To begin, in his youth Mohammad was a member of a polytheistic Arabic religion in
which the adherents worshipped 360 pagan gods in the ‘Kabal’ in Mecca. He eventually felt that polythesism was wrong, probably
at the time when he had been tutored by Monophosyte monks - Christian heretics who rejected the belief in the divinity of Christ.
Also, at this time in his life, there was a large population of Jews and Christians on the Arabian peninsula who brought the
concept of monotheism with them. By the time Mohammad grew up, the peninsula was torn by civil strife among warring clans,
Mohammad being a member of the ‘Quraish’ tribe. Upset by the political situation in his land, the young prince attempted to unify
the peninsula by espousing a monotheistic religion: the concept of One Undivided God whom the nation could politically and so-
cially emulate. The new “universal” religion of Islam was to supersede the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible. Jews and
Christains were to be associated with as ‘the people of the book’ whose earlier prophets pointed towards the coming of the
prophet Mohammad. Having been influenced by Gnostic teachings, Mohammad naturally denied the divinity of Christ
and rejected the concept of the Holy Trinity. For any division in God smacked of disunity and disharmony in this world.
All this had occured by the late seventh century.
The legitimacy Islam had to prove could only be claimed by showing a historical connexion with the Old Testament.
Moses and the prophets and the seer King David say nothing about Mohammed. On the contrary, they prophesy
only of Christ as God’s Annointed One. An Old Testament figure, of some apparent significance, had to be pinned down
to assure Islam its rightful place in God’s revelation to mankind: that character was Ishmael.
Let us turn to the first
book of the Old Testament: Genesis. As the foundation of their faith, Muslims believe that Ishmael was their father
and that he received the Covenant of God through Abraham. In the Koran, Surah lll reads: “We believe in God, and
that which has been sent down to us, and sent down on Abraham and Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob, and the Tribes, and
in that which was given to Moses and Jesus, and the prophets, of their Lord; we make [no distinction] among any of them
and to Him we surrender.” This is where Mohammed had obviously distorted the Old Testament account of the legitimate
heir of Abraham and where Christian theologians were led to accuse the Muslim prophet with “bastardizing” the teachings of
the Bible.
In the Book of Genesis, we read that Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid or bondswoman.
He was conceived in adultery and sin, when Abraham slept with his maidservant, and so the child was to be an out-
cast forever. So God established His covenant through Isaac, Abraham’s legitimate son. And thus Ishmael was disinherited.
Once Ishmael was outcast, he is mentioned only in genealogies, and in his alliance with the disinherited son of Isaac, Esau.
God clearly says: " I will establish my covenant with Isaac. For an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him"
[Genesis 17:19]. Biblical history clearly reveals the events concerning Ishmael and God’s Covenant, which Mohammed
deliberately twisted and distorted. “And we Allah made covenant with Abraham and Ishmael” [Surah ll]. “And mention
in the book Ishmael; he was true to his promise, and he was a Messenger and a Prophet. He bade his people to pray and
give alms, and he was pleasing to his Lord” [Surah XIX]. Mohammed goes further to claim that Abraham was no Jew,
but a Muslim, and “one of pure faith” [Surah lll]. History, rational thinking, and scholarly research show that Islam was founded
on a lie.
