The story of Ismaïl (peace be upon him)

The Confident had sons, as we mentioned: but the most famous of them are the two brothers, the two great prophets, the two messengers, the elder of the two and the more venerable being the one who is the sacrificed, according to the correct: Ismaïl, the firstborn of Ibrahim the Confident, from Hajar the Copt, the Egyptian: from the Great, the Majestic. Some scholars said: the sacrificed is Isaac: he only holds that from the transmission of the children of Israël, those who altered, distorted and interpreted the Torah and the Gospel, and contradicted with their own hands the revealed text in this: for Ibrahim was commanded to slaughter his firstborn son: and in one transmission: his only son.

And whichever it may be, it is Ismaïl by the clear text of the proof: for in their own Book, Ismaïl was born to Ibrahim at the age of eighty-six years: and Isaac was only born after the passing of one hundred years of the Confident's life: Ismaïl is therefore without doubt the firstborn: and he is the only one in form and meaning, in every case: as to form: because he was alone, his son not exceeding thirteen years: and as to his being alone in meaning: he is the one his father migrated with: and with him his mother Hajar: and he was small, a nursing child as is said: and he placed the two of them in the valley of the mountains of Farane: these are the mountains around Mecca: a good resting place: and left them there with no provisions or water but a little: and that out of trust in Allah and reliance upon Him: so Allah surrounded the two of them with His care and His sufficiency: what a good guarantor and sustainer and guardian and protector.

So this is the only child: in form and in meaning: but where is the one who ponders this secret? And where is the one who takes his place in this station? And the meaning is not grasped, nor encompassed by knowledge, except by every noble prophet.

Allah the Most High has praised him and described him by forbearance, patience, truthfulness of promise, and keeping up the prayer with the command to his family to do it, that they might be spared the punishment: « So We gave him good tidings of a forbearing boy: and when he had reached with him the age of striving, he said: O my son, I see in a dream that I am slaughtering you: so look, what do you see. He said: O my father, do what you are commanded: you will find me, if Allah wills, of the patient. » So he yielded to his father toward what he was calling him to: and promised him that he would be patient: and he fulfilled that and was patient. « And mention in the Book Ismaïl: he was true to his promise: and he was a messenger, a prophet: and he used to command his family the prayer and the zakat: and he was with his Lord pleasing.

» « And remember Our servants Ibrahim, Isaac and Ya'qoub: possessors of hands and eyes: We purified them with a pure purification: by the remembrance of the Home: and they are with Us of the chosen, the best: and mention Ismaïl and Élisha and Dhu al-Kifl: and all are of the best. » « And Ismaïl and Idris and Dhu al-Kifl: all of the patient: and We admitted them into Our mercy: they are of the righteous. » « We revealed to you as We revealed to Nuh and the prophets after him: and We revealed to Ibrahim and Ismaïl and Isaac and Ya'qoub and the tribes. » The verse.

« Say: we believe in Allah and what was sent down to us and what was sent down to Ibrahim and Ismaïl and Isaac and Ya'qoub and the tribes. » The verse. And its like in the other sura: « Or do you say that Ibrahim and Ismaïl and Isaac and Ya'qoub and the tribes were Jews or Christians? Say: are you more knowing, or Allah?

» The verse. So Allah mentioned of him every beautiful quality, made him His prophet and His messenger, absolved him of everything the ignorant attributed to him, and commanded His believing servants to believe in what was sent down upon him.

He is the first who rode horses: they were before that wild beasts: so he tamed them and rode them. A sheikh of Qouraych narrated to us: Abd al-Malik ibn Abd al-'Aziz narrated to us, from Abdallah ibn 'Oumar, that he said: take the horses and tether them well: for they are the inheritance of your father Ismaïl. And this Arab stock was wild: so he called upon it with the invocation he had been given: and it answered him: and he is the first who spoke the eloquent, penetrating Arabic: and he had learned it from the pure-bred Arabs who came down to them at Mecca, of Djorhoum and the 'Amaliqa and the people of Yemen: from the earlier nations of the Arabs before the Confident.

Ali ibn al-Moughira reported to me: Abu 'Oubayda reported to us: Misme' ibn Malik reported to us, from Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Houssayn, from his forefathers, that he said: the first whose tongue spoke clear Arabic was Ismaïl: and he was fourteen years old. You have spoken truly, O Abu Yassar. That is how Abu Jouray narrated to me.

We have already presented that he married when he matured, from the 'Amaliqa, a woman: and that his father ordered him to leave her: so he left her. She is 'Amara bint Sa'd ibn Oussama ibn Akila the 'Amaliqite: then he married another: and he ordered him to keep her: so he kept her: she is the Lady bint Mouadd ibn 'Amrou the Djorhoumite. She bore him twelve male children: and Muhammad ibn Ishaq named them: Nabat, Qaydar, Adhbal, Micha, Misme', Mach, Douma, Adar, Yatour, Banch, Tima, Qaydhouma: and thus the People of the Book mentioned them in their Book: and among them, they are the twelve great ones of whom the one mentioned before was the bearer of good tidings: and they lied in their interpretation of that.

Ismaïl was a messenger to the people of that region and what adjoined it: of the tribes of Djorhoum and the 'Amaliqa and the people of Yemen: may the prayers of Allah and His peace be upon him: and when death presented itself to him he bequeathed to his brother Isaac: and married his daughter Nassama to his nephew 'Is ibn Isaac: and she bore the Roms: the sons of al-Asfar from the yellow color that was in 'Is: and she bore the Greeks in one of the sayings: from the two of them as well: and Ibn Jarir withheld judgment.

And Ismaïl the prophet of Allah was buried at the Hijr with his mother Hajar: and his age on the day he died was one hundred and thirty-seven years. Ismaïl complained to his Lord of the heat of Mecca: so Allah revealed to him: I will open for you a door of the Garden, to the place where you will be buried: its coolness will flow upon you until the Day of Resurrection.

And all the Arabs of the Hijaz trace descent to his two sons Nabat and Qaydar: and we shall speak of the living branches of the Arabs: and their tribes: and their settlements: and their clans: and their tribes: from Ismaïl to the time of the Messenger of Allah: and that is when we reach his noble days and his rich biography, after finishing the reports of the prophets of the children of Israël up to the time of Issa son of Maryam, the seal of their prophets and the fulfiller of their announcements: then we shall mention what was in the time of the children of Israël: then what happened in the days of the Djahiliyya: then the discourse will end at the biography of our Prophet, the Messenger of Allah, to the Arabs and the Persians and the rest of the varieties of the sons of Adam of the nations, if Allah the Most High wills: and in Him is the trust: and on Him is reliance: and there is no power and no strength except by Allah, the High, the Immense, the Mighty, the Wise.