“And we announced Isaac to him—a righteous prophet—
“And on him and on Isaac we bestowed our blessing. And among their offspring were well-doers, and others, to their own hurt undoubted sinners.”
The feast of sacrifice, the ʿĪdu ʾl-Aẓḥā, is said to have been instituted in commemoration of this event. [[ʿIDU ʾL-AZHA].]
Syud Ahmad Khan Bahadur, in his Essays on Arabia, remarks that learned Muḥammadan theologians distinctly say it was Isaac and not Ishmael who was to have been offered up; but our researches scarcely confirm the learned Syud’s statement. Ismāʿīl al-Buk͟hārī, no mean authority, says it was Ishmael, and so does al-Baiẓāwī.
The weight of traditional authority seems to be in favour of Isaac, and so does the text of the Qurʾān, which we have explained in the account of Ishmael; and yet amongst both the Sunnīs and the Shīʿahs the opinion is now almost universal that it was Ishmael. [[ISHMAEL].]
ISAIAH. Arabic Shaʿyāʾ (شعياء). The name is not mentioned in the Qurʾān, but al-Baiẓāwī, the commentator, in remarking on Sūratu ʾl-Miʿrāj, [xvii. 4]:—“We decreed to the children of Isrāʾīl in the Book, ‘Ye shall verily do evil in the earth twice,’ ”—says the two sins committed by the Israelites were first the murder of Shaʿyāʾ ibn Amsiyā (i.e. Isaiah, son of Amoz) or Armiyā (i.e. Jeremiah); and the second, the murder of Zakarīā and John the Baptist, and the intention of killing Jesus.
IʾS̤ĀR (ايثار). Honouring another above oneself. Thinking of another’s gain rather than one’s own. The highest form of human friendship.
ʿISHĀʾ (عشاء). The Night Prayer. The liturgical prayer recited after the night has well set in. [[PRAYER].]
ISḤĀQ (اسحاق). [[ISAAC].]
ISḤĀQĪYAH (اسحاقية). A Shīʿah sect founded by a person named Isḥāq, who held that the Spirit of God existed in the K͟halīfah ʿAlī.