Eid al-Adha, or the Feast Of The Sacrifice. one of Islam's holiest days in the Islamic calendar, is religiously observed worldwide in commemoration of Abraham's obedience to God who commanded him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, but who substituted the object of sacrifice with a ram at the last minute.
Wonderful, but what's this about it being a missed opportunity?
Ah, had the early Moslems been wise enough to have accepted other aspects of Abraham's relationship with God instead of only this particular one involving animal sacrifice which benefits everyone as it involves the consumption or mass distribution of beef or mutton which not everyone can afford to eat everyday by the way, the Arabs of today, being descendants of Ishmael, would be entitled to the same land rights claimed by their eternal foes, the Israelites, as God gave the land of Canaan not only to the Israelites who were led out from Egyptian bondage by Moses but also to the Ishmaelites.
I. Genesis 12:1-9
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.
9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.
II. Genesis 13:12-18
12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. 13 Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.
14 The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. 15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”
18 So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord.
III. Genesis 17:8
The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
There it is, the Moslem World's biggest missed opportunity.
Had the early Moslems accepted what God said to Abraham about the land of Canaan and whom he was giving it to, the Arabs of today would have the same legitimate claims as their eternal foes the Israelites to a land they would not be fighting for with the bow and the sword which they have been doing for the last thirteen hundred years since the old days of the caliphates until this very day.
Ishmael was Abraham's firstborn, meaning Ishmael's descendants, the Arabs, enjoyed firstborn inheritance rights, and in the case of land inheritance rights, that would mean, had the descendants of Ishmael, the Arabs, laid claim to other aspects of Abraham's relationship with God and not just the one where Isaac was almost sacrificed on an altar as an offering to God which God did not instruct the Israelites to commemorate in any manner in any case, they, the descendants of Ishmael, the Arabs, would have a firstborn's right to say who gets which part of the inheritance and how large that portion would be and who gets the leftovers, if any, and how large or insignificant that portion would be.
A missed opportunity, wouldn't you agree?
