“… there is no
historical evidence for the assertion that Abraham or Ishmael was ever in
Mecca, and if there had been such a tradition it would have to be explained
how all memory of
the Old Semitic name Ishmael … came to be lost.
The form in the
Quran is taken either from Greek or Syriac sources”.
Alfred Guillaume
At this
website:
Jesse Toler writes about Islam’s appropriation, and re-making, of biblical
characters:
Nothing is more important to the foundations and development of Islam than the re-casting of Biblical personalities into newly assigned roles as devout Muslims.
Did Abraham Build the Kaaba?
Jesse Toler
The body of this paper will deal primarily
with places and destinations, not theology or personality. I will examine the
Biblical accounts of Abraham in the natural and sequential order in which they
are preserved in the Bible, while I examine and compare a small sampling of the
similarities and differences in the Quran and other Islamic sources. In doing
so, I’ll point out the several fatal contradictions in the Islamic perspective
and leave the reader to determine whether the Islamic version is truth to be
believed or fable created to connect a pagan Arabian shrine to the Biblical
patriarch of the Israelites. I will cover the ancient evidence and promptly
dismember Islamic dogma as inauthentic and based on inadequate grounds. In the
end, it will be hard to ignore that the Biblical account is far more reliable
and historically accurate and that the Islamic version is mere conjecture
imagined in the mind of a suicidal poet of the seventh century.
Nothing is more important to the
foundations and development of Islam than the re-casting of Biblical
personalities into newly assigned roles as devout Muslims. Shaping Israelite
patriarchs into ancient Muslims who worshiped Muhammad’s god is step one.
Turning the Lord Christ into a minor image of Muhammad was step two, and
worldwide conquest which wars against the soul is now a real possibility [Peter
2:11; Revelation 11:7, 12:7]. While the claims against the Bible are similar to
those put forward in Mormonism, and falsified just as easily, both Muslims and
non-Muslims need to be reminded that the books of the Bible are the measuring
stick to evaluate the historicity and integrity of Muhammad’s often fictional
portrayals of these ancient and important people.
Why did the Kaaba play a central role in
Muhammad’s fantasies? While no historical facts support his claims, Muslims are
seldom deterred. Islam is built upon the notion that Abraham was not only a
Muslim [Q. 2:31] but that he was selected by Allah to build the Kaaba in Mecca
[Q. 2:125-127], and that while doing so he established the rituals and beliefs
which are the cornerstones of Islamic worship. The pagan origins and practices
of the Kaaba will not be discussed here, only the patriarchal journeys and the
Islamic corruption of the Bible’s texts. Muslims claim that Mecca and the Kaaba
are the centers of worship for the entire world. Christians and Jews know that
it is Jerusalem, where lays the chief cornerstone of Yahweh’s kingdom [Psalm
102:16; I Peter 2:6]. The City of David [Zion] is mentioned nearly 50 times in
the Bible as the home of God’s people [Isaiah 10:24] and where the hosts will
reign [Isaiah 24:23].
Are Muslims going to tell us that these
references are corruptions in the texts and that Mecca was the intended city
the whole time? Hardly even remotely plausible.
The Kaaba in Mecca is without equal in
veneration in Islamic tradition, and had been revered by Arab pagans long
before Muhammad’s birth. The Muslim religion holds that the Kaaba was built by
Abraham and Ishmael after hearing a direct revelation from Allah. This seems
improbable. After all, once Allah guides a people on the right course and
provides a mode of conduct for worship through a chosen Prophet, Allah does not
then lead them astray into confusion or an inability to see the right course
[Q. 9:115]. How is it then that such a man as Abraham would be sent to Mecca to
deliver the people from polytheism and build the Kaaba only to later have them
fall into apostasy and disbelief, needing yet another prophet in the 7th
century A.D.? Abraham being in Mecca is just not consistent with important
Islamic doctrines, and a myth. For example, in Q. 2:125 the Kaaba is being
purified [Ar. 'tahara'], yet in Q. 2:127 the foundation are still being raised
[Ar. Rafa'a]. Depending on the traditions being reviewed, the Kaaba was built
by Allah or maybe Adam or possibly Abraham. But, is it true?
Reconstructing ancient events in search for
truth is never an easy task, but within the literature handed down from the
earliest days, confirmed by corroborating testimony where it is available,
certainty looms dreadful for Islamic claims. For example, American scholars
such as Albright have discussed the groupings of people and popular migration
patterns into and around cultivated areas of the Fertile Crescent, and it is
nigh impossible to think that the barren wasteland of the Hijaz would be such a
destination for Mesopotamian travelers. Crossing over from Ethiopian lands may
be plausible, but Abraham was never in Ethiopia. General migration [patterns]
are important to consider if we are going to place the journeys of Abraham into
historical context. It is very likely that many people, Abraham’s troop
included, traveled from Ur to Canaan via the established routes such as the
Kings Highway or the International Coastal Road. It is far less likely that
these same people then had any reason to travel another 700 miles south into
the central Hijaz.
Respected biblical scholars have placed the
journeys of the patriarchs in the Middle Bronze Age [2000-1550 B.C.] [Mackey’s
comment: This is actually the age of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt] and this would
include the relevant chapters in the Book of Genesis [Chapters 12-50] as well
as the narrative accounts in both the Quran and Tradition of the Muslims. In
this paper, I will present the narrative from the Book of Genesis, chapters
twelve thru twenty-five, as those speak specifically of the travels of Abraham
from his calling to his death. Let’s introduce a few of the Islamic fables
first, take a close look at the Bible, then we’ll touch upon a few more Islamic
myths before closing.
That will complete the comparison, and the
reader can decide which is believable and which is not.
One Islamic tradition holds that Abraham
brought both Hagar and Ishmael to Mecca [Source: Bukhari Volume 4, Book 55,
Number 584] then returned to Canaan after leaving both Hagar and her infant son
in the uninhabited region of Arabia which would later serve as the ground for a
building used to quarter the idols of the Kaaba. However, Sam Shamoun
points out in ‘Ishmael is not the Father of Muhammad’ that eminent scholar
Alfred Guillaume has written,
‘”… there is no historical evidence for the
assertion that Abraham or Ishmael was ever in Mecca, and if there had been such
a tradition it would have to be explained how all memory of the Old Semitic
name Ishmael (which was not in its true Arabian form in Arabian inscriptions
and written correctly with an initial consonant Y) came to be lost. The form in
the Quran is taken either from Greek or Syriac sources.” (Alfred Guillaume,
Islam [Penguin Books Inc., Baltimore, 1956], pp. 61-62).
Another tradition holds that Muhammad
himself is said to have told his favorite wife Aisha that, “Had not your people
been still close to the pre-Islamic period of ignorance I would have dismantled
the Kaaba and would have made two doors in it; one for entrance and the other
for exit”. [Sahih Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 3, Number 128].
So much for the importance of the Kaaba.
Yet, we are to believe that the Meccan prophet held the Kaaba in the highest
esteem, and believed it had been built and rebuilt after a revelation from
Allah.
Let’s examine the Bible and see what we can
gather about Abraham, his journeys as agent of Yahweh among the nations and his
role as a channel for
God’s blessing to the world.
What does the Bible tell us of Abraham, and
is it possible that he had spent time in Mecca? Let’s review the Scriptures
now. The answers to all these questions lay within a survey of the Book of
Genesis. Most of this is common knowledge to Christians, but by way of review,
let’s go over the complete list of places Abraham traveled. A good Bible atlas
would be useful to the reader. I suggest the Holman Bible Atlas but any Bible
Atlas will help to put the following discussion into geographical perspective. The
point of this exercise is to elucidate where Abraham did travel, in order to
discover where he did not. Obviously, the Muslims will quickly claim that the
Christian Scriptures are corrupted, and that we removed the parts which
corroborate the worth and validity of the Islamic claims from the germane
chapters of the Book of Genesis. The accusation of corruption is silly and
unsupported by fact but it’s the only card Muslims have to play, so I don’t
blame them for playing it. As I noted, Abraham went outside of Canaan a couple
of times.
However, the Bible nowhere mentions that
Arabia was part of his journeys. Muslims may claim that this has been “removed”
from the text, but for what reason? The text of Genesis was fixed many
centuries before Islam. Why would it mention several travels outside of Canaan
but remove Arabia/Mecca when neither the author (Moses) nor the Jews for many
centuries would have the slightest idea about Islam? We have plenty of
manuscripts from centuries before Muhammad, none of which place him in Mecca.
Born in Ur, his father Terah began his
migration to Canaan [Genesis 11:21]. After Terah’s death, Abraham was called by
Yahweh to continue the journey to Canaan [Genesis 12:1] where God promised to
Abraham and his descendants the land inhabited by the Canaanites. Let’s note
here that we are given the names of the Tribes which would be displaced to
establish Abraham in the land. None of them inhabited the Hijaz. The point is,
that the area in which the Ka’aba was allegedly built by Abraham was nowhere
near the region where Abraham was to establish his family, so why build a
temple or an altar so far from Canaan? [Genesis 12:7-8; cf. First Epistle of
Clement 10:3-5 (source for I Clement)]. Soon, Abraham and his family arrived in
Canaan, and drove his herds into the region of Bethel, Shechem and Moreh
[Genesis 12:4-6]. After an appearance of God in Canaan, Abraham moved his house
further south, into the Negev. The Negev is in Canaan, on the West side of the
Dead Sea, north of the Wilderness of Zin. It is bordered on the east by Edom,
and could not have possibly included the Syro-Arabian desert region further to
the east, and certainly excludes the uninhabited lands surrounding Mecca 700
miles to the south.
Next, a famine struck Canaan, and Abraham
sought refuge by going ‘down to Egypt’ [Genesis 12:10] and later, his son
Ishmael would take an Egyptian for a wife [Genesis 21:21]. To summarize so far,
Abraham had yet to travel farther south than the centers of power in Egypt.
Still a long way from Mecca.
Abraham later left Egypt a wealthy man and
soon separated from his nephew Lot [Genesis 13:14]. Abraham then moved to
Hebron, and built an altar to Yahweh. Later, a war breaks out in the region of
the Dead Sea [Genesis 14:1-24] and Abraham defeats a tyrannical king in a
battle north of Damascus near Mt. Hermon [vv. 13-17] frees Lot and establishes
himself as ‘blessed by the God Most High’. God then establishes His covenant
with Abraham, and promises to his descendants ‘this land, from the river of Egypt
to the great river, the River Euphrates’ [Genesis 15:18-21]. Notice by using
your atlas that the boundaries for the covenant lands are not even close to
Mecca or central Arabia. The river in Egypt was most likely the Wadi el-Arish.
The Euphrates is in northern Syria. It
makes no sense that God would tie a people to a land and the land to the
people, only to draw his Prophets from someplace else.
Next we find that Abraham had been living
in Canaan for ten years, traveling about Canaan as seasonal weather patterns
required [Genesis 16], when he became impatient with God’s plan and took Hagar
as a second ‘wife’. The same Hebrew word is used in 16:3 to describe both Sarai
and Hagar as wife. However, the status of Hagar is debatable. Follow this link
for a fuller discussion on ‘Hagar in Abraham’s Household’. The Egyptian maid
conceived, in Canaan, and bore Abraham’s son, in Canaan. Abraham’s anxiousness
to have a son caused him and his family great grief. Rather than exercising
self-control and forbearance, he took a course that was a threat to his faith.
While Abraham’s actions nearly lead him astray, he was not the first nor the
last to doubt God’s promises. Hagar soon suffers intense humiliation at the
hands of Abraham and Sarah, but at Beer-Lahai-Roi is met by the Angel of the
Lord, and delivered from her plight. This event took place West of the Wadi
el-Arish, in Egypt and nearly 1,000 miles from Mecca. She was most likely
trying to return home to Egypt.
After the establishment of the Covenant of
Circumcision, we find Abraham talking to God under the ‘holy tree of Mamre’,
which is near Hebron, nearly 1,000 miles from Mecca [Book of Genesis 18:1].
Later, Abraham intercedes for Sodom, which is then destroyed for its depravity
and Lot escapes to Zoar [Genesis 18:16-19:30; cf. First Epistle of Clement
11:1-2]. Outside of Zoar, Lot was the victim of a scheme concocted by his
eldest daughter. Zoar was in the southern tip of the Dead Sea in the Valley of
Siddim, and like every other event from the OT, a long way from Mecca. From
Lot’s daughters are born the Moabites and the Ammonites, longstanding enemies
of Israel and Judah. Moab and Ammon lay on the east side of the Dead Sea and
later form the eastern edge of the Covenant Land. The southeastern extreme of
the Covenant Land extends no farther than this and no prophets would ever be
called from beyond these borders.
Following the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah, we encounter Abraham in Gerar, between Kadesh and Shur. In Gerar
Isaac was born, wells were dug and treaties were struck. In short, there is no
reason imaginable that God would take Abraham from his wells, family and tents
in Canaan and command him to raise the foundations of the Kaaba over 1,000
miles away. All of this is a death blow to the Quran’s claims to Abraham, but
let’s discuss a few more Biblical passages, ending with the death and burial of
Abraham in order to close the lid on Islam once and for all.
Isaac is later weaned and tension again
increases between Sarah and Hagar. Sarah pleaded with Abraham to cast Hagar
out, and the following morning she was given bread, a water skin and her son.
She then wandered into the wasteland of Beer-Sheba, in southern Canaan [Genesis
21:8-21].
In these passages, God addresses Abraham
and calls Hagar the ‘maidservant’ [Hb אמה 'amah' not ‘wife’ as in 16:3; compare
the Latin Vulgate where in 21:8-12 ‘ancilla‘ is ‘maidservant’ or ‘female slave’
]. Hagar had lost any status she may have earlier enjoyed, so her status as a
wife at all can be questioned.
Before we leave Hagar to history, let me
remind you of four important differences between the Bible and Quran
surrounding this narrative. In the Biblical narrative, Hagar’s suffering
and plight are of paramount importance to understanding the events surrounding the
birth of the Promised Son. These events also give us insight into the treatment
of women in the ancient Near East, which are still evident in Islam today.
Hagar is the only woman in the Scriptures who is given the honor of giving a
name to God, and she receives her own distinct covenant as a reward for her
suffering and submission. What does the Quran say about this incredible woman
who endured so much suffering? Nothing. So much for Islam honoring its pivotal
women.
Eventually, Ishmael settled in the Wilderness
of Paran, and took an Egyptian wife. Just where is the Wilderness of Paran, and
does it, as Muslims claim, include the lands far to the south in the Hijaz?
Let’s again look at our atlas. Paran is an ill-defined term in the Old
Testament, suggesting that outside of it being a place on the route of the
Exodus [Numbers 12:16], the region had very little geographical or theological
importance to the Israelites. There is no prophetic scripture suggesting that a
prophet would come from the Wilderness of Paran, nor a promise of prophetic
license promised to Hagar or her descendants [Gen 16:7-16]. It is also worth
noting that God spoke to Hagar, never to Ishmael. Very curious.
Located in the Sinai, Midian and Edom are
natural borders to the east. Canaan is due north and central Sinai to the west.
Not only are the borders of Paran well within the Sinai Peninsula, but as
mentioned earlier, migration across the barren lands of Arabia was far less
likely than remaining close to the routes of the Exodus. While migrations of
people from Palestine into the Hijaz appear to be rare from the extant
evidence, armies from Babylon did venture south. One example is Nabonidus King
of Babylon who in the 6th century B.C. established outposts and colonies in the
region. A total of six oasis towns are listed in the extant inscriptions, and
while Yathrib is mentioned, Mecca, which is 280 miles south of Yathrib is
nowhere to be seen on his lists. Mercantile movements were more common, but not
until the 10th century and long after the death of Abraham.
A notable case in favor of the Quranic view
of Abraham’s travels can be found in the Book of I Kings [10:1-13] where the
Queen of Sheba did in fact make the journey from S.W. Arabia to Israel.
Mackey’s comment: For a different geography for the Queen, though, see my article:
Jesse Toler continues:
However, the territory of Sheba and also
Tema are mentioned in the Book of Job [6:19] and yet while the region was
traveled by merchants and known to the Biblical writers, there is still no
mention of Mecca.
Sheba is again discussed by the Prophet
Isaiah [60:6] and nothing is said of Mecca or any dialectal variant of the name
offered by Muslims. The Sabeans of Yemen never even mention the city either.
The conclusion is evidently that Mecca was not in existence until long after
Abraham’s journeys.
Following God’s expulsion of Hagar and
Ishmael, life continues for Abraham and his only wife Sarah. A disputed well
becomes a source of controversy with King Abimelech. This name may translate
‘Slave of Molech’. If this Biblical name were a derivative of the Canaanite
name, that would serve as strong evidence that much of the Book of Genesis
pre-dates Israel’s Kingdom Period and gives even greater evidence to the
non-existence of Mecca during the period of Abraham’s travels, and an oath is
sworn in Beersheba, again in Canaan [Genesis 21:22-34]. Later, Abraham is
called to Mt. Moriah and the well known ‘binding of Isaac’ is played out. Mt.
Moriah is also in Palestine, north of Beersheba. While the exact location is
unknown, it only took Abraham three days to travel, so it could not have taken
place in Mecca [Genesis 22]. An important observation here is that Isaac is
called ‘your only son’ three times in this chapter. How can that be? Because
Ishmael had already been sent away. He was to have no part of the covenant
promised to Abraham and given to Isaac.
Soon, we find that Sarah had died, and
Abraham arranges for the purchase of the Cave of Machpela. Yet again he has not
left Canaan [Genesis 23]. Here Muslims need to explain why God would allow
Abraham to build a tomb in Canaan for his family, but then a temple 1,000 miles
away in a barren region of the Hijaz. In chapter twenty-four, we find that
Abraham had become ‘old in years’ [24:1] It was time to find a wife for Isaac.
Note that Abraham had nothing to do with finding a wife for Ishmael. Abraham’s
chief servant was selected for the task of conducting the search.
An oath was sworn that the wife would not
be a Canaanite but from Abraham’s people in Mesopotamia. Let’s be reasonable
here. If Abraham had built the Kaaba, then why wouldn’t Isaac’s wife be taken
from the local tribes in the Hijaz or even farther south?. He returns home with
Rebekkah to south Canaan, she weds Isaac and later Abraham dies and is buried
with his wife Sarah in Machpelah. Both Ishmael and Isaac attended the funeral.
Both must have been very close to Canaan, and in no way can we conclude that
any of these men ever travels to Mecca to build a shrine to Allah and the other
pagan gods native to Mecca. The Quran 11:49 clearly states that there had been
no prophets to the Arabs before, so it can’t be true that Abraham built the
Kaaba. Also note that the Islamic traditions point out that before Muhammad’s
claim to the prophetic office, none of his people had made the claim before him
[Bukhari, Vol 1, Book 1, #6].
This all leads us to a connection with the
nation of Israel, the Davidic Kingdom and the Savior who even now offers mercy
to his wandering sons [Psalm 100:5,8; Luke 1:50; cf. Apology of al-Kindy,
p.121].
