Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various SourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends
The Arabs call Hagar, Hagiar Anaï, the mother in chief, because of
Ishmael her son. They do not suppose that she was the bond-servant
of Sarah, but that she was the legitimate wife of the patriarch; and
she bore him Ishmael, who, as his eldest son, had the birthright, and
obtained, as his double portion of Abraham’s inheritance, the land of
Arabia, whereas to Isaac was given the inferior land of Canaan.
They say that Hagar died at Mecca, and that she was buried in the
exterior enclosure of the Kaaba, or square temple, built, say they, by
Abraham.
Near the tomb is the well of Zemzem, which is the fountain which God
revealed to her when she had been driven out of the house of Sarah, and
had fled into Arabia.
As has been already mentioned, the Mussulmans say that it was Ishmael
and not Isaac whom Abraham prepared to sacrifice. The story need not
be related again, as all the particulars in the Jewish legends are
absorbed into the Mussulman account.
One particular alone needs mention. Gabriel gave the ram to Abraham
in the place where Mussulman pilgrims now cast stones; namely, on the
mountain of Mina. But the ram escaped out of the hands of Abraham, and
the patriarch threw seven stones after it. Then Ishmael went forward,
and the ram halted. Ishmael went up to the ram and brought it to
Abraham, and he took it, and slew it. Some say that this was the same
ram that Abel had offered in sacrifice, and which had been preserved in
Paradise.[355]
Then God said to Abraham, “Go to Mecca along with Ishmael, and build me
the temple there.”
At Mecca had been the “Visited-house,” to which Adam went in
pilgrimage, and round which he walked in procession every year. When
the Flood came, this house had been caught up into heaven.
When Abraham went in obedience to the command of God to visit Ishmael,
and to call him to build the temple, he found him on a mountain engaged
in making arrows. He said to him, “O my son, God has ordered me to
build a house along with thee.”
Ishmael replied, “I am ready to obey, O my father.”
Then they prepared to build. But Abraham knew nothing of architecture.
God sent a cloud of the size of the Kaaba, to show them, by its shadow
on the ground, what were to be the dimensions of the house, and to give
them shade in which to build.
But some say that the Serpent arrived and instructed Abraham in the
proportions of the house. After that, Abraham and Ishmael began to
dig the trenches which were to receive the foundations; and they gave
them the depth of a man’s stature. Then they raised them to the level
of the soil; after that, they cut stones out of the neighboring rocks
for the walls of the edifice. Abraham built, and Ishmael handed the
stones. Now, when the wall got above his reach, Abraham placed a stone
on the ground, and stood upon that to build, and he left thereon the
impression of his foot. The stone remains to this day, and is called
Makam Ibrahîm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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