On another occasion she related: “I once asked ʿUthmān, ‘Why did the Messenger of Allah ﷺ send for you?’ He answered:
‘I had noticed the ram’s two horns when I entered the House, but I forgot to tell you to cover them. So veil them, for nothing should remain inside the House that might distract the worshipper.’
Sufyān said: “The ram’s horns remained inside the Kaʿba until the House caught fire, and they were burned along with it.”
A report from Ibn ʿAbbās adds that “the ram’s head hung by the spout of the Kaʿba until it had dried out.”
This fact alone testifies that the intended sacrifice was Ishmael, for he was the one who lived in Mecca, whereas we have no record of Isaac ever coming there in his youth. Allah knows best. Indeed, this is what the Qur’an plainly indicates—almost states outright—for after recounting the story of the sacrifice it says: “Then We gave him glad tidings of Isaac, a prophet among the righteous” (al-Ṣāffāt 37:112).
Anyone who construes that verse as a circumstantial clause is straining the language. The sole basis for claiming that the sacrificed son was Isaac is Israelite lore, and their scripture has been distorted—especially at this point, beyond all doubt—for it reads that Allah ordered Abraham to sacrifice his “only” son, and in one Arabicized recension: “his first-born, Isaac.” The name Isaac here is an inserted, fabricated falsehood, for he was neither the only nor the first-born; that was Ishmael.
What drove them to this was envy of the Arabs, for Ishmael is the forefather of the Arabs of the Ḥijāz, from whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ descends, whereas Isaac is the father of Jacob—Israel—to whom they trace their lineage. Seeking to appropriate this honor for themselves, they altered Allah’s words and added to them. They are a people given to outrageous fabrications (1) and refuse to acknowledge that all bounty lies in Allah’s hand; He bestows it upon whom He wills.
Many early authorities and later scholars did maintain that it was Isaac, but—Allah knows best—they derived this only from Kaʿb al-Aḥbār or the writings of the People of the Book. There is no sound ḥadīth from the infallible Prophet requiring us to abandon the evident sense of the Noble Qur’an. The Scripture does not support their view; rather, what is understood—indeed, what is explicitly stated upon careful reflection—is that the intended sacrifice was Ishmael.
How excellent is the argument of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Qurazī (2): he cited Allah’s words, “We gave her glad tidings of Isaac, and after Isaac, Jacob” (Hūd 11:71), and said: “How can the glad tidings announce Isaac and that Jacob will be born to him, yet Isaac be ordered slain while still a child, before Jacob is born? That cannot be, for it contradicts the earlier annunciation.” Allah knows best.