Critical Analysis of Islamic and Pre-Islamic Narrative Texts in Determining the Ibrahim (AS)’s Sacrifice

Identifying what was scarified by the Prophet Ibrahim (AS) is a serious issue in monotheistic religions. The Testaments apparently consider Isaac (AS) to be the sacrificed (zhabīh), while Muslims differ in defining it due to the ambiguity of the verses related to the story of the sacrifice (zhibh) in the Qur’an. The scope of this disagreement is even greater in the Shiite and Sunni narrations; Some Shiite and Sunni narrations introduce Ishmael (AS) as the sacrificed and another group as Isaac (AS). This research assesses the texts related to this issue in Islamic and Biblical sources, including those are directly or indirectly related to determining the sacrificed, with an analytical-critical approach through the sanad and textual analysis of the Islamic narrations and Biblical texts. Findings show that despite the Biblical explicit statements in determining the sacrificed, the in-text evidences suggest that the phrases referring to the name of the sacrificed are the interpretive additions of the commentators of the Bible. Additionally, despite the disagreement between Islamic narrations in determining the sacrificed, analyzing the sanads of narrations and considering the in-text evidences of the verses of the Qur’an and Islamic narrations prove that Ismael (AS) was the candidate for the Ibrahim’s sacrifice.