The Abrahamic Legacy: Beersheba or Mecca

Every time the term ‘Abrahamic Religion’ is mentioned in the news, the short version of the explanation of the term goes like this: Abraham had two sons, one is Ishmael, whom he had with his servant girl, Hagar, and Isaac, whom he had with his wife, Sarah. The descendants of Ishmael founded Islam, while the descendants of Isaac founded Judaism and Judaism 2.0, which is Christianity.

While in a nutshell that is what happened, the grand omission is here the issue of heritage. The Judeo-Christian narrative tells us that Abraham was promised a son in his old age by God. That didn’t happen outright, and Sarah, seeing herself becoming too old to bear a child, suggested that Abraham should have a child with their servant girl, Hagar. Abraham agreed, and they had a baby, Ishmael. Twelve years after Ishmael’s birth, however, God’s promise came true, and Sarah also became with child.

Genesis 21:8–13 (NIV) — The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”

So, Abraham agreed to cast Hagar and Ishmael away from their home and sent them to the Desert of Beersheba, where God provided for Hagar and Ishmael with the miracle of a well, just in the nick of time when their water supply ran dry.

Beersheba has become a city in modern-day Israel. From Jerusalem, it’s a two-hour drive or an 18-hour march if you’re on foot. The name itself means “Well of the Oath” or “The Seven Wells” — clearly describing God’s miracle-well that He gave Hagar and Ishmael. Muslims tell the same story about Hagar and Ishmael. Another one of those shared traditions of Islam and Judaism, one might think. However, Muslims call the miracle-well, the Well of Zamzam⁠. This name is not just a different name for the same place: the well of Zamzam is in Mecca, modern-day Saudi Arabia. It’s about 900 miles to the south of Beersheba, as the crow flies. Such a distance can be traversed by a pro-hiker on modern roads in probably a month. But this is before there were any rest stops and roads, and back in the day there was nothing but barren desert in that area. As someone who has ‘rucked’ through the desert, I can assure you that no child and mother will survive such a trip. The Well of Zamzam in Mecca simply cannot be the place where Hagar and Ishmael ran out of water. They would have perished long before coming anywhere near Mecca.

This example is another one of those instances, where on the surface Judaism and Islam have so many things in common, but once you scratch underneath the surface, you realize that Islam lifted a story from the pages of the Bible, twisted it, and claimed it for itself. In this case, by moving the well 900 miles to the south, Islam effectively argues that the Ishmaelite branch of Abraham is linked to the Zamzam Well in Mecca.

Linking Mecca to the story of Abraham and his son Ishmael also serves as the foundation of Islam’s claim that the Kaaba has been a monotheistic shrine all along. The story goes that Abraham frequently visited his son, Ishmael in Mecca to teach him about Allah. And at some point, Abraham decided to spend some quality time with Ishmael by starting a father-and-son masonry project: the Kaaba.

Qur’an 2:127— And remember Abraham and Isma’il raised the foundations of the House (With this prayer): “Our Lord! Accept (this service) from us: For Thou art the All-Hearing, the All-knowing.

Abraham lived out his final days in the area around modern-day Hebron. While it’s hardly feasible for the 100-year old Abraham to spend a whole month through the desert, and then another month for a return journey back, the Bible tells us that Ishmael never left very far from his father’s home. At the time of Abraham’s death, Ishmael was there to help Isaac bury his father’s body.

Genesis 25:8–10 (NKJV) — Then Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth.

The cave of Machpelah, also called the Cave of the Patriarchs, is located in the city of Hebron. Even Muslims recognize the place as Prophet Ibrahim’s resting place. The Caliph Umar built the Ibrahimi Mosque at the cave’s entrance. And up to this day, the mosque is managed by a Muslim foundation. If Ishmael truly resided way south in Mecca, it would be impossible for him to attend the funeral in Hebron. It would have taken a messenger a month to bring Ishmael the news of his father’s demise, and it would have taken another month for Ishmael to travel all the way from Mecca to Hebron. If Ishmael needed two months to arrive for Abraham’s funeral, there would be not much left of his father for him to bury.

So, if it was not for Hagar and Ishmael, what was the original significance of Mecca, the Kaaba and the Well of Zamzam before Islam? We know that Muhammad’s grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, vowed that he will sacrifice one of his children to the pre-Islamic god Hubal, if he succeeded in convincing the rest of his tribe to let him repair the Well of Zamzam. He did succeed in convincing the elders of the importance of his undertakings, and he also almost sacrificed the future father of the Prophet of Islam.

Can we learn of the wells original significance by studying Abd al-Muttalib?This and many other such answers will be discussed in my upcoming book: ‘How Muhammad Stole the Judeo-Christian Legacy’

Until that book is coming out in the following months, I will discuss several other findings I made regarding the beginnings of Islam on these pages.