Islam did not present itself to the world as a brand-new religion.

It presented itself as the final, corrected chapter of the same story that began with Abraham and Moses.

And at the center of that story stands a revolutionary reinterpretation of the Bible that turned the Arabs from marginal desert nomads into the rightful heirs of the entire Middle East.

The Biblical Backstory Islam Inherited

Genesis 17: God makes an eternal covenant with Abraham:

1. Land: “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates” (Gen 15:18) — an imperial-sized territory stretching from the Nile to modern Iraq.
2. Seed: The promise will pass through a son.

Sarah, Abraham’s legitimate wife, is barren. In desperation she gives Abraham her Egyptian slave-girl Hagar. Hagar bears Ishmael.

Later, miraculously, Sarah herself gives birth to Isaac.

Judaism and Christianity trace the covenant through Isaac → Jacob → the Twelve Tribes → Moses → the conquest of Canaan.

Ishmael and the Arabs are written off as the “son of the slave woman” who “will not share in the inheritance” (Genesis 21, Galatians 4).

For two millennia the Arabs are the losers of sacred history.

Muhammad’s Radical Reversal

Around 610–620 CE an illiterate merchant in the Hijaz begins receiving revelations that flip the script:

1. The Arabs are not excluded — they are the true protagonists. Ishmael was Abraham’s firstborn. The covenant was made with him first.
2. The sacred territory promised to Abraham’s seed was never tiny Palestine. It was the vast Middle Eastern heartland from the Nile to the Euphrates — exactly the territory later conquered by the caliphates.
3. The Jews and Christians corrupted the original monotheism of Abraham. They narrowed the universal covenant to one ethnic line (Isaac) and one small land (Canaan).
4. Muhammad is sent as the Ishmaelite restorer — the Arab Moses. Just as Moses liberated the children of Isaac from Pharaoh and led them back to the Promised Land, Muhammad liberates the children of Ishmael from idolatry and Byzantine/Persian oppression and leads them back to their birthright.

The Qur’anic Evidence (selected verses)

1. “And mention in the Book Ishmael. Indeed, he was true to his promise, and he was a messenger and a prophet.” (19:54) → Ishmael is elevated to prophetic status alongside Abraham.
2. “We gave Moses the Scripture and made it a guidance for the Children of Israel… Then We sent following their footsteps Our messengers… and Jesus… and We gave him the Gospel… And We sent, following in their footsteps, Muhammad…” (multiple passages) → Muhammad is the final link in the same chain.
3. Moses is mentioned 136 times in the Qur’an — more than any other individual. His story of exodus, law-giving, and conquest is repeated obsessively because it is the exact template Muhammad is following.

The Payoff

This theology was explosive:

1. It gave a scattered, polytheistic people a world-historical mission: “You are not latecomers. You are the original heirs who were robbed.”
2. It transformed tribal raids into divinely sanctioned reconquest of ancestral land.
3. It turned military victory into theological proof: “God is with us because the land was promised to our father.”

Within a single century after Muhammad’s death in 632, the children of Ishmael ruled exactly the territory promised to Abraham’s seed — from the Nile to the Euphrates and beyond.

The Moses Parallel in One Table

Moses (Children of Isaac)Muhammad (Children of Ishmael)Liberates his people from PharaohLiberates Arabs from Byzantine/Persian dominationReceives Torah on Mount SinaiReceives Qur’an in the Cave of HiraLeads exodus to the Promised LandLeads Hijra, then conquest of Arabia and the Middle EastGives law to one ethnic groupGives final universal law to all nationsConquers CanaanCaliphs conquer the original Abrahamic heartland

Islam’s founding narrative is not “Here is a new prophet with a new message.” It is “Here is the Arab Moses come to reclaim what was stolen from Ishmael.”

That single reinterpretation of the Abraham story turned a marginal desert people into the rulers of half the known world in less than a hundred years.