Are Muslims Descendants of Abraham?

Bible Believing Christian
Dec 10
5 min read

Are Muslims Descendants of Abraham?

A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Examination

Few questions in interfaith discussions surface as often—or as confidently—as the claim that “Muslims trace their lineage back to Abraham through Ishmael.” It is said with the tone of something long settled, a statement woven into public imagination simply because it sounds plausible. Yet familiarity does not guarantee accuracy. When we look closely at Scripture, history, and theological development, a more nuanced—and far more interesting—picture emerges.

Understanding this matters. Abraham stands at the crossroads of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. To speak about him carelessly is to speak carelessly about the foundations of three major world religions. And for Christians, clarity matters because Abraham’s story is ultimately inseparable from the story of Christ. So rather than accepting a cultural slogan, we do well to ask: Does the evidence actually support this claim?

Abraham, Ishmael, and the Biblical Record

The Scriptures speak plainly about Abraham’s family. God promises that Abraham will become “the father of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:5), and that blessing undeniably includes the future of Isaac and the covenant people of Israel. Yet the Bible also affirms God’s kindness toward Ishmael. The angel declares his name—יִשְׁמָעֵאל (Yishmā‘ēl), “God hears”—because the Lord hears Hagar’s distress (Genesis 16:11). God promises that Ishmael will become a great nation, and Genesis later records his twelve sons, the princes who form the Ishmaelite tribes (Genesis 25:12–18). Their territory stretches “from Havilah to Shur,” placing them in the northwest regions of Arabia.

But the biblical text carefully stops there. It never claims:

that Ishmael became the father of all Arabs,
that Ishmael traveled south into the region that would become Mecca,
that Abraham ever visited or built anything in that region,
or that Ishmael stands at the head of a future religious movement.

Instead, Scripture draws a deliberate distinction between Ishmael’s blessing and the covenant line. God states unequivocally: “But My covenant I will establish with Isaac” (Genesis 17:21). Isaac, not Ishmael, becomes the bearer of the promise through which the Messiah will come. The Ishmaelites exist, yes—but they remain one tribal group among many in the ancient Near East, not the genealogical foundation of an entire future religion.

Ancient Words and Ancient Peoples

Even the language Scripture uses reinforces this distinction. The Old Testament refers to Ishmaelites (יִשְׁמְעֵאלִים — Yishme‘ēlîm) as a defined tribal group. By contrast, the word Arab (עֲרָב — ‘Arab) describes nomadic or desert-dwelling peoples in general—a geographic and cultural designation, not a genealogical one. The Septuagint reflects this distinction as well, translating “Ishmaelites” with the specific ethnic term Ἰσμαηλίτης (Ismaēlítēs) while using broader terms for other Arabian groups. Scripture never collapses all Arabian peoples into the Ishmaelites.

This helps explain why even early Jewish and Christian historians never identified Arabs as Ishmael’s direct descendants. For them, Ishmaelites were a known group—but one group among many.

History, Islam, and the Question of Lineage

The idea that Ishmael fathered the Arab people does not appear in antiquity. It arises in Islamic tradition, beginning in the 7th–8th centuries A.D., as Muslims sought to anchor their emerging religious identity in the shared patriarch of monotheism. According to Islamic genealogy, Muhammad descends from Ishmael through the line of Adnan. Yet even notable early Muslim historians acknowledged the uncertainty of genealogical records prior to Adnan, and no pre-Islamic source—Jewish, Christian, or secular—makes such a connection.

Moreover, Mecca itself does not appear in the historical record until well after the time of Christ, making any claim that Abraham settled Ishmael there an article of theological faith rather than historical fact. The early Islamic tradition reframes Abraham’s story to include the rebuilding of the Kaaba, but this reflects theological meaning, not verifiable history.

Arabs as a people, meanwhile, trace their origins through multiple biblical and extra-biblical lineages—descendants of Joktan (Genesis 10), tribes from Keturah (Genesis 25), Midianites, Edomites, Nabateans, and other Semitic groups. Ishmaelites were part of that tapestry, but not its totality.

So when Muslims today identify Abraham as their ancestor, they do so theologically, the way Christians identify Abraham as their father by faith. It is a claim of spiritual identity grounded in narrative formation—not in DNA.

Misconceptions That Cloud the Conversation

The idea that “all Arabs descend from Ishmael” persists largely because it seems like a convenient bridge between religious traditions. But convenience is not truth.

Not all Arabs descended from Ishmael. Scripture places his descendants in a limited geographic band and does not connect them with the wider Arabian population.

The covenant does not pass through Ishmael. This does not diminish God’s blessing to him, but it clarifies God’s redemptive plan.

Abraham never appears in Scripture within the deep interior of Arabia. Every geographical detail of his life places him in Mesopotamia, Canaan, and Egypt.

Genealogical claims do not equal covenant claims. Even when biological descent is established, covenant identity is something entirely different.

This is why Jesus confronts the Pharisees—biological descendants of Abraham—with a startling truth: “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham” (John 8:39). Lineage is meaningless without faith.

Theological Weight: Who Are Abraham’s Children?

Here we reach the heart of the matter. The New Testament reshapes the discussion completely. For Christians, the defining descendant of Abraham is not Ishmael or Isaac—but Christ. Paul writes with precision:

“Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed… and to your seed, that is, Christ.” (Galatians 3:16)

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise. Through Him, the covenant expands beyond one ethnic line and becomes a worldwide invitation:

“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:29)

In other words:

Physical descent does not grant covenant status.
Faith in Christ unites Jew, Gentile, and Arab alike.
The family of Abraham is no longer defined by blood but by the gospel.

This means Christians need not contest whether Muslims (or any people group) can trace ancestry to Abraham. The question of salvation is not genealogical but Christological.

A Christ-Centered Conclusion

So do Muslims trace their lineage to Abraham?

Biblically, the Scriptures never make that claim.

Historically, the evidence for a direct Ishmael-to-Arab genealogical line is thin and late.

Theologically, Islam affirms Abrahamic roots as part of its own sacred history.

But the deeper truth is this: the line that matters most is not the line between Ishmael and Isaac, nor the debate over ancestral geography. The line that matters is the one that runs from Abraham’s altar to Christ’s cross—the fulfillment of the promise through whom “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 22:18).

In Christ, the question is not, “Whose bloodline do you claim?” but rather, “Whose Savior do you trust?” And through Him, every nation—including the Arab world—is invited into the family that Abraham was promised from the beginning.