Ismael

[malayloveislam]

The questions above are only for Christians, let it be for them. I'm just talking about what is in my religion.

Now, let us check who are the children of Israel? What is Israel, what is Jew, and what is Hebrew? Let us begin with the root of the Israelis, which is Ishaq the son of Abraham (pbuh) and the brother of Ishmael (pbuh) who dwells in the holy city Mecca of Hejaz.

Who is prophet Isaac (pbuh)?

The prophet Abraham had two sons which are prophet Ishmael and prophet Isaac (peace be upon them). The prophet Isaac (pbuh) was his second son born of Sarah, his wife.

When the prophet Abraham (pbuh) passed through an ordeal of sacrificing his affectionate son, prophet Ishmael (pbuh), a glad-tidings of the birth of another son, prophet Isaac (pbuh) was conveyed to him. It is meantioned in Quran:

"And We gave him the tiding of the birth of Ishaq, a prophet among the righteous." (translation of Surah as-Saffat vs. 112)

The prophet Abrahim (pbuh) had attained the age of one hundred years and Sarah was ninety. They had practically lost all hope of having an issue at this advanced age when the angel came to Prophet Abraham (pbuh)with the happy news of the birth of a wise son, his wife laughed and did not believe it. She remarked that she had passed the age and now it was simply a folly to expect a child.

This is how Isaac got his name when his mother Sarah, laugh after the good news about his coming birth. Isaac means laughing. In Arabic, it is a borrowed pronunciation of non-Arabic word. It is uttered as Ishaq (إسحق) from Hebrew Yitzhak. However, people did not notice that in Adnani Arabic, the word for laugh is Idh'hak (إضحك-ضحك).

The Qur'an tells us how this news was imparted to the prophet Abraham (pbuh) and his wife:

"And his wife standing by, laughed when We gave her good tidings (of the birth) of Isaac and after Isaac of Jacob. She said: Oh, Woe is me! Shall I bear a child when I am an old woman and this my husband is an old man? Lo! this is a strange thing. They said: wonder thou at the Commandment of Allah ? The mercy of Allah and His blessings be upon you, O, people of the House! Lo! He is Owner of Praise, Owner of Glory." (translation of Surah Hud 71-73)

The prophet Isaac (peace be upon him) was born as God willed. He was the chosen servant of God and his descendants were men of high spiritual rank and character. He was inspired to do noble deeds and establish right warship. He was generous at heart.

The Prophet Ishaq (pbuh) was married to Rebecca (Rubiqa) when he was forty years old. His wife gave birth to Esau (al-Ish) and Jacob (Ya'akob). When the Prophet Isaac (pbuh) grew old he lost his eye-sight. He passed away in Hebron at the age of 180 years. He was buried beside his father and mother.

 

[malayloveislam]

After analyzing the matters and the flow one by one, there is still no mention about Israel, Hebrew, or Jew yet when Isaac was born. When did these term being attached to the descents of Abraham (pbuh) from the son, Isaac (pbuh)? We'll see it one by one and not to make everyone confuse with too much details.

 

[malayloveislam]

Bani Israel

Etymologically, Bani means the children or the descendents. Israel is another name of Jacob (pbuh). He is the second son of Isaac (pbuh) the son of Abraham (pbuh). He immigrated to Haran which is now in northern Syria where he married there and the first generation of Jacob or Israel expands.

However, in certain time, the children of Israel are not always with Jew identity because many of them are actually non-Jew. Jew is a term that referring a religion or a tribe of a race. If we see this in religious perspective, Jew refers to the Jewish without taking into account whether they are ethnically a Jew or not.

Halakha which is the religious law in Judaism had stated that a Jew is a person with the mother who is a Jew, or a person who embraced Judaism and following the law code of Judaism.

These definitions had been an obligatory condition for a Jew in Talmud which is the non-written source of Judaism jurispundence. It is also interpreting the Torah which is the first source of Judaism. According to Talmudic source, these definitions was hold since the 10 Commandaments being revealed to Moses (pbuh) in Sinai mountain more than 3, 500 years ago. Non-orthodox Jewish historians believe that these definitions had not been closely followed for about 1, 500 years. However they agreed that these definitions are used since 2, 000 years ago till now.

In the end of 20th C, two Jewish movements especially in the US who hold liberal thinking in theology which are the Reformed Judaism and the Reconstructed Judaism had agreed in accepting a person who does not fulfill the critereas that had been mentioned in Talmud to be a Jew. They also do not make the traditional customs in receiving a new Jew as an obligation. They too accepting a Jew whose father is a Jew, and not only those with a Jew mother.

 

[north_malaysian]

malayloveislam.. what do you know about the theory saying that the Malays are descendants of Ketura, the third wife of Abraham?

 

[malayloveislam]

The sons of Jacob a.k.a Israel

As we can see, Jacob (pbuh) has 13 sons. 11 of his sons are mentioned in Quran as Ikhwaanul-Yousuf (brothers of Yousuf).

From the mother, Laya which is the cousin of Jacob (pbuh) from his mother side:

Yahuda (this is how Jew comes to be known and Anglicized today as Jew)
Robel
Syam'oun (Simeon)
Lawa
Rubbalun
Yasyiur
Dinah

From two mothers which are the servants of Jacob (pbuh), Balhah and Zulhah

Dann
Naftaly
Jad
Asyir

From the mother, Rouhil, which is the sister of Laya:

Yousuf (the prophet Joseph)
Bunyamin (Benjamin)

Yousuf (Joseph) had been separated from his father when his 11 jealous brothers had cast him in a well. I'm sure Christians friends also have their version of this story. Jacob (pbuh) is so sad and he cried until his eyes are almost blind. However, Jacob (pbuh) was granted a miracle by G-d which is he can smells everything which is 8 days distance. This is what we know from the part where he smells the shirt of Joseph (pbuh) (Tafsir al-Munir I pg. 398).

Although his 11 brothers had done sinful acts by casting him in the well, Joseph (pbuh) had forgiven them because all of them repent. This is just the short story, any further details you can check Surah Yusuf in al-Quran. After Jacob (pbuh) met again his son, Joseph (pbuh), he lived there in Egypt for 23 years. Jacob passed away when he reached 147 years old the same age his twin brother Esau (al-Ish) passed away. On the will of his father, Jacob (pbuh) brought his father body to Syria and buried him there in the same grave of Esau (al-Ish). During this time, it is still permisible for people to be buried in the same grave, however when prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was sent, it is different.

In the time of Joseph (pbuh), the children of Jacob or Israel in Egypt are only 72 people. But in the time of Moses, the Israeli population had reached 600.570 people. They had followed Moses (pbuh) to Palestine after being oppressed by Coptic Pharaohs. When the Israeli were oppressed in Egypt, they were called as Abiru in Coptic. Abiru means Slave. It is uttered as Ibrani in Arabic while in Hebrew it is Ivrith. Now, it is a bit clear what Hebrew means. The distance of the time between Joseph and Moses is about 400 years. (Tafsir Munir I page 418)

From Jacob (pbuh) or Israel there are several prophets

Beginning from Jacob, Joseph, Job (Ayyoub), Ilyasaa, Yesaya (Yus'ya'), Hezekiel (Hizqiel), Shamuel (Samuel), Davud (David), Shlomon (Sulaiman), Sya'ya, Zechariah (Zakaria), John (Yahya/Yukhana), and Jesus (Isa/Yasuu').

 

[malayloveislam]

malayloveislam.. what do you know about the theory saying that the Malays are descendants of Ketura, the third wife of Abraham?

I could not speculate more about that although I also had heard in certain forum like in Cari.com about this theory. However, every human in the world is brother and sister to each other since our first father is Adam (pbuh) :statisfie.

 

[Grace Seeker]

I'm sorry about long winding posts about Arabs. I think that the Semite term had been associated too much with Hebrews a.k.a Jews. This will happen to be flooding because Western friends might not understand. The Hebrew stories is so much influencing Western friends and accepted without any further continuation of the related stories.

Nothing wrong with your "long winding posts about Arabs" for they are very informative of things I did not know, but I think you might be overly worried about nothing in terms of the Western understanding for who are and are not semites:

from the Encyclopedia Britanica

Semite
people

Person speaking one of a group of related languages, presumably derived from a common language, Semitic (see Semitic languages). The term came to include Arabs, Akkadians, Canaanites, some Ethiopians, and Aramaean tribes including Hebrews. Semitic tribes migrated from the Arabian Peninsula, beginning c. 2500 bc, to the Mediterranean coast, Mesopotamia, and the Nile River delta. In Phoenicia, they became seafarers. In Mesopotamia, they blended with the civilization of Sumer. The Hebrews settled at last with other Semites in Palestine.

from Wikipedia

In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical "Shem", Hebrew: שם, translated as "name", Arabic: ساميّ) was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. This family includes the ancient and modern forms of Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Ge'ez, Hebrew, Maltese, Phoenician, Tigre and Tigrinya among others.

As language studies are interwoven with cultural studies, the term also came to describe the extended cultures and ethnicities, as well as the history of these varied peoples as associated by close geographic and linguistic distribution.

The following is a list of ancient Semitic peoples:
Akkadians — migrated into Mesopotamia in the late 4th millennium BC and amalgamate with non-Semitic Mesopotamian (Sumerian) populations into the Assyrians and Babylonians of the Late Bronze Age.[2][3]
Eblaites — 23rd century BC
Aramaeans — 16th to 8th century BC[4][5] / Akhlames (Ahlamu) 14th century BC[6]
Ugarites, 14th to 12th centuries BC
Canaanite language speaking nations of the early Iron Age:
Amorites
Ammonites
Edomites
Hebrews/Israelites — founded the kingdom of Israel and Judah, the remnants of which became the Jews and Samaritans
Syrian Malabar Nasranis
Knanaya
Moabites
Phoenicians — founded Mediterranean colonies including Carthage
Old South Arabian speaking peoples
Sabaeans of Yemen — 9th to 1st c. BC
Ethio-Semitic speaking peoples
Aksumites — 4th c. BC to 7th c. AD
Arabs, Old North Arabian speaking Bedouins
Gindibu's Arabs 9th c. BC
Lihyanites — 6th to 1st c. BC
Thamud people — 2nd to 5th c. AD
Ghassanids — 3rd to 7th c. AD
Nabataeans — adopted Arabic in the 4th century AD

from Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary

1 a: a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs b: a descendant of these peoples
2: a member of a modern people speaking a Semitic language

Only the uneducated and intentionally uninformed would think that semite only refers to Hebrews, and even that term is inclusive of more than just Jews.