The oldest recorded account of Muhammad’s life, the “Sira” of Ibn Hisham, very carefully lists Muhammad’s family lineage.  It turns out, Muhammad was a direct descendant of Ishmael.

As we know, Ishmael was the son of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid.  Ishmael was sent away from Abraham’s family at Sarah’s behest after mocking her son Isaac.  Hagar and Ishmael were abandoned in the wilderness, but with God’s help they survived, and from Ishmael’s descendants would emerge a strong and independent complex of tribes.

Having spent some years in the Middle East, I am familiar with the long memory that Middle Eastern people have, particularly when it comes to perceived offenses.  It would not be surprising to me if Ishmaelite tribes resented Isaac and his offspring from generation to generation.  It would also not surprise me if the favor the Israelites received from God was particularly galling to their distant cousins.

When Muhammad came on the scene, the sons of Isaac – the Jews – were prosperous, peaceful, and unified by their devotion to the one God, while the sons of Ishmael – the Arabs, were constantly warring with each other and dominated by a conflicting panoply of gods and superstitions.

It seems, if the Qur’an is any indication, that at first Muhammad tried to win the Jews over with the monotheistic ideas and respectful references in his “revelations.”  At that time, he even had his followers pray in the direction of Jerusalem.  However, after he moved from his birthplace, Mecca, to a city 200 miles away (later called Medina), he suspected the Jews there of siding with his enemies.  So, he gave up the conciliatory approach and declared war on Jews, and the direction of prayer became Mecca.  From then on, the “revelations” he claimed to receive were hostile to Jews.  Medinan verses of the Qur’an describe Jews as cursed, mischievous, disbelieving, ignorant, insolent, and prideful.¹  Eventually Muhammad would order the slaughter of adult males in a Jewish tribe in Medina and the enslavement of their women and children.

As a result of Muhammad’s example and teaching Muslims are universally suspicious of Jews and resentful of the formation of a Jewish state on what they regard as Muslim land.  Christian should prayerfully explain to their Muslim friends that Christians love all people including Muslims and Jews, and that God offers salvation through faith in Christ to everyone regardless of their ethnicity.

 

1 https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/references-to-jews-in-the-koran