God chose Abraham for a particular special purpose. The Bible states that God told him, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you, all the families of the earth shall bless themselves” (Genesis 12.1-3). The Qur'an also confirms that God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations: “Lo: I have appointed thee a leader for mankind” (Sura 2.124). Almost every sincere Muslim in the world celebrates the festival of Eid al-Adha with great feeling. This festival is observed in memory of the sacrifice that Abraham offered God. Muslims believe that God put Abraham to the test by asking him to sacrifice his son. At the right moment, God provided a ram to be sacrificed. In the Quran, we read of Abraham that God “gave him tidings of a gentle son. And when his son was old enough to walk with him, Abraham said: O my dear son, I have seen in a dream that I must sacrifice thee” (Surah 37.100-102). Muslim exegetes claim it was Ishmael, not Isaac, as the Bible states in Genesis 22. However, the Qur’an does not state whether that son was Ishmael or Isaac. Among early Muslims, several key figures believed it was Isaac, not Ishmael ...