Message #7071

[N. Truth Seeker]

I briefly know the bible story of Ketura.  I read it in a journal several years ago.  But I never gave any importance to it.  It's thoroughly unreliable.  The purpose of this apparently contrived story is to show Prophet Abraham's greatness not through his righteous character, but on the basis of the number of sons he had.  The Ketura story says that apart from Ismail and Ishaq, Prophet Ibrahim had about 6 or 7 sons from Ketura.  According to pagan ideas having sons was supposed to be a sign of greatness and keeping one's family name going.  Jews and Christians who bounced back into paganism and began being influenced by these superficial values perhaps thought that with only Ismail and Ishaq, Prophet Ibrahim's family wasn't big enough to show his greatness.   There's also a contradiction in the bible regarding this story.  Some versions say she was Prophet Ibrahim's concubine while a few other versions say she was his third wife. 

The Noble Quran has discussed the descendents of Prophet Ibrahim in much detail starting from Ishmael, Ishaq, Yakub (Jacob), Ishaq's son and Yusuf (Joseph), one of the sons of Yakub.  But there's no mention of Prophet Ibrahim have 6 or 7 other sons.  If it was true, I have no doubt that Allah (Subhana wa'Taala) would have given this information in the Quran or at least a reference to it.