Genesis 21:1-34
1 The Lord took note of Sarah as He had promised, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. 2 Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken. 3 Abraham gave his newborn son, whom Sarah had borne him, the name of Isaac. 4 And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. 5 Now Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter; everyone who hears will laugh with me." 7 And she added,
"Who would have said to Abraham
That Sarah would suckle children!
Yet I have borne a son in his old age."
8 The child grew up and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
9 Sarah saw the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham playing. 10 She said to Abraham, "Cast out that slave-woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac." 11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly, for it concerned a son of his. 12 But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed over the boy or your slave; whatever Sarah tells you, do as she says, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be continued for you. 13 As for the son of the slave-woman, I will make a nation of him, too, for he is your seed."
14 Early next morning Abraham took some bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar. He placed them over her shoulder, together with the child, and sent her away. And she wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. 15 When the water was gone from the skin, she left the child under one of the bushes, 16 and went and sat down at a distance, a bowshot away; for she thought, "Let me not look on as the child dies." And sitting thus afar, she burst into tears.
17 God heard the cry of the boy, and an angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heeded the cry of the boy where he is. 18 Come, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him." 19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water, and let the boy drink. 20 God was with the boy and he grew up; he dwelt in the wilderness and became a bowman. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
In the Quran, the two stories are collapsed.
Quran, Sura 37:
[37:100][Abraham said] "My Lord, grant me righteous children."In the Jewish tradition, the great nation that Ishmael goes on to father is the Arab nation and, in the Islamic tradition, Mohammad is one of his descendants. What are we to make of the fact that each branch of the family claims that it was their ancestor that was offered to G-d as a sacrifice? It seems an odd sort of honor.
[37:101] We gave him good news of a good child.
Satanic Dream
[37:102] When he grew enough to work with him, he said, "My son, I see in a dream that I am sacrificing you. What do you think?" He said, "O my father, do what you are commanded to do. You will find me, GOD willing, patient."
[37:103] They both submitted, and he put his forehead down (to sacrifice him).
God Intervenes to Save Abraham and Ismail
[37:104] We called him: "O Abraham.
[37:105] "You have believed the dream." We thus reward the righteous.
[37:106] That was an exacting test indeed.
[37:107] We ransomed (Ismail) by substituting an animal sacrifice.
[37:108] And we preserved his history for subsequent generations.
[37:109] Peace be upon Abraham.
[37:110] We thus reward the righteous.
[37:111] He is one of our believing servants.
Birth of Isaac
[37:112] Then we gave him the good news about the birth of Isaac, to be one of the righteous prophets.
[37:113] We blessed him and Isaac. Among their descendants, some are righteous, and some are wicked transgressors.
The Torah story is the more psychologically complex. Sarah demands that Hagar and Ishmael be banished, but only after Isaac is born. Is that because she fears for Isaac's birth-right? Is it that she always hated Hagar and Ishmael, but knew that Abraham would not allow his only son, even one who's mother is a slave, to be exiled? With the impact of feminism on Jewish worship (which has been surprisingly beneficial), the more modern interpretation is that Sarah is a prophetess in her own right and that she is announcing G-d's will. Abraham, arguably strong in the story of Isaac's sacrifice, is shown in this story as weak and vacillating. G-d is shown as steadfast, holding on to His promises to Abraham even in unusual circumstances, which makes the story important for Christian theology. I was struck today by the passivity shown by Hagar and Ishmael, who from all the story shows, go into the desert with all the proper submission that Islam could wish. In the Torah story, though, Hagar and Ishmael are not sustained by their faith. Hagar loses hope and cannot bear to watch Ishmael die.
The Sura does not mention either Sarah or Hagar, and feminism has yet to come to Islam. Sura 37, much more than the story in Genesis, is about submission. Ishmael is told about his father's dream requiring his sacrifice. Ishmael, true to the theme of submission to Allah's will, agrees immediately and readies himself. On the other hand, as Islam rejects the possibility that Allah will not advocate evil, even as a test, tradition holds that the dream comes from Satan. In the two Torah portions dealing with the sacrifices of Abraham's sons, there is no question but that G-d is acting directly, nor is it at all clear (for Ishmael it is not even suggested) that this was only a test. In each telling, the son to be sacrificed is, at the time, the only son. In the Quran, Isaac has not yet been born, while in the Torah Isaac's sacrifice occurs after Ishmael has been banished. Each tradition is determined to show that its patriarch was special in his father's eyes and that each, being most-beloved of Abraham, was the only fitting sacrifice.
Now let's pretend for a moment that we are not dealing with sacred texts inspired by the Divine. Where does this leave us in the middle east? The great crusade on which we are currently embarked is to destabilize the middle east by establishing democracy. Through democracy and other inducements, we hope to settle the conflicts inflicting this part of the world. But while diplomats can work on territorial grievances, reparations and the settling of old scores where "old" means within the last fifty years, diplomats can do nothing to settle the problem of a sibling rivalry three thousand years old.
Judaism, with the fall of the second Temple and the diaspora, has been through a reformation. The priestly cast is gone and the age of rabbinic Judaism, in which it is sufficient to simply read about the Temple rituals, has come. Christianity has gone through its own reformation and the relationship between G-d and man and that between man and the church, has changed even in the Catholic Church. Islam, alone, has not been reformed. And yet Islam must be reformed if it is to take its place next to the other two great Abrahamic religions. A good place to start is at the beginning. Both the Torah and the Quran make clear that Abraham, though a problematic father figure, loved his two sons. Perhaps we need to stop caring, quite so much, which son he, and His G-d, loved more.
To all our friends at BrothersJudd, a happy and healthy new year, and a blessed Ramadan.
Posted by David Cohen at October 4, 2005 10:55 PM
2 comments:
Speaking of books, what's going on with the furry fascist? Main URL yelds a "Hello, World!", and the blog gets a 404 page. Has he wigged out and fled the country?
Joe: I get the same results, including a 404 at the MT control panel.
On topic: There's a tradition that, when Sarah sees Ishmael "playing," playing is a euphemism for something less creditable.
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