Was Muhammad a descendant of Ibrahim and Isma’il?

In Islam, Muhammad is a true prophet in part because he is a descendant of Ibrahim and Isma’il. Although Allah is almighty and could have chosen whoever He liked, He decided to assign prophethood specifically to Ibrahim and his descendants:

وَوَهَبْنَا لَهُۥٓ إِسْحَـٰقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَجَعَلْنَا فِى ذُرِّيَّتِهِ ٱلنُّبُوَّةَ وَٱلْكِتَـٰبَ

We blessed him [= Ibrahim] with Ishaq and ˹later˺ Yaqub, and reserved prophethood and revelation for his descendants. […].

– Surah Al-‘Ankabut 29:27 –

As the “Father of the Prophets” (أَبُو الْأَنْبِيَاء, Abu al-Anbiya), Ibrahim is like a prophetic tree trunk with two branches—the branch of Ishaq that gave rise to prophets like Musa, Dawud and Isa, and the branch of Isma’il that gave rise to Muhammad. When Ibrahim and Isma’il built the Kaaba according to Islam, they prayed the following 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 –

Ibrahim and Isma’il prayed that Allah would raise a messenger from their descendants. Muhammad is seen as fulfilling this prayer because, according to Islam, he was a descendant of both Ibrahim and Isma’il.

The most authentic hadith collection, Sahih Al-Bukhari¹, reports that Isma’il grew up in Makkah and married an Arab woman from the tribe of Jurhum after he had reached the age of puberty. Through his marriage, Isma’il became the ancestor of the Quraysh, the Arab tribe Muhammad belonged to in Makkah. Thus, Muhammad is seen to be a true messenger, since he descended from Ibrahim and Isma’il.

However, does the evidence from the Torah² support this claim? Since the Qur’an says that the Torah is a detailed confirmation of the stories of the prophets, we can compare the hadith with what the Torah says about the life of Isma’il and his sons. If the accounts match, we have proven that Muhammad was a descendant of Isma’il, and is thus a legitimate prophet in the lineage of Ibrahim.

As we saw in the previous article, the Torah says that Isma’il was raised in Canaan, and left from home, together with his mother, when he was 16-17 years old. Both Hajar and Isma’il were wandering around in the wilderness of Beersheba where God had finally saved them from dying of thirst by directing Hajar to a well. Then, after the incidence in the wilderness of Beersheba, we are told:

[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 21:20-21 –

From the wilderness of Beersheba, Isma’il went to the wilderness of Paran, which was on the Sinai Peninsula in modern-day Egypt. He grew up into a man there. Contrary to the hadith, Isma’il did not marry an Arab woman, but a woman from the land of Egypt. This is reasonable, because 1) Egypt was not far away from the wilderness of Paran (see Figure 1) and 2) because Hajar herself was an Egyptian. Since she was not living in the household of Ibrahim anymore, she naturally looked for a wife for her son from among her own kindred.

The Torah gives no evidence that Isma’il ever went to Makkah during his life. But what about his children? We are told that Isma’il fathered twelve sons, whose place of living is specifically named:

They settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria.

– Genesis 25:18 –

Isma’il’s sons settled from Havila³ to Shur (which is opposite from Egypt on the Sinai Peninsula) in the direction of Assyria, which is north-east from Shur (in around modern-day Syria/ Iraq). Makkah however is located far in the south, in the opposite direction (see Figure 2). Not only did Isma’il live far from Makkah, but his sons didn’t live in that area either.

The story of Yusuf in the Torah gives further support for the location of the settlements of Isma’il’s sons east from Canaan, not south in Makkah. We are told that the men who sold Yusuf were Isma’ilites⁴ who were coming from Gilead (Genesis 37:25). Gilead is not in the south in the direction of Makkah, but east from Canaan in modern-day Jordan. So, the Isma’ilite traders were coming from the east, where they lived, and traveled to the west toward Egypt (see Figure 3).⁵

Let’s summarize what we have discussed so far:

1. According to the hadith, Isma’il came to Makkah as an infant and grew up there. However, according to the Torah, he spent his childhood in Palestine and moved to the Sinai Peninsula (modern-day Egypt) at the age of 16-17 years. There is no evidence that Isma’il ever went to Makkah.
2. According to the hadith, Isma’il married an Arab woman from the tribe of Jurhum. However, according to the Torah, he married an Egyptian woman. Therefore, his immediate descendants were non-Arabs, and definitely not Meccan Arabs.
3. According to the hadith, Isma’il raised up his children in Makkah. However, according to the Torah, his children did not live anywhere close to Makkah, but somewhere in or around modern-day Jordan.

Therefore, according to the Torah, Muhammad could not be a descendant of Isma’il or Ibrahim. If he’s not from the line of Ibrahim, then Muhammad cannot be a prophet by the Qur’an’s own criteria.

And even if one of Isma’il’s descendants settled in Makkah (for which there is no evidence) and thus became Muhammad’s ancestor, that would still contradict the Qur’an and the hadith. For they state that Mohammed became Isma’il’s descendant because Isma’il himself settled in Makkah.

Apart from Muhammad’s descendance from Ibrahim and Isma’il, another Muslim conviction is foundational for Islam—that Muhammad received revelation and prophethood in the same way as Musa did. Come with us in our next article to examine how everything began—the first time Muhammad received revelation in the cave of Hira: