Ismail (Ishmael)

Isma'il, son of Ibrahim by Hagar. His father settled him as an infant in Mecca. He grew up among Jurhum and married among them, shared with his father in raising the foundations of the House, and the lineage of the Arabised Arabs ends with him ^{1 2 3}.

His father settled him with his mother in a barren valley beside the Sacred House. Within a few days the provisions and water ran out, and the well of Zamzam burst forth and became their sustenance ^{2 4}. Jurhum settled in Mecca with his mother's permission before he grew up ^{2 5}.

God showed Ibrahim in a dream that he was slaughtering Isma'il. He carried out the command, and Isma'il was ransomed with a great sacrifice, as described in Al-Saffat 103 to 107 ⁵. The author notes from the book of Genesis that Isma'il was thirteen years older than Ishaq, and that the course of the story shows it took place before Ishaq was born ⁵. See The command to sacrifice Isma'il.

When Isma'il grew up and had learned Arabic from Jurhum and their people, and they admired him, they married him to a woman of theirs, and his mother died ^{5 6}. When his father came and advised him to change the threshold of his gate, he understood the meaning and divorced her. He then married the daughter of Mudad ibn Amr, the elder and chief of Jurhum ^{5 7}. When his father came after this marriage, his wife praised God, so he advised him to keep the threshold of his door firm ⁵.

On his father's third journey, he found Isma'il whittling arrows under a tree near Zamzam. This time they built the Ka'ba and raised its foundations ^{5 3}. See The raising of the foundations of the Ka'ba.

God gave him, from the daughter of Mudad, twelve sons: Nabit or Nabayut, Qaydar, Adba'il, Mibsham, Mishma', Duma, Misha, Hadad, Yatma, Yatur, Nafis and Qaydaman. Twelve tribes descended from them, and all of them lived in Mecca for a time. Most of their livelihood was trade from Yemen to Syria and Egypt. They then spread across the Peninsula and beyond, and their circumstances were lost in the depths of time, except for the children of Nabit and Qaydar ^{3 7}.

He held the leadership of Mecca and the charge of the House all his life. The author, citing the book of Genesis, says he died aged 137. Two of his sons then held the office, Nabit and then Qaydar, or the reverse. Afterwards the leadership passed to their grandfather Mudad of Jurhum ^{8 9 10}. The author dates Isma'il's time to about twenty centuries BCE ¹¹.

The author notes that most of the Arabs followed Isma'il's call when he invited them to the religion of his father Ibrahim. They worshipped God and affirmed His oneness, until time lengthened over them and they forgot a share of what they had been reminded of ¹². The hadith in Muslim says: God chose Isma'il from among the offspring of Ibrahim, and from among the offspring of Isma'il, Kinana ^{13 14}.