Did Ibrahim and Isma’il build the Kaaba?

One of the most important claims of Islam is that Ibrahim traveled to Makkah, and, together with his son Isma’il, built the most sacred site on planet Earth: the Kaaba. This story is foundational to Islam in that it is the basis for the Hajj pilgrimage and the qibla, the direction of prayer that millions of Muslims pray toward every day.

We can summarize the story according to the most authentic hadith collection, Sahih Al-Bukhari¹, as follows: Ibrahim traveled with Hajar and their infant son Isma’il from Palestine down to Makkah. At that time, Makkah was nothing but a barren valley where nobody lived. When they arrived at the spot where Ibrahim and Isma’il would later build the Kaaba, Ibrahim left Hajar and Isma’il with dates and a skin of water and headed back to Palestine.

As he departed, he prayed a prayer to Allah that is recorded in Surah Ibrahim 14:37:

رَّبَّنَآ إِنِّىٓ أَسْكَنتُ مِن ذُرِّيَّتِى بِوَادٍ غَيْرِ ذِى زَرْعٍ عِندَ بَيْتِكَ ٱلْمُحَرَّمِ رَبَّنَا لِيُقِيمُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ

Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in an uncultivated valley near Your sacred House, our Lord, that they may establish prayer. […].

– Surah Ibrahim 14:37 –

In this prayer, Ibrahim declared the reason he left Isma’il and Hajar there. He didn’t settle them there for trade or politics. The primary purpose was to settle his descendants close to the ‘sacred House’ (the Kaaba), to ‘establish prayer’. In a world where polytheism was widespread, Ibrahim would carve out a space dedicated exclusively to the worship of the one true God.

When Ibrahim was gone, Hajar and her son ran out of water. Desperately looking for help, she ran seven times between the two hills, Safah and Marwa. In His mercy, Allah sent the angel Jibril who came down to dig the Zamzam well, allowing the mother and her boy to survive.

Later in the hadith, we read that Arabs from a tribe called Jurhum passed by. They came to Hajar and Isma’il at the Zamzam well and realized that they could settle and live there since there was now a water source. This marked the beginning of the city of Makkah.

Now, Isma’il grew up among the people of Jurhum and learned Arabic from them. After he had reached the age of puberty, he married a woman from that tribe. Years later, after his mother Hajar had died, Ibrahim traveled to Makkah twice to visit Isma’il and pass messages to him. Then, after some time, Ibrahim again returned to Isma’il in Makkah and together they built the Kaaba by Allah’s command.

While they did so, they prayed what is recorded in Surah Al-Baqarah 2:127-129:

وَإِذْ يَرْفَعُ إِبْرَٰهِـۧمُ ٱلْقَوَاعِدَ مِنَ ٱلْبَيْتِ وَإِسْمَـٰعِيلُ رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّآ ۖإِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ ١٢٧

رَبَّنَا وَٱجْعَلْنَا مُسْلِمَيْنِ لَكَ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِنَآ أُمَّةًۭ مُّسْلِمَةًۭ لَّكَ وَأَرِنَا مَنَاسِكَنَا وَتُبْ عَلَيْنَآ ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلتَّوَّابُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ ١٢٨

رَبَّنَا وَٱبْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًۭا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُوا۟ عَلَيْهِمْ ءَايَـٰتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ ١٢٩

[127] And [mention, O Muhammad], when Ibrahim was raising the foundations of the House and [with him] Isma’il, [saying], ‘Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed You are the Hearing, the Knowing.’

[128] Our Lord, and make us Muslims [in submission] to You and from our descendants a Muslim nation [in submission] to You. And show us our rites and accept our repentance. Indeed, You are the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful.

[129] Our Lord, and send among them a messenger from themselves who will recite to them Your verses and teach them the Book and wisdom and purify them. Indeed, You are the Exalted in Might, the Wise.

– Surah Al-Baqarah 2:127-129 –

As we saw before from various passages in the Qur’an, the stories of the prophets are preserved in the Torah of Muhammad’s time. We have manuscripts of the Torah dated before, during, and after that time. Modern translations of the Torah which we will read from are translated from the best and earliest manuscripts, including manuscripts dated before Muhammad. Therefore, the story in the hadith should match the story of Ibrahim and Isma’il in our translation of the Torah. Let’s see.

We begin with Genesis 17:23-25, which says the following:

[23] Then Ibrahim took Isma’il his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Ibrahim’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.

[24] Ibrahim was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

[25] And Isma’il his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

– Genesis 17:23-25 –

Following God’s command, Ibrahim circumcised all the male members of his household. When he did that, he was 99 years old and Isma’il was 13 years old. He was living in Mamre², which was in Palestine. Then he moved to Gerar, which is near modern-day Gaza:

From there Ibrahim journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.

– Genesis 20:1 –

There, near Gaza, Ibrahim and his wife Sarah celebrated the birth of their first common son: Ishaq. This was exactly one year after the circumcision. Therefore, the Torah says:

Ibrahim was a hundred years old when his son Ishaq was born to him.

– Genesis 21:5 –

If Ibrahim was ‘a hundred years old’, then Isma’il would have had to be 14 years old. Then, the Torah says:

And the child [= Ishaq] grew and was weaned. [...].

– Genesis 21:8 –

In the days of Ibrahim, it took around 2-3 years until an infant was weaned. When Ishaq was weaned, his half-brother Isma’il would have had to be around 16-17 years old. The account continues:

[8] […] And Ibrahim made a great feast on the day that Ishaq was weaned.

[9] But Sarah saw the son of Hajar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Ibrahim, laughing.

[10] So she said to Ibrahim, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Ishaq.”

[11] And the thing was very displeasing to Ibrahim on account of his son.

[12] But God said to Ibrahim, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Ishaq shall your offspring be named.

[13] And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.”

[14] So Ibrahim rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hajar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

[15] When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes.

[16] Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.

[17] And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hajar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hajar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

[18] Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

[19] Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

[20] And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.

[21] He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

– Genesis 21:8-21 –

Dear reader, did you notice the differences between the hadith and the Torah? When we compare them, we find that we have two totally different stories:

1. In the hadith, Ibrahim traveled together with Hajar and Isma’il. In the Torah, Ibrahim did not travel further than to his kitchen to get bread and give it to Hajar. He did not go with Hajar and Isma’il but sent them away!

2. While the Islamic story identifies Isma’il as an infant when his parents brought him to Makkah, the Torah indicates that he was already 16-17 years old when Ibrahim sent him and his mother Hajar away.

3. According to Muslim sources and the hadiths³, Ibrahim, Hajar, and Isma’il traveled from Palestine to Makkah, a roughly 1,350 km (~ 840 miles) distance that would have required a 40-day camel journey. In the Torah, Hajar and Isma’il only traveled to the wilderness of Beersheba, around 20-50 km (~10-30 miles) away from home. Based on the number of trips to Makkah recorded in the hadith, Ibrahim himself would have had to travel a grueling 80-day, 2,700 km (~1700 miles) round trip at least four times.

4. In verses 14-15, the Torah states that Hajar never refilled her water skin after leaving home; the water in the skin ran out at her destination. Given the distance to Makkah (a 40-day journey) and daily human drinking water needs (2 liters per day), Hajar would have had to carry 80 liters worth of water to get to Makkah without refilling her water skin. This is impossible, since a typical woman can only carry up to 10 liters of water.

The following map visualizes these differences:

Do we find any indication in the entire Torah that Ibrahim and Isma’il ever went to Makkah? The following map shows the journey of Ibrahim according to the Torah. As you can see, dear reader, Makkah is not even on the map!

How about Isma’il? Did he ever go to Makkah according to the Torah? As we read in Genesis 21:21, Isma’il settled in thewilderness of Paran after he and his mother wandered around in the wildernessof Beersheba (Figure 3, A). This wilderness of Paran was on the Sinai Peninsula in modern-day Egypt, nowhere close to Makkah, which is around 1,000 km (~ 620 miles) further south (Figure 3, B).⁴

In summary, we find major contradictions between the Islamic narrative and the Torah. Similar to the story of Yusuf, these are deviations not only in the overall sequence of events and the locations where they happen, but also in irrelevant details.

It is tempting to say that the reason these stories differ is that the Torah must have been corrupted. However, that claim would not only contradict the Qur’an itself but would also leave us without reasonable argument for what could have been the motive of the Jews to corrupt their own holy book.

Perhaps one could make a case that the Jews changed details in the story for some political or theological reason. However, what advantage would it have been for them to change insignificant details in the story like Isma’il being an infant instead of a young man?

The idea that they changed things out of enmity against Muhammad does not hold because the differences that contradict the hadith are in copies of the Torah that date hundreds of years before Muhammad was even born. There is no reason for the Jews to corrupt anything related to Muhammad before meeting him and finding out who he was. In fact, the Qur’an says that Jews used to pray for victory by the Prophet before he arrived (Surah al-Baqarah 2:89), which shows that they were eager for his arrival and would not have changed any passages concerning him.

Unintentional mistakes during the process of copying also do not explain the differences. First, the manuscripts we have of the Torah are extremely similar, showing the accuracy of textual transmission; secondly, the differences are not only in small details but affect the whole backbone of the story. It is impossible for these kinds of differences to arise from unintentional mistakes.

Therefore, we must conclude that the account of the Torah is the original. Yet, at the same time, it contradicts not only general stories of the prophets (like the story of Yusuf), but perhaps the most foundational stories for Islam: the belief that Ibraham and Isma’il traveled to Makkah to build the Kaaba.

Therefore, we can ask, if Ibrahim and Isma’il did not build the Kaaba, who built it? The Islamic sources say that in the time of Muhammad, the pagans used the Kaaba to worship no less than 360 idols in the Kaaba. So then, who most likely built the Kaaba?

In the next article, we will discuss another major claim of Islam that is linked to the hadith of Ibrahim and Isma’il building the Kaaba in Makkah: Muhammad’s lineage from Ibrahim. Dear reader, please continue reading: