http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE37P77dQKsIn order to make the claim that Mohammed was descended from Ishmael, 8th century Islamic history creator Ibn Ishak even invented a genealogy for him. This was of course done without a single historical reference that preceded Mohammed. Sadly, for Muslims - even today - Ishak's genealogy trumps the one we received through Moses and the record of the Old Testament. Not only did Ishaq assign what were, from his tribe the Quraysh, at the time modern Arabic language names to the characters he created in Mohammed's lineage, that were supposed to have lived thousands of years before, but he included only 40 generations between the two.
There are 2,670 years between Ishmael and Mohammed. Suggesting only 40 generations, would require over 66 years per generation. Yet we know from actual Arabian historical record that the average Arabian generation was about 17-20 years.
Mohammed himself had a 6 year old "wife", that he consummated his marriage with when she was 9 years old, so a generation of 17-20 years is not a surprise. Indeed Muslims try to legitimize that marriage by declaring that desert dwelling girls reached sexual maturity earlier than girls in other parts of the world, and that is what they suggest determines whether a girl is of child bearing age, though I don't believe the medical community would agree. Indeed Mohammed's violation of a 9 year old is perhaps what made Aisha barren.
So then the 2,670 years between Ishmael and Mohammed, divided by 20 year generations, would have required over 133 Arabic generations between them. So Ishak not only invented characters of a couple thousand years before, and ascribed 8th century style Arabic names to them, but also spanned 2,670 years with only 40 generations.
However, according to many hadith writers, Mohammed himself prohibited any tracing of his genealogy past the 17th generation. This is one reason that Ibn-Ishak was considered by the Muslim scholars of his time as being guilty of forgery and fabricating false genealogies. From "Islam: In Light of History".
"Long before Ibn Ishak, Muslims who lived in Mohammed's own time also fabricated genealogies in an attempt to connect Mohammed to the descendants of Ishmael. Mohammed, himself rejected all of those false genealogies, and he put limits regarding the genealogy of his ancestors. Amru bin al-As wrote:
'Mohammed genealogized himself regarding his ancestors until he reached al-Nather bin Kinaneh, then he said 'anyone who claimed otherwise or added further ancestors, has lied.'"
A couple thousand years of history isn't something that is recalled and recorded by a single man, 2,000 years later, but rather is the result of a record that has been noted by the people that lived in or near the times that were written about. Whether in cave paintings, on stone monuments, bowls, pottery, or a written record of the times. Yet Islamic "tradition" was recorded without any reference to historical record that predated the late 6th century.
Muslims even today hold that Mohammed was a descendant of Ishmael, not only in spite of Mohammed's own prohibition against it, but even in light the fact that the name Ishmael does not occur in a single instance within the archaeological or historical record of Arabia, prior to the pens of the 7th and 8th century Islamic "tradition" creators. Compare that with the use of the name Isaac, throughout the history of Israel, for example.
To our Muslim friends, will you continue to reject the 1600 year record of God to mankind, through all of the prophets and witnesses of God's Word, to follow the rehashed fables, flying camels, and fictional history of 7th and 8th century writers, that did little more than expand on Ibn Ishak's fictional history?
Why not drop by the Muslims4Jesus channel and listen to testimonies of former Muslims that have come to know the love of the one true God through a personal relationship? May God bless you and guide you to the truth of His Son our Savior, Jesus Christ.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
