with Ishmael and his mother to Mecca, and there he was commanded to sacrifice him. This further supports the view that this son, rather than the other, was the one to be sacrificed.

Another indication that the son to be sacrificed was not Isaac is that Allah Most High said:

“So We gave her good tidings of Isaac, and after Isaac, Jacob.”

How, then, could He command that Isaac be sacrificed after that? The good tidings of Jacob entail that Isaac would live and that Jacob would be born to him. There is no disagreement among people that the incident of the intended sacrifice took place before Jacob’s birth. Indeed, Jacob was born only after Abraham’s death—peace be upon him—whereas the incident of the intended sacrifice undoubtedly took place during Abraham’s lifetime.

Another indication of this is that the incident of the intended sacrifice took place in Mecca:

“When the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—conquered Mecca, the ram’s two horns were in the Kaaba. The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said to its custodian: ‘I command you to cover the ram’s horns, for there should be nothing in the direction of prayer that distracts the worshipper.’”

For this reason, Minā was made a site for religious rites from the time of Abraham and Ishmael—peace be upon them both—and, as the Quran explicitly states, it was they who built the House. No one, whether from the People of the Book or anyone else, has reported that Isaac went to Mecca. Yet some believers among the People of the Book claim that the incident of the sacrifice took place in Greater Syria. This is a fabrication. For if this had taken place on one of the mountains of Greater Syria, people would have known that