Promise of a Great Nation (Abraham)

4 min readMay 20, 2024

Abraham will be blessed with a great nation. He will be a blessing and whoever blesses him will be blessed. However, which nation will he be blessed with? The line of Ishmael or the line of Isaac or both?

Video Explanation: https://youtu.be/-dD6Trrg5J0?feature=shared

God makes a covenant with Abraham in general, not one or the other son specified yet. His descendants meaning the line of Ishmael & Isaac.

Promise of a Great Nation (Ishmael)

Ishmael will be blessed, with increased number of offspring, and he will make him into a great nation What defines a great nation? Is it great in quantity or quality? Well God already mentions how he will be great in quantity as he says “will greatly increase his numbers”

In this passage for example, God was not happy with the children of Israel committing idolatry, and God expresses to destroy them & then make Moses into a great nation.

Great nation used in terms of quality, not quantity

Ishmaelites Fall Into Idolatry

Amr bin Luhai introduces idolatry to the Ishmaelites (The Sealed Nectar pg61 & 62)

Islam Fulfills Promise of Great Nation to Ishmael & Abraham

After the Conquest of Mecca, the Prophet Muhammad & the Muslims free Mecca from Idolatry and establishes monotheism.

As Islam fulfilled the promise to Ishmael, it also fulfilled the promise to Abraham as it spread around the globe, which wasn’t something the children of Isaac did.

Abu Umāmah (رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْه) Said: I asked, “O Prophet of Allāh, when was the beginning of the mention of your affair?” He replied, “It was the supplication of my forefather, Abraham, then the glad-tidings announced by Jesus. Then my mother saw emanating from her [at my birth] a light that illuminated the palaces of Syria-Palestine.”

Reference: Ahmad in Al-Musnad, 5/262, with a hasan (authentic) chain of narration, declared as such by Al-Albāni in As-Silsilah As-Sahīhah, 4/62, under hadith no. 1546

Rabbis Admit Islam Fulfilled the Promise

The Chumash, a book that contains a grouping of the greatest rabbinical commentaries of the Torah, mentions how the great nation foretold in Genesis 17 is Islam as you can read above.

We see that the fulfillment of the promise made to ishmael took 2333 years to be accomplished (with the coming of islam in the seventh century of the common era). [Translation from French to English]

This anthology of the Torah, is the work of one of the most illustrious Sephardic sages of the early 18th century, Rabbi Yaacov Couli. Considered a classic, this book is put in the same rank as the Talmud and the Michna! Many consider Meam Loez among the best commentaries ever written on the Torah!

In this book, it mentions on the above red part :

The promise of God related to Ismael would only come true 2333 years later. [God spoke to Abraham in the year 2047 of the creation (1715 BCE) and Islam only made its appearance 2333 years later meaning in the year 620 of the common era. Islam allowed the arabs, the descendants of Ishmael, to be become a global power]. For centuries, they waited to dominate the world. [Translation from French to English]