Whosoever, then, desires to know what was
the faith of Father Abraham, the Friend of God, let him diligently read the Torah
of Moses, so strongly borne testimony to in the above verses of the Qur'an; and
there he will find the blessed promise given him by the Almighty, that the one
Divine Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, was to come of the descendants of Abraham
and of his son Isaac. The Patriarch accepted the the promise, and believed in the coming
Messiah, as we see in a passage of the Torah where God spoke thus to Abraham:
And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call
his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting
covenant, and with his seed after him.1 The same promise is repeated again in
the Book of Genesis to Abraham: And in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.2 And Jesus himself refers
to this promise when he said to the Jews: Your father Abraham rejoiced to see
my day; and he saw it and was glad.3 The Apostle Paul also makes mention of the
same expectation:To Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not,
And to seeds, as of many; but as of One; And to thy seed, which is Christ; and
again: If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
promise.4
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