8. srael means "Abdullah" which means 'The Servant of God'. It is the title of
Hazrat Yaqoob (Jacob) which was granted him by Allah. He was the son of Hazrat
Isaac and the grandson of Hazrat Ibrahim (A.S). His generation is known as 'Bani
Isra'il'.
There are two prominent descendants from the family tree of Hazrat Israel. One was
the bloodline of Hazrat Ismail who dwelled in Arab. Second is from the ancestry of
Hazrat Issac, from which Hazrat Yaqoob (A.S), Hazrat Yousuf, Hazrat Mosa (A.S),
Hazrat Dawood (A.S), Hazrat Suleman (A.S), Hazrat Yahya (A.S) and many other
Prophets belong. Hazrat Israel is the title given to Hazrat Yaqoob (A.S), that's why his
generation is famous by the name 'Bani Isra'il'. Usually, people associate the history
of Bani Isra'il with Hazrat Mosa (A.S).
Whereas the Quran says in Surah Maida verse:20
“Recall) when Musa said to his people, “O my people, remember the
blessing of Allah upon you when He made prophets from among you,
made you kings and gave you what He did not give to anyone in the
worlds. (20) ”
9. The Qur’an is very helpful in answering this question. Prophet Abraham is called a
Muslim in the Arabic Qur’an; and in the Hebrew Bible the very same Prophet Abraham
is called a Hebrew [speaker or ethnic person] and a Babylonian immigrant who crossed
over the Jordan River.
The term ivri (the Hebrew) first appears in the Torah, when Prophet Abraham is called
“the Hebrew: “And it was told to Abram the Hebrew” (Genesis 14:13) And Prophet
Joseph uses the name ivri as both a geographical and an socio-ethnic term: “I was
kidnapped from the land of the ivrim” (Genesis 40:15), and “The Egyptians could not eat
with the ivrim, since that would be an abomination” (Gen. 43:32)
The word Muslim is a religious identity term that refers to faithful monotheistic
believers and can be used to describe Christians or Jews. The word Hebrew is a
linguistic, geographical and ethnic identity term like German the language, Germany
the homeland and Germans the people. The word descendent, as in Children of Israel, is
a biological inherited birth identity term like nobility or tribe.
Prophet Abraham was the first Islamic Hebrew, as the Qur’an 3:67 states: ““He
(Abraham) was not Yahuudiyyan, "a Jew", nor Nasraaniyyan, "a Christian", but rather a
Haniifan i.e. “a monotheistic Hebrew believer submitting (Islam) to the one imageless
God who created all space and time; and who made Prophet Abraham the Hebrew’s
descendants through Prophets Isaac and Jacob (Israel), into a great multitude of
monotheists called the Children of Israel - Bani Israel.
“And who is better in religion than one who submits himself to Allah while
being a doer of good and follows the religion of Abraham, inclining toward
truth? And Allah took Abraham as an intimate friend.” (Qur’an 4:125)
