Ishmael in Jewish thought

Sir Martin Gilbert, "In Ishmael's House. The Prophet Muhammed and the Jews. p.18 - 19

"In Medina, the men and women were separated and put into different courtyards, the men with their hands tied behind their backs... The Jewish men were to be put to death, the women and children sold into slavery, and the possessions of the Jews divided as spoils among the Muslims. Mohammed exclaimed: 'You have judged according to the very sentence of Allah above the Seven Heavens!' Mohammed then gave orders for the judgment to be carried out. Henceforth, Muslims considered this judgement a divine revelation... On the following day, seven hundred Jewish men were taken to the market at Medina. Trenches were dug in the market square and the men, tied together in groups, were beheaded. Their headless bodies were then buried in the trenches while Mohammed watched... all Jewish males who had not yet reached puberty, and all the remaining women and girls, were sold into slavery. Some were given as gifts to Mohammed's companions. According to Mohammed's biographer Ibn Ishak, Mohammed chose as his wife one of the Jewish women, Rayhanda, whose husband had been among those executed. Thus ended Mohammed's third victory over the Jews...

In the fourteen centuries since Mohammed's death, Jews in Muslim lands have faced both cursing and protection. When cursed, they suffered; when protected, they flourished. The history of those years shows how intertwined that suffering and protection could be.

R.S.R.Hirsh Genesis 14:1

The story of the genesis of the Ishmaelite nation contains all the elements of the Ishmaelite character, which later emerged from potentiality into actuality. Cham's sensuality, Hagar's thirst for freedom, Avraham's spirit these are the basic threads from which the Arab national character was woven. The Arab nation, desceneded from Avraham and Hagar, is one sidedly Jewish.

We, the Jewish people, have been assigned by God a dual mission: a) אמונה, intellectual truths, which we are to absorb in our hearts and through which our minds are to develop; b) מצוה shaping in harmony with these truths, all of life according to the dictates of God's Will. In one respect, the intellectual - the Arab nation occupies a position of prominence. It developed with keen insight the idea of God, an idea bequeathed to it by Avraham. Consider the magnitude of the Arab influence: The ideas on the unity of God in the writings of the Jewish philosophers - to the extent that these ideas are developed philosophically - are based largely on the intellectual work of Arab thinkers. They attained אמונה but they did not attain the מצוות. It is not sufficient to have ideas about God's unity. To the mitzvah of שמע should be added the mitzvah of ואהבת, the practical subordination to Him of all faculties and aspirations בכל לב נפש ומאד. Toward this end it is not sufficient that Avraham is one's father, if Sarah is not one's mother. We are the people with whom the name 'Avraham' is associated, and our mission is not limited to disseminating theological and philosophical conceptions of God's unity. Rather, our mission is לשמור דרך ה׳ לעשות צדקה ומשפט, and that requires the subordination of all our faculties, especially physical energies and drives; in other words, it requires sanctification of the body. One one who sanctifies his body is entitled to be called a Jew.

Yishmael inherited from Avraham the sanctification of the intellect, but he did not inherit from Sarah the sanctification of the body. When a Jewish woman bears, nurses, and brings up her child, the child's body is sanctified from the very beginning.

R.Jonathan Sacks. Not in God’s Name. pp. 123 - 124

And Abraham expired, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people. Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the Cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre, the field which Abraham purchased of the children of Het. There was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife. (Gen. 25:8-10)

Ishmael’s presence at the funeral is surprising. After all, he had been sent away into the desert years before, when Isaac was young. Until now, we have assumed that the two half-brothers have lived in total isolation from one another. Yet the Torah places them together at the funeral without a word of explanation.

There is a Midrash in Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer, which may shed some light on this. It tells of how Abraham visited his son Ishmael twice after he had sent him away. On the first occasion, Ishmael was not at home. His wife, not knowing Abraham’s identity, refused to give the stranger bread and water. Ishmael divorced her and married a woman named Fatimah. This time, when Abraham visited, again in disguise, the woman gave him food and drink. The Midrash then says “Abraham stood and prayed before the Holy One, blessed be He, and Ishmael’s house became filled with all good things. When Ishmael returned, his wife told him about it, and Ishmael knew that his father still loved him.” Father and son were reconciled.

On the surface, the story of Isaac and Ishmael is about sibling rivalry and the displacement of the elder by the younger. Beneath the surface, however, the sages heard a counter-narrative telling the opposite story: the birth of Isaac does not displace Ishmael. To be sure, he will have a different destiny. But he too is a beloved son of Abraham, blessed by his father and by God. He becomes a great nation. God stays with him to ensure that his children flourish and become ‘twelve rulers’. Ishmael and Isaac both make a journey of reconciliation. The two half-brothers stand together at their father’s grave. There is no hostility between them. Their futures diverge, but they do not compete for God’s affection, which encompasses them both. This reading becomes all the more powerful when, in the Midrash, it is extended to the relationship between Judaism and Islam.

Crash Course in Islam: Who is Ishmael? In the Old Testament Abraham cannot have a child with his wife Sarah. So she gives him her handmaiden Hagar. With Hagar, Abraham has a child, a son Ishmael. Eventually though in her old age Sarah conceives of a child with divine help. That child is Isaac. After the birth of her son Sarah forces Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away from their home. Although in the Quran, it is Allah who tells Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael into the desert. Well some Jews and Christians believe they are descendants of Isaac, Muslims believe they are inheritors of Ishmael's legacy that they along with Jews and Christians are the children of Abraham. And they believe it was Ishmael not Isaac that Abraham almost sacrificed to God. Despairing of Ishmael's life is celebrated with the festival Eid Al Adha. When God spared Ismail the boy was replaced with a ram, it is because of this Muslims take animal sacrifices during the festival. Ishmael is highly regarded in Islam for his goodness and His wisdom. After wandering in the desert with his mother, they settled in Mecca. There it is believed Ismail built the Kaaba with Abraham.