🌍 If Abraham Had Not Existed: Reimagining the Foundations of the Abrahamic Faiths

🕊️ Introduction

Few figures in human history hold as central a place as Abraham. Revered as a patriarch by Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, Abraham’s life represents faith, obedience, and covenantal relationship with God. Yet one may ask: what if Abraham had not existed? How would the three great monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—have looked without him?

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✡️ 1. Judaism Without Abraham

In Judaism, Abraham is Avraham Avinu—“our father Abraham”—the first to recognize and worship one God. He embodies the beginning of the covenant through which God promised descendants as numerous as the stars and granted the Land of Israel as their inheritance.

Without Abraham, Judaism might never have developed its distinctive identity as a covenantal faith. The entire theological framework linking the Jewish people to divine promise and land would lack its origin. A different patriarchal figure might have emerged, but the concept of the chosen people bound by a divine covenant could have been far less defined or even absent altogether.

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✝️ 2. Christianity Without Abraham

Christianity draws deeply upon Abraham as the model of faith before the law. In Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (4:3), Abraham is cited as the one who “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” For early Christians, Abraham’s faith symbolized justification through belief rather than works—a cornerstone of Christian theology.

If Abraham were missing from the biblical narrative, Christian thought might have lacked its archetype of faith and obedience. The connection between the Old and New Testaments would have been weaker, and Paul’s theological bridge from Judaism to Christianity less convincing. The doctrine of salvation through faith could have taken a different shape or rested upon another figure entirely.

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☪️ 3. Islam Without Abraham

In Islam, Abraham (Ibrahim عليه السلام) stands as one of the greatest prophets and the friend of Allah (Khalīlullāh). He is seen as the renewer of pure monotheism and the spiritual father of both prophetic lines—through Isaac leading to Israel, and through Ishmael leading to the final Messenger, Muhammad ﷺ.

Without Abraham, Islam would lose a profound ancestral link that unites the prophetic tradition. The rituals of Hajj—circumambulating the Kaaba, performing Sa‘i between Safa and Marwah, and the symbolic sacrifice—are all reenactments of Abraham’s and Ishmael’s devotion. Without his example, the pilgrimage and even the symbolism of the Kaaba as the restored “House of God” might not exist in the same form.

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🔥 4. The Missing Narratives of Faith and Sacrifice

Abraham’s absence would erase some of the most formative narratives of divine testing and human submission. The binding of Isaac (in Jewish and Christian scripture) or sacrifice of Ishmael (in the Qur’anic version) expresses the highest model of surrender to God’s will. Without such a story, the moral archetype of total faith under trial would be lost. The concept of “submission” (Islam) itself finds its origin in Abraham’s willingness to yield entirely to divine command.

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📜 5. The Prophetic Testimony: “That is Abraham, upon him be peace”

Islamic tradition exalts Abraham as the best of creation. Anas bin Malik reported:

A man came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and said, “O best of creation!”

The Prophet replied, “That is Abraham, upon him be peace.”

(Sahih Muslim)

This humility of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ reveals not only reverence for Abraham’s spiritual stature but also the continuity of divine mission across time. Abraham’s unwavering monotheism and selfless faith form the spiritual DNA of all later prophets.

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🌟 Conclusion: The Irreplaceable Patriarch of Monotheism

Had Abraham never lived, the landscape of world religion would be unrecognizably different. Judaism might lack its covenantal foundation; Christianity might lack its doctrine of faith; Islam might lose its living model of surrender and devotion.

Abraham’s existence bridges heaven and earth, past and future, uniting humanity under the banner of pure monotheism. As the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ affirmed, Abraham remains the best of creation—an eternal symbol of faith, obedience, and divine friendship.

— Azahari Hassim

Founder, The World of Abrahamic Theology