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I am writing this in fulfilment of the promise I made to a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police who phoned from Abakaliki, Ebonyi State penultimate Sunday, August 8 (8/8). He called in the evening of the morning I took the decision not to write on Bible issues again to ask if there was anywhere in the Bible that Ishmael was the son God told Abraham to sacrifice.
I told him the answer was no and that his name is only in the Qur’an which the Heavenly Father was reported to have dictated to Prophet Muhammad (Mohammed). I then promised him that I would write on the establishment of Christianity and Islam to enable everyone to have a clear idea on the substitution of Isaac in the Christian Holy Book with Ishmael in the Koran.
The ideal thing would have been to have only one religion in the world, Judaism the first faith founded by Abraham the ancestor of the Jews and Arabs about 1800B.C. If that had happened, the ill – feelings the adherents to Judaism have for those in Christianity and Islam would not have been. Neither would there have been rivalry or hatred between Christians and Muslims.
But circumstances made the Ancient of Days to have raised Jesus Christ to bring Christianity when he was 30 years old (Luke 3:23), which was one thousand, eight hundred and thirty years after Judaism was established. And Prophet Muhammad to establish Islam in 622 – 632AD which was two thousand, four hundred and twenty – two years after Judaism was founded and five hundred and ninety – two years to six hundred and two years after Christianity came.
The Lord had to raise Jesus and Muhammad because the Jews saw Judaism as a religion exclusive to them and made no attempt to spread it around the world as the Christians and Muslims later did with their faiths. They had this belief because Judaism was derived from Judah the name of the fourth son Leah had for Jacob (Genesis 29:35) which was also the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel (Genesis 35:22 – 26).
Furthermore, the Jews saw Judaism as a religion meant for them only because of the statement in Deuteronomy 6:4 – 5 that says: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shall love the Lord their God with all thine heart and with all thine soul and might.” To them the Lord addressed the people of Israel not the people of the world.
Till today Judaism is practiced largely by the Jews living in Israel and those of them in the Diaspora as well as a few men and women of other countries in the world. The population of Israel in 2019 shows that 74.2% of the people belonged to Judaism, 17.8% to Islam, 2% to Christianity and 1.6% to Druze faith. While the adherents to Baha’i Samaritanism and other religions make up the remaining 4.4%. Most Jews do not accept Jesus as a Messiah and son of God. They regard him as an impostor. More on this later in the series.
If the overwhelming majority of the Israelites (Israelis in modern times) refused to join the religion Jesus Christ, a Jew or Hebrew like them introduced, how can anyone expect the Arabs to have accepted Christianity. This is more so because God in Genesis 16:11 – 15 said that “Ishmael will be against everyone and everyone will be against him.”
This was why the Most High Lord had to raise Prophet Muhammad, an Arab to bring Islam to his people. As reported in the introduction to the Koran, many years after Abraham died the Arabs abandoned Judaism which Ishmael introduced in Egypt and other Arab countries and started to worship idols.
In telling Abraham to send away Hagar Almighty God had promised that like Isaac “He will also give many children to Ishmael so that they will become a nation. He too is your son.” The Lord in Genesis 21:17 – 18 also repeated that He would make a great nation out of Ishmael’s descendants when He spoke with Hagar on her way back home to Egypt. With the promise He made the Ancient of Days had the responsibility to save the Arabs by making Prophet Muhammad to bring Islam so that they too like the Judaists and Christians can make Heaven.
Since the Heavenly Father told me in 2009 that Christians and Muslims worshipped Him, I believe it was to make the Arabs to accept Islam that made the King of kings who dictated the contents in the Qur’an to have it in the Muslim Holy Book that the son Abraham was to sacrifice was Ishmael, not Isaac as in the Bible. If the substitution had not be done in the Koran many Arabs would probably not have embraced Islam. And as our creator, does the Lord not have the right to say or do what He likes or wants and who can question Him on such issues?
Ishmael was born when Abraham was 86 years old (Genesis 16:15 – 16) and was 14 years older than Isaac who was born when his father was 100 years old (Genesis 21:1 – 5). So, it is logical for the Arabs and Muslims to believe that Ishmael who was older than Isaac was the one Abraham wanted to sacrifice.
The substitution of Ishmael in the Qur’an for Isaac in the Bible confirms God’s statement in Isaiah 55: 8 – 9 where He said: “My thoughts are not like yours and my ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and thoughts above yours.”
And did the Supreme Being not show this when He chose 80 – year – old Moses (Exodus 7:6), a stammer (Exodus 4:10 – 17) to lead six hundred thousand men not counting the women and children (Exodus 12:37 – 42) on a 40 – year journey from Egypt to Canaan, the Promised Land? To human beings the Lord should have chosen fluent 83 – year – old Aaron to lead the Exodus instead of making him to always address the people on behalf of Moses who had speech problem.
The same with the Ancient of Days choice of Prophet Muhammad, a stammer who also could not read or write and depended on educated and smooth – speaking people to tell him what the Most High wrote in Qur’an He gave him. This just shows the Extraordinary Personality and Superior Being the Lord is as someone who can get anyone no matter the condition to perform perfectly to the surprise of human beings.
To be continued Wednesday next week
10 topmost Lagosians – Chief (Sir) Adeyemo Alakija, of Egba ancestry
A lawyer, politician and businessman he was born on Saturday, May 25, 1884 in Lagos to Mr. Marculino (sometimes called Elemeji) Assumpcao and Mrs. Maxmilliana Assumpcao who later changed the family’s name to Alakija. They were freed slaves from Bahia in Brazil. His eldest brother Maxwell Porphyrio Assumpcao – Alakija practiced law in Bahia before the family returned to Nigeria.
Another brother of his, Barrister Olayimika Alakija was his law partner and a member of the Nigerian Legislative Council in the 1940s. Their father was of Egba ancestry while their mother was the daughter of Alfa Cyprian Akinosho Tairu of Oyo. Sir Alakija was the youngest and last – born of his parents seven children.
His elder sister, Tejumade Assumpcao Alakija was one of the Oloris (wife) of His Royal Majesty Sir Samuel Ladapo Ademola, the Alake of Egbaland from Friday, September 24, 1920 to Thursday, December 27, 1962 who became Lady Tejumade Ademola. Sir Alakija started his secondary education at St. Gregory’s College, Lagos a Catholic institution but ended it at Church Missionary Society (CMS) Grammar School, Lagos founded by the Anglican Church.
