Page 280 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

260 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANIC TEXT

born, though he was in danger of collapsing from hunger; 130second, when
Jacob and his mother stole the blessing that was meant for Esau by fooling
Isaac in the darkness, in a scheme involving a tuft of fake hair since Esau's
hands were hairier than his brother's."! Despite this treachery, Jacob's
descendants were to become the sole progenitors of the tribes of Israel
while Esau's children were to have no share.

The Israelites wereconscious that the Edomitesweretheir near kinsmen
and an older nation... [The enmity between Esau and Jacob] is an
actual reflectionof the hostilerelationsof the Edomites and Israelites,
for which the latter were to a considerable degree responsible. 132

With this historical enmity at play, it is perhaps no surprise that God's
final words to Moses skip over the names of Ishmael and Esau:

Moses, this is the land I was talking about when I solemnlypromised
Abraham, Isaac, andJacob that I wouldgive land to their descendants.
I have let you see it, but you willnot crosstheJordan and go in. 133

At the first stage Ishmael was expelled from the covenant, on the pretext
that God had qualified His plan so as to include all of Abraham's progeny
through Isaac only. Subsequently even this did not hold true, since a full
half of Isaac's progeny was deprived and ousted from the covenant through
the efforts of Jacob, who thus managed to secure the covenant for himself
and his twelve children -- whether born of wives or concubines.P' This
casting out of Ishmael and his progeny, and Esau and his progeny, appears
to be a systematic fabrication emanating from sources that were strongly
partial to only Jacob and his descendants.
If one argues that the covenant is the mercy and gift of God, then He
possesses the full right to bestow it wherever He pleases and exempt who-
soever He pleases. But these exemptions of Ishmael and Esau do not fit
God's Own edict: "And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee,
the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan,jOr anever-
lastingpossession." 135 The historical fact is that 'all the land of Canaan' was

130 Genesis 25:29-34.
131 Genesis 27
132 Dictionary qf the Bible. p.229.
133 CEV, Deuteronomy 34:4.
134 Eight of the twelve children wereborn to his two wives and anotherfour were
born to histwoconcubines. Fordetails, seethisworkp. 214.
135 Genesis 17:8. Italics added.