Abraham

This is Abraham. He’s originally from the city of Ur in Mesopotamia, but he has moved to the town Haran with his father, his wife Sarah, and many other relatives. The people here believe in many gods - they are polytheists. Abraham’s father even makes a living selling statues of these gods. But something happens to Abraham, he starts to believe that there is only one god.

This is called being a monotheist. Abraham tries to teach his monotheistic religion to others. But not many of them are listening. One day his god speaks to him. He says that Abraham is to leave Haran.

Abraham and Sarah are to become the ancestors of a great people, and they will have a land of their own: Canaan. Abraham and his family journey there. God speaks to him again. “Your descendants will receive this land.” Why can’t he have it right away? Well, there is already a people living here. The Canaanites.

And who are these descendants that God is talking about? Abraham and Sarah are already old. Sarah isn’t able to get pregnant anymore. Abraham gets angry with God. “You haven’t given me the children you’ve spoken about!” he complains. “Look at the stars in the sky!” God says. “You will have as many descendants as there are stars.” This Abraham finds it hard to believe. But Sarah gets an idea: If she can’t become pregnant herself, maybe Abraham could have a child with her slave woman: Hagar.

Since a slave’s child belongs to the owner, if Hagar gives birth to a child, that child would become Sarah’s. Abraham agrees to have a child with Hagar and they get a boy: Ishmael. Now Sarah is sad, and a little angry. She wants to have a child of her own, even though she is ninety years old. But look what happens now.

Sarah actually gets a baby too: Isaac. So now Abraham has two sons. Ishmael with Hagar and Isaac with Sarah. Sarah thinks that Hagar is too arrogant because of having a child with Abraham. She wants to chase Hagar and Ishmael away.

How this happens is told somewhat differently depending on if you read the Bible or the Quran. According to the Bible Abraham assists in chasing Hagar and Ishmael away and stays with Sarah. But the Quran - where Abraham is called Ibrahim - states that Ibrahim accompanies Hagar and Ishmael, and that it is Ibrahim and Ishmael that finally build the Kaaba in Mecca. However, in both the Bible and the Quran God promises that not only Isaac but Ishmael will also be the ancestor of a great people. There’s another thing that is almost the same in both these stories.

God tells Abraham - or Ibrahim - to sacrifice his son. In the Bible it’s Isaac who is to be sacrificed and in the Quran it’s Ishmael. Abraham is just about to perform this sacrifice - kill his own son. But then an angel appears and stops him at the last moment. Lucky!

Instead the angel gives Abraham an animal to sacrifice. Both the Bible and the Quran narrate that both boys live on and have several children. The Jews see Isaac as their forefather, and the Muslims see Ishmael as theirs. So the father of these boys, Abraham, becomes the ancestor - the patriarch - of several peoples, the Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims. He becomes the symbol of the siblinghood between these three religions that have much in common.

This is why they are called the Abrahamic religions. But the story of the people of Canaan does not end here. This is Isaac’s son: Jacob. The Bible narrates that after a while he gets a new name – Israel – and that the generations after him are called the Israelites. And the Israelites, they are the people who finally conquer the land of Canaan.