Who Was the Son in Abraham's Dream?

Which son did Abraham see in the dream? The Jewish tradition has always insisted it was Isaac. The Quran and the Torah, examined honestly, both indicate it was Ishmael.

• See: Abraham's Sacrifice

The Quranic Evidence

1 - The Consistent Order of Names

There are six verses in the Quran in which both Ishmael and Isaac are mentioned. In every single one of them, Ishmael is named first and Isaac second. This is not accidental repetition - it is a deliberate sequence that reflects the chronological reality: Ishmael came before Isaac.

[2:133] We worship your God and the God of your fathers, Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac: One God, and to Him we are Submitters.

[2:136] We believe in God and in what was brought down to us, and in what was brought down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes...

[2:140] Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes were Jewish or Christian?

[3:84] We believe in God, and in what was brought down upon Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes...

[4:163] We inspired Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes...

[14:39] Praise be to God for granting me, despite my old age, Ishmael and Isaac.

Across six separate verses, the Quran places Ishmael before Isaac without exception. The son who was old enough to accompany Abraham and participate in the events of the dream was therefore Ishmael - the firstborn.

2 - The Pledge of the House

In 2:125, God recalls a pledge taken from Abraham and Ishmael together regarding the purification of the Sacred House. Isaac is not mentioned:

[2:125] And We took a pledge from Abraham and Ishmael: "Purify My House for those who visit and those who retreat there for worship, and for those who bow and prostrate."

This indicates either that Isaac had not yet been born at this time, or that he was still an infant - too young to participate in a formal pledge to God.

3 - The Building of the House

The same pattern appears in 2:127, which describes the construction of the House:

[2:127] And when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House, together with Ishmael: "Our Lord, accept this from us. You are the Hearer, the Knowledgeable."

Once again, Isaac is absent. If Isaac had been born and of sufficient age to contribute, his participation would have been recorded. The consistent absence of Isaac from these foundational events confirms that he had not yet arrived on the scene when they took place.

4 - The Sequence of Events in Chapter 37

The most decisive Quranic evidence comes from the internal sequence of the narrative in chapter 37. Reading the passage in order:

[37:100-102] My Lord, grant me of the righteous ones. So We gave him the good news of a forbearing boy. Then when he was old enough to accompany him, he said, "O my son, I see in a dream that I am slaughtering you..."

The narrative continues through the dream, the near-slaughter, God's intervention, and His words of praise for Abraham. Then, immediately after:

[37:112] And We gave him the good news of Isaac, a prophet from among the righteous.

The announcement of Isaac's coming arrives after the events of the dream have concluded. This sequence is unambiguous: God gave Abraham news of a forbearing boy, that boy grew old enough to accompany his father, the dream and the intended slaughter occurred, God intervened, and then - only then - was Abraham given news of Isaac. The forbearing boy of the dream was not Isaac. He could not have been. Isaac had not yet been announced. The boy was Ishmael.

The Torah Evidence

The Jewish insistence that the son was Isaac is particularly striking because their own scripture contains sufficient evidence to refute it.

The relevant chronology is established plainly in the Torah itself. Abraham was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born (Genesis 16:16). He was one hundred years old when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5). Ishmael was therefore fourteen years older than Isaac.

The command recorded in Genesis 22:2 instructs Abraham to sacrifice his "only son." Isaac was never an only son - from the moment of his birth, he had an older brother. Ishmael, however, was Abraham's only son for fourteen years. The phrase "only son" can only accurately describe Ishmael.

Faced with this, the Jewish tradition has advanced the argument that Ishmael was an illegitimate son - born of a servant woman rather than a proper wife - and therefore does not count when the Torah speaks of Abraham's "only son." This argument fails on multiple grounds, all drawn from the Torah itself.

First, Genesis 21:13 records God acknowledging Ishmael explicitly as Abraham's seed and promising a great nation from him: "I will make the son of the slave woman into a nation also, because he is your own seed." God does not acknowledge illegitimate children as the foundation of nations.

Second, the claim that Ishmael was illegitimate because Hagar was a servant is directly contradicted by Genesis 16:3, which records that Hagar was given to Abraham as his wife - not as a concubine, not as a servant retained in her previous role, but as a wife: "Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian... and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife." A son born of a legitimate wife is a legitimate son. The Torah's own language leaves no room for the illegitimacy argument.

Third, Genesis 16:11 records that Ishmael's very name was given to him by God through an angel: "You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has listened to your affliction." God does not name illegitimate children through angelic announcement.

Ishmael was Abraham's seed, acknowledged by God. He was born of Hagar, who was given to Abraham as a wife. His name was bestowed by divine instruction. Every pillar of the illegitimacy argument collapses against the Torah's own text.

Conclusion

Both the Quran and the Torah, read on their own terms, point to the same conclusion: the son in Abraham's dream was Ishmael, not Isaac.

The Quran places Ishmael before Isaac in every verse that mentions both, records foundational events - the pledge of the House, the construction of the Kaaba - in which only Ishmael participates, and narrates the dream within a sequence in which Isaac's birth is announced only after the dream has already occurred. The Torah records that only Ishmael was ever Abraham's only son, acknowledges him as legitimate seed named by God, and documents that his mother Hagar was given to Abraham as a wife.

The Jewish claim that the son was Isaac is not supported by either scripture. It appears to have been introduced in order to sever the prophetic lineage of the Arabs - the descendants of Ishmael - from the covenant God made with Abraham. But God's own words in both the Quran and the Torah are sufficient to refute it. What God acknowledged as legitimate, no subsequent tradition can render otherwise.