Nepali Wanderer

Once upon a time, there lived a man named Abraham in a place called Ur, in present-day Iraq, Mesopotamia. At that time, polytheism was common, meaning people worshiped many gods, often through idols.

Abraham worked in his father’s idol shop but never saw the point of worshipping idols created by humans. He frequently questioned their rationale. One day, Abraham had a revelation from God, who told him that there is only one God, not many as most people believed. God also commanded Abraham to leave his father’s house and move to a land called Canaan, present-day Israel-Palestine.

Despite being promised offspring by God, Abraham and his wife Sarah remained childless for a long time. When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God assured him that Sarah would have a son. Skeptical about bearing a child at their advanced age, Sarah laughed at this revelation. However, she soon became pregnant and bore a son, Isaac, at the exact time God had predicted. Abraham, a hundred years old at the time, named the child Isaac.

When Isaac grew into a young boy, God tested Abraham by commanding him to offer Isaac as a burnt sacrifice. Despite his immense love for his son, Abraham prepared to obey. As they reached the hill where the sacrifice was to be made, a revelation came, revealing that God was just testing Abraham’s faith. Isaac later married Rebekah, but they too were childless for years. Isaac prayed, and God blessed them with twins, Esau and Jacob. Jacob would later receive a revelation from God, who renamed him Israel, meaning “God Rules.” Jacob became the patriarch of the Israelites, who would establish Judaism.

Amidst various adversities and migrations, the Jews (followers of Judaism) continued to live in their promised land. In 4 BC, in Judea, a region under Roman rule, a monumental figure was born into a Jewish family. This figure, known as Jesus of Nazareth, would later become the central figure of Christianity, the most followed religion on Earth.
But wait! Remember I mentioned “two sons” in the title? Time to revisit that plot twist! When Abraham and Sarah were struggling to have a child, Sarah suggested that Abraham have a child with her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar. Abraham agreed, and Hagar bore his first child, Ishmael.

Later, after Abraham and Sarah had Isaac, Sarah grew wary of Ishmael being the heir due to his status as the eldest son. Fearing for her son’s future, Sarah insisted that Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away. To please his wife, Abraham did as she asked.

Sad and dejected, Hagar and Ishmael journeyed into the Arabian desert, near the Red Sea. At one point, Hagar wept in despair. Ishmael, in his anger, kicked the sand and uncovered a water stream, creating an oasis. Hearing about the oasis, Abraham visited Hagar and Ishmael and built a temple near the oasis, installing a sacred Black Stone there.

Ishmael’s descendants, known as Ishmaelites, became the ancestors of the Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula. The temple with the Black Stone became a crucial pilgrimage site, known as the Kaaba, in the city of Mecca. In 570 AD, another monumental figure was born among the Arabs, who would unite them and establish another influential religion, Islam. This figure was Muhammad.

Thus, from the descendants of one man and his two sons, three of the world’s most influential religions originated — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The names of significant figures differ across these religions (Isaac becomes Ishaq, Moses becomes Musa, Solomon becomes Sulaiman, and Jesus becomes Isa), but the characters remain the same. All three religions, known as the Abrahamic religions, trace their lineage back to Abraham.

And that is how the tale of a man and his two sons became a foundational story in shaping human history. In our next story, we will trace the origin of Christianity and its influence on history.