📜 Ishmael: The Fruit of Abraham, Isaac: The Divine Gift

An Islamic Perspective on Surah 21:72 and the Word “نَافِلَةً”

🌴 Ishmael – The Firstborn and the Fulfillment of Prayer

In Islamic tradition, Prophet Ishmael (Ismā‘īl عليه السلام) is the eldest son of Prophet Abraham (Ibrāhīm عليه السلام) through Hagar (Hājar عليها السلام). His birth is seen as the direct fruit of Abraham’s life and efforts — a response to his longing for a child and the covenantal blessing from Allah.

Ishmael’s story is inseparable from the sacred legacy of Mecca:

• As an infant in the desert, God miraculously provided the well of Zamzam for him and his mother.

• Together with Abraham, Ishmael later constructed the Kaaba (House of God), the spiritual epicenter of Islam.

• Most significantly, many Islamic traditions identify Ishmael as the son in the intended sacrifice. The Qur’an (Surah 37:100–112) narrates the event without naming the son, but the sequence of events — where the announcement of Isaac’s birth follows the sacrifice — strongly implies Ishmael was the one involved.

This near-sacrifice is commemorated annually in Eid al-Adha, symbolizing submission to God’s will.

🌾 Isaac – A Divine Gift After the Trial

As a divine gift after Abraham’s test of faith through the sacrifice, the Qur’an narrates that God blessed him with another son, Prophet Isaac (Ishāq عليه السلام), through his wife Sarah. This is where Surah 21:72 becomes important:

“And We gave him Isaac, and Jacob as an additional gift (نَافِلَةً), and all [of them] We made righteous.”

The Arabic word نَافِلَةً means “an addition,” “extra,” or “bonus.” In this context, Isaac (and his son Jacob) was not replacing Ishmael, but rather a special addition granted after Abraham’s monumental trial.

✨ Theological Significance of “نَافِلَةً”

1. Abundance of Blessing – Ishmael had already fulfilled Abraham’s longing for a son. Isaac’s arrival, along with Jacob’s prophetic lineage, represented an overflow of divine favor.

2. Recognition of Prophetic Continuity – By mentioning Isaac and Jacob together as “نَافِلَةً,” the Qur’an highlights that this was not just an extra child, but an additional prophetic branch in Abraham’s lineage.

3. A Reward for Unwavering Faith – The placement of this verse after Abraham’s great trial underlines that these blessings were a reward for his total submission to Allah.

🕌 Two Lines of Prophethood

From an Islamic perspective, the Qur’an distinguishes between:

• Ishmael’s Line → Culminating in Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, connected to Mecca and the Abrahamic Covenant.

• Isaac’s Line → Leading to the prophets of Bani Israel, connected to the Sinai Covenant.

Thus, Ishmael is seen as the fruit of Abraham’s striving, while Isaac is the divine bonus gift, making both sons integral to the fulfillment of God’s promises.

💡 In essence, “نَافِلَةً” in Surah 21:72 is not just a linguistic detail — it is a theological key that unlocks the understanding that Isaac and Jacob were an extraordinary divine gift granted after Ishmael, underscoring God’s overflowing generosity toward Abraham.

🌿 Circumcision in Pre-Islamic Arabia: An Abrahamic Legacy Beyond the Torah

🌍 Introduction

🧭 Interestingly, long before the rise of Islam, ancient Arabs in Mecca practiced circumcision—often performing the rite at the age of thirteen or fourteen. This raises an important historical and theological question: did this practice originate from Jewish law, which mandates circumcision on the eighth day after birth, or does it reflect an older Abrahamic tradition that predates the Torah itself?

🪶 A closer examination of chronology, ritual practice, and Abrahamic lineage strongly suggests that circumcision among the Arabs of Mecca was not borrowed from Judaism, but rather inherited as a primordial covenantal rite tracing back to Abraham himself.

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📜 Circumcision Before the Torah

📖 The Torah’s commandment of circumcision on the eighth day (Genesis 17:12) is often assumed to be the original source of the practice. However, the biblical narrative itself indicates that circumcision predates the Mosaic Law. Abraham was circumcised as an adult, and his son Ishmael was circumcised at the age of thirteen (Genesis 17:24–25), long before the revelation of the Torah at Sinai.

🧠 This detail is crucial. It shows that circumcision originally functioned not as a legalistic ritual tied to a fixed infancy timeline, but as a sign of covenantal submission to God—performed at an age associated with moral awareness and personal accountability.

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🕰️ The Age of Thirteen and the Abrahamic Pattern

📌 The fact that ancient Arabs circumcised their children around the age of thirteen or fourteen closely mirrors the age at which Ishmael was circumcised. This parallel is difficult to dismiss as coincidence. Rather, it points to a preserved Abrahamic memory, transmitted through generations of Ishmael’s descendants independently of Jewish law.

🔍 If Arab circumcision were derived directly from Judaism, we would expect conformity to the Torah’s eighth-day requirement. Instead, the persistence of circumcision at adolescence suggests continuity with Abraham’s first covenantal act—before the Torah, before Israel, and before Sinai.

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🌐 Independent Transmission of Abrahamic Tradition

🧬 Abraham is recognized as a common ancestor of both Jews and Arabs, yet the two lineages developed distinct ritual expressions of shared Abrahamic practices. Judaism formalized circumcision within a legal framework tied to infancy, while the Ishmaelite tradition appears to have retained an older form of the rite—performed at the threshold of maturity.

🏺 This divergence supports the idea that ancient Arabian circumcision was not an imitation of Jewish custom, but a parallel inheritance rooted in a shared patriarchal past. The tradition survived in Arabia as part of a living Abrahamic legacy, even as other elements of Abrahamic monotheism became obscured over time.

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☪️ Islam and the Restoration of Abrahamic Practice

🕌 Islam later re-affirmed circumcision as part of the fitrah—the natural disposition associated with Abrahamic monotheism—without fixing it to a specific age in the Qur’an. This flexibility reflects the original Abrahamic character of the practice: a sign of covenant and submission rather than a rigid legal requirement.

✨ In this sense, Islam did not introduce circumcision to Arabia, nor did it borrow it from Judaism. Instead, it restored and re-contextualized an ancient Abrahamic rite that had already existed among the Arabs of Mecca for centuries.

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📚 Conclusion

🧾 The practice of circumcision among pre-Islamic Arabs is best understood not as a derivative of the Torah, but as a vestige of an older Abrahamic covenant that predates Jewish law. The age at which the rite was performed, its deep cultural entrenchment, and its alignment with Ishmael’s circumcision all point toward an independent transmission rooted in Abraham himself.

🌟 Thus, circumcision in ancient Mecca stands as historical testimony to a shared Abrahamic inheritance—one that existed before the Torah, endured outside Israel, and was ultimately reaffirmed through Islam as part of the universal legacy of Abraham.

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— Azahari Hassim

Founder, The World of Abrahamic Theology