3. Abraham, Ishmael and the Roots of Islam

World Scripture

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar; and Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my maid; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my maid to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.” The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your descendants that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ishmael; because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.
Genesis 16.1-12

Abraham said, “My Lord! Make safe this territory [of Mecca], and preserve my sons and me from serving idols. My Lord! Truly they have led many of mankind astray. But whoever follows me, he truly is of me. And whoever disobeys me—still, You are Forgiving, Merciful.
Our Lord, I have settled some of my posterity in an uncultivable valley near your Sacred House, Lord, that they may establish proper worship; so incline some hearts of men that they may yearn toward them, and provide them with fruits in order that they may be thankful.”¹²
Qur’an 14.35-37

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

If Abraham had not failed in the symbolic offering, Isaac and his half-brother Ishmael would have stood in the positions of Abel and Cain.

They would have been responsible to fulfill the indemnity condition to remove the fallen nature that Cain and Abel did not accomplish.¹³ However, because Abraham failed in the offering, God set up Isaac in the position of Abraham, and Esau and Jacob in the positions originally intended for Ishmael and Isaac.
(Exposition of the Divine Principle, Foundation 3.2)

Ishmael was the Cain-type offspring of Abraham, born from his concubine Hagar. Abraham’s concubine and Abraham’s wife fought and became enemies. The two women were supposed to be united as one family; then God’s historical burden would have been lighter. Instead they fought, and Sarah expelled Hagar. This division could have been restored at the time of Jesus, but it was not. As the result of Jesus’ crucifixion, there arose divisions—up and down, right and left, and front and rear—which have persisted through the last 2,000 years. Among nations there would be conflict between the left wing and the right wing, and among religions Islam would emerge as the opponent of Christianity. Islam was victorious in the lands of the Middle East.
(215:253, February 20, 1991)