The promise made by Yahweh to the ancestors in Genesis, including the promise of offspring, land, and blessing. Eventually the covenant becomes the essential part of this promise. Site HarperCollins Dictionary. Add this:. View The Video Gallery. Related Content 3. Abraham Abraham, the first patriarch in the book of Genesis, is a figure of memory, legend, and faith.
This journey and the temple it resulted in connects Ibrahim not only with Muhammad, but also with contemporary Islamic practice. In CE, Muhammad and his army marched victoriously against Mecca. In the biblical account, however, YHWH initiates the covenant as a promise that precedes law. Furthermore, YHWH guarantees its perpetuity based upon his own eternal purposes and faithful character.
Those are the ones who have purchased this present life with the price of Hereafter. The punishment will not be lightened for them, nor will they be helped. Obediently, Abraham goes, but before he slaughters Isaac, the angel of the Lord stops him. Looking up, Abraham sees a ram caught in the thicket, and offers it up as a burnt offering in the place of his son to the God who has provided a lamb of sacrifice for himself.
Unlike the Bible, Islam rejects the concept of substitutionary atonement. So let them not argue with you about the matter, but call them to your Lord. Surely you are indeed on a straight guidance. Therefore, in Islam, both the sacred pilgrimage hajj and the Eid al-Adha sacrifice performed to this day are directly connected to the story of Ibrahim and Ismail. If you want to learn to share your faith with a Muslim Friend, be sure to check out our free guide!
Ibrahim is the same name given to the patriarch in the Arabic Bible. Genesis — They address questions of life and death, rather than being simply explanations about how the world was created. At the end of Genesis 11, we are provided with a genealogy and Abraham becomes the new hope through which God will try and create a people to live by a certain set of values.
The important thing to learn here is the uniqueness of the Covenant relationship between God and Abraham. For the first time, we see the beginning of a two-way relationship: God doing something for Abraham, and Abraham doing something for God.
The blessings of God are passed on from one generation to another. The story of Abraham is about obedience to the will of God - not blind obedience, because the Bible stories tell us that Abraham frequently challenged God and asked questions. But in the end, he trusted this God who had made such extraordinary promises and in so doing formed a very special and personal relationship with God which, believers will argue, has continued through to the present day.
Abraham is an extraordinary figure in that almost alone of the Biblical characters he unites, or has the potential to unite, the three great monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. He's there in all of them - he's important in all of them. In the Christian mass Abraham is mentioned specifically; when Muslims pray five times a day, they mention Abraham in that connection; and when Jews look back in the Torah, particularly to the covenant they made with Yahweh that made them Yahweh's chosen people, that was done through Abraham.
He's the father of all faiths. There's a great movement going on, and particularly in the wake of September the 11th in the States, where Christians, Jews and Muslims get together in 'Abraham Salons' to talk about Abraham.
The idea is that in this world where we're terribly divided in faith, we will find a way forward through Abraham.
There's hope that he will bring these warring religious factions together. It's a lovely idea, and I think there's a lot of mileage in it. Abraham does have that uniting role. But I think the flip side of it, and unfortunately with religion there usually is a flip side, is that there are things about Abraham which emphasise the division of the different faiths.
For instance, Judaism and Islam can't even agree which of Abraham's sons it was that he offered in sacrifice. And most significantly, if Abraham is put in a political context, the Torah says that it was Abraham who received the covenant from Yahweh on behalf of the Jewish people, it made them the Chosen People, that Jews will say 'Because of Abraham, Jerusalem and the Holy Land is ours - God has given it to us. But of course in Islam, it's Abraham who is the first person who surrenders to Allah - and the very word 'Islam' means 'surrender' - so he's an incredibly significant figure in Islam as well.
From Islam's point of view, that surrender by Abraham, which again took place in that narrow disputed bit of land, means that Jerusalem and the Holy Land is for Islam. This is the foundation of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Since Sarah is childless she tells Abraham he should conceive a child with Hagar.
However, once Hagar becomes pregnant, her relationship with Sarah turns bitter. Hagar leaves home but an angel of God tells her she will bear a son, Ishmael and he will be the head of many tribes and she should return home to Abraham and Sarah. Hagar returns and Ishmael is born.
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