Is Islam an Abrahamic Faith?

Abraham and the Angels
Arent de Gelder,  1680-1685

The Story of Abraham, the First Muslim

Islam is strictly and spiritually a Muhammadan faith, and as such, has no claim to Abraham as its spiritual founder, therefore is not an Abrahamic Faith. In addition, it is Islamic tradition that Muhammad descended from Abraham's son Ishmael, however, this also does not mean that the religion Muhammad founded is an Abrahamic Faith, for religion and faith are of the soul, spiritual and transcendent, and not transmittable by bloodline.

Adam Dodds, The Abrahamic Faiths? Continuity and Discontinuity in Christian and Islamic Doctrine, 2009, Evangelical Quarterly, 81-3, 230-253, argues that "the term 'Abrahamic Faith(s)', meaning faiths which have Abraham as their one spiritual source, is misleading, as it conveys an unspecified historical and theological commonality that is problematic on closer examination. While there is commonality among the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in large measure their perceived shared ancestry through Abraham is peripheral to respective foundational beliefs and thus conceals crucial differences." The main difference in this instance is that Abraham’s Creator God of love and life is not Muhammad’s lonely Islamic God in the sky, Allah, conveyer of hate and death. Both are not one and the same God. Only one is the God of Abraham.

The modern Arabs are sprung from two stocks, namely Joktan or Kahtan, the son of Eber mentioned in Genesis 10:25 and the other from Adan, descended from Ishmael, the son of Abraham by Hagar, an Egyptian slave. The descendants of Joktan call themselves Al Arab al Ariba, that is, pure Arabs, while the posterity of Adan are called Al Arab al Mosterba, that is, naturalized or mixed Arabs, because the posterity of Ishmael have no claim to be called pure Arabs since their ancestor, Abraham, both by origin and language, was a Hebrew.

However, since some Arabs are descendants of Ishmael, therefore partially an Abrahamic people by blood, the full spirituality of Islam comes from the founder of Islam itself – Muhammad – 600 years after the death of Christ. As such, Islam is not a spiritual Abrahamic Faith like Judaism and Christianity of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, but rather is a Muhammadan faith of Islam’s book, the Koran, which comes directly from Muhammad, who claimed that he had received it from the "Angel Gabriel". Therefore, there is no common eternal spiritual life down through the ages flowing directly from Abraham to the Koran.

Fr. J.L. Menezes’ The Life and Religion of Muhammad, 1911, says, “The ancient Arabs, situated as they were between the great populations of Asia and Africa, naturally possessed many religious features in common with Jews, Christians and various other religions, and originally acknowledged the existence of one supreme God, creator of the universe whom they called Allah Ta’ala, the most high God.”

The Blackstone of the Kabba

However, in the long history of 2,600 years from Abraham to Muhammad, the religion of the Arabs soon lost its earliest monotheism and for over 2000 years Arabs degenerated into gross idolatry, fetishism, animal worship, and star worship. The most celebrated and central object of pre-Islamic Arab worship was the black stone of Mecca, the Kaaba Stone. Then, after centuries of the multiplicity and variety of religions, along came Hanifism, whose Arab believers rejected the polytheism of their ancestors, sought freedom from sin and resignation to God’s will. Thus, it was only a step to Islam, but in the path from Hanifism to Islam, the false prophet Muhammad changed God’s inherent essence from the God of Love and Life to His opposite, Allah, the God of Hate and Death – another god altogether.

Muhammad flew from Mecca to Jerusalem and back in 
one night (The Night Journey) on his steed Buraq which 
had the face of a woman, the body of a horse, and the 
tail of a peacock.

In that vein, in order for Islam to be considered an Abrahamic Faith, Biblical stories had to be changed in the Koran to portray leading Biblical figures as Muslims. For instance, the Koran says that it was Ishmael, rather than Isaac, whom Abraham was instructed to sacrifice. The Biblical story of Adam and Eve was changed to the Islamic Adam and Eve falling to earth from heaven, meeting at Mecca, building the Kabba and placing into its foundation the black stone which also had fallen from heaven. Since “Abrahamic Faith” means a spiritual tradition identified with Abraham, the Koran says that Abraham was the FIRST MUSLIM. They also believe that Jesus was a Muslim, and will return to earth as a Muslim at the end of the world to convert or kill all Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims, not because Abraham believed any of this, but because Muhammad said that the Koran said that "Gabriel" said that Allah said that this was so. 

Therefore, for Islam to be a spiritual Abrahamic Faith, its eternal spiritual life must have originated from Abraham, a Hebrew, however there is no common Koranic spiritual lineage reaching forward in time from Abraham to Muhammad. "Gabriel" changed God’s word to its complete opposite meaning, including God’s attributes, and without the same Creator God of Abraham, Islam has no claim to be called an Abrahamic Faith.