, that he would “be a wild man;” and that “his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him.” At the same time “he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”

It is important to note that the Hebrew word used for “wild” in the above verse means for one to be like a “wild ass” with no boundaries. The Hebrew word used for “hand” means the “open hand of power.” And who were Ishmael’s brethren? He had a Hebrew father, Abram, and a pagan Arabic mother, Hagar. His brethren at the time of his birth were both Jews and Arabs.

God’s Plan and Covenant.  An estimated 2,500 years before the arrival of Muhammad, the God of the Bible promised the Land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants (c. 1918 B.C.). When Abram was 99 years old, he was still without a true, legitimate heir by Sarai’s womb. God then spoke to Abram and made this covenant with him:

As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. Genesis 17:4-8 (NKJV; author’s emphasis)

Remember this preceding scripture for later on in this chapter. It is significant to both biblical and Qur’anic citations about the land of Canaan, otherwise known as the Holy Land.

Fourteen years after the birth of Ishmael, God fulfilled His intended covenant with Abram (now Abraham) with the birth of Isaac to Sarah who was no longer called Sarai. God’s promise and covenant with Abraham was three-fold: 1). God promised to multiply Abraham and his descendants greatly (Genesis 17:2); 2). God promised that through Abraham all the nations on earth would be blessed (Genesis 18:18, 22:18) and 3). God promised to give Abraham and his descendants the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession (Genesis 17:8).  As you will see later in this chapter, the Qur’an corroborates this biblical version.

Ishmael was not in God’s Plan for His People. Several times God makes it clear to Abraham that He (God) does not acknowledge Ishmael as Abraham’s son or heir. “Then the word of the LORD came to him: ‘This man [Ishmael] will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir’” (Genesis 15:4).

God never intended to establish His covenant with Ishmael, because Ishmael was not the child of the promise, but of the flesh. God could not establish His covenant with him, He could only bless him. While God blessed Ishmael with fruitfulness, He never made a covenant with him. God’s covenant was with Abraham and him only. And, unlike Abraham and Isaac, God never promised Ishmael and his seed that He would be their God.

God reiterated in Genesis 28:13 that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Ishmael was not God’s chosen covenant child with Abraham, nor was he part of God’s plan that would eventually bring forth God’s fulfilled covenant of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Muslims are not Descendants of Abraham. Although Arabic Muslims claim Abraham  as  their  heir, biblically  they  are  descendants  of  pre-covenant  Abram, the  one who disobeyed God and disbelieved His promise of an heir through Sarah. God could bless Ishmael, but He could never establish His covenant with a sinful seed of the flesh.

Ishmael became the father of 12 Arabian princes (nations) whom God said that He would “multiply . . . exceedingly” (Genesis 17:20). Ishmael and Hagar were driven into the Wilderness of Paran to dwell (Genesis 21:20-21). This wilderness covers the eastern Sinai and the southern and southeastern borders of present-day Israel.

Ishmael’s sons initially inhabited an area from Egypt and the Sinai Desert, the Arabian peninsula to Assyria (which includes present day Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and the lesser Arab kingdoms). Remember, God said that Ishmael and his descendants would be wild men whose hand would be “against every man.”

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 3:29

According to the Apostle Paul, in the above scripture, other than being an Israelite, the only way one can be an heir of Abraham in through faith in Jesus Christ.

Some Bible translations of Genesis 25:18 state that the descendants of Ishmael “lived in hostility toward” or “in defiance of” all their brethren (New International Version, New Living Translation and North American Standard). Other versions (including the King James, New King James, and Amplified Bibles) state only that Ishmael’s descendants lived “close to” or “in the presence of” their relatives.

Over 25 centuries later, Muhammad and his followers have found a simple solution to this dilemma of a negative biblical image and how to expropriate God’s promise and covenant with the Jewish people. Muhammad simply revealed that Allah told him that it was Ishmael, not Isaac, that Allah chose to test Abraham’s faith; and therefore it was Ishmael and all those who are descendants of him that are the true chosen people to fulfill Allah’s covenant.

Remember, in Genesis 22:2, God called Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on a makeshift altar on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. However, Muhammad ignored that biblical reality and declared that Allah called Abraham to sacrifice Ishmael on Mount Mina outside Mecca. It was that simple to change historical truth and create an alternate reality that Muslims have believed for 14 centuries.

According to the Qur’an, Abraham prayed to Allah: “‘My Lord! Grant me [a son who shall be] of the doers of good deeds [that is, righteous].’ So We gave [Abraham] the good news of a boy, possessing forbearance. And when [Ishmael] attained to working with him, [Abraham] said: O my son! Surely I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice you; consider then what you see.

“He said: O my father! Do what you are commanded; if Allah please, you will find me of the patient ones.   So when they both submitted and [Abraham] threw [Ishmael] down upon his fore- head, and We called out to him saying: O Ibrahim! You have indeed shown the truth of the vision; surely thus do We reward the doers of good: Most surely this is a manifest trial” (surah 37:100- 106). More information on Islam as a non-Abrahamic faith occurs in the following chapter.

God did not Recognize Ishmael as Abraham’s Son. The preceding version in the Qur’an of Abraham’s call to sacrifice his son strongly contradicts the biblical story. “Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about’” (Genesis 22:2; author’s emphasis). Notice that God refers to Isaac as Abraham’s only son. That is because only Isaac was God’s choice to fulfill His covenant with Abraham—not Ishmael, the son of the flesh.

In Genesis 22, God told Abraham three times that he (Abraham) only had one son, Isaac. “Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you’” (Genesis 22:2, author’s emphasis).

Again, after Abraham followed God’s call to sacrifice his only son, God intervened when he saw Abraham’s faithfulness. “And He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (Genesis 22:12, author’s emphasis). Once again, “Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: ‘By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son’” (Genesis 22:15-16, author’s emphasis).

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,”

Hebrews 11:17-18

In the Genesis account, Isaac had no prior knowledge of his role in the sacrifice. “But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, ‘My father!’

“And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’

“Then he said, ‘Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?’

“And Abraham said, ‘My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.’” (Genesis 22:7-8a).

Because of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son and not withhold him from God, God promised Abraham that “through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me” (Genesis 22:18).

From the present day and historical perspective of the daily violence against mankind by the followers of Islam, it is hard to see that this was God’s plan for blessing the nations of the earth through the descendants of Ishmael. Among the descendants of Isaac, however, was Jesus, the sacrificial lamb who brought salvation to the world by the shedding of His blood and not that of another human being—truly a blessing to all who will receive Him.

The Apostle Paul affirmed that descendants of Isaac are the true heirs of God. “It is not as though God’s word had failed,” he asserted. “For not all who are descended from Israel are [of] Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned’ [Genesis 21:12]. In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring” (Romans 9:6-8, NIV).

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul reasserted the striking difference between the seed of the pre- covenant Ishmael and the covenant-fulfilling seed of Isaac. He made both historical and spiritual comparisons.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman [or slave], the other by a freewoman [Genesis 16:15].

But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic.

For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar – for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children – but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. . . .

But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.

Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman” (Galatians 4:22- 26, 29, 30).

Paul makes it clear that Ishmael was the pre-covenant seed of a slave and therefore could not represent God’s covenant with His people. Isaac, on the other hand, was a freeman, born of a freewoman as the fulfillment of God’s promise to His people. Those who are heirs to the bondswoman of the flesh (viz., Ishmael), will remain in bondage until set free by the salvation of Christ, who is heir to the covenant of the freeman, Isaac.

In the preceding letter to the Galatians, Paul also pointed out that the descendants of Ishmael will always be persecuting the descendants of Isaac, the freeman, and that the heirs of the two can never share in the inheritance of the freeman. The only hope of sharing this inheritance that the descendants of Ishmael have is to be grafted in through the salvation of Christ.

Despite the clarity from both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible and testimony from God’s own mouth, Muslims, some Christian leaders and other ignorant or uninformed individuals continue to claim that Muslims—or at least Arabic Muslims—are descendants of Abraham, therefore, Islam can lay claim to being an “Abrahamic faith.” Muslims also claim that the Old Testament prophets, the Apostles and Jesus Himself were Muslims.

It is important to recognize, from an Islamic viewpoint, it was necessary for the god of Islam to supplant Isaac with Ishmael as the one God called Abraham to sacrifice. Why? Because it was through Isaac’s lineage that Jesus the Messiah would be born (Hadian, Shahram. The Trojan Horse of Interfaith Dialogue Between Christians and Muslims, Speech, November 27, 2018).

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To read more on this issue, see one of the author’s books below on Amazon or other online bookstores.

Further notes and updates (October 12, 2023:  To further complicate the  current situation in Israel, the nation’s population of about 9.36 million includes about 20 percent Palestinian.  In addition, Israel is surrounded by an estimated 440 million Muslims in the Middle East, Northern Africa and Asis Minor. Shortly after their invasion of Israel, Hamas leaders called for Muslims everywhere to join them in a “grand jihad” against Israel and the United States.

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