Abraham was an old, old man. Do you imagine him with a long, flowing beard and a cane? God said he and his wife Sarah would have a child. Can you just see Abraham falling over with laughter when he heard that?

Rewind the story a little. Before Isaac was born, Abraham had a son named Ishmael. A servant named Hagar was Ishmael’s mother. Did you know that an entire religion claims to have come from that little boy? You have probably heard of it—Islam.

About one in every five people in the world follow Islam. These people are called Muslims. Like Christians and Jews, they believe in only one God—but they call him Allah. They follow a book called the Quran. Muslims believe that the angel Gabriel sent messages from God to their prophet Muhammad.

If you traveled to Israel and met 100 people, about 20 of them would be Muslims. About 70 of them would be Israeli Jews. Jews read the first five books of the Old Testament, called the Torah. They believe in the God described in those books, and try to follow His commands. In ancient times, they performed sacrifices in the Jewish temple. Only one out of every 514 people in the world is Jewish.

But what does all this have to do with the little boy Ishmael? Ishmael fathered the peoples of Arabia. Muslims believe that God’s promises were to Ishmael, not to Isaac. They believe God wanted to put His blessing on the Muslim religion. But the Bible tells a different story. Isaac was the son of promise. From him, the Jews came. More importantly, Jesus came.

Muslims and Jews do not believe that Jesus is God. That tells you something big. A religion might seem very holy. But how does it treat Jesus? That’s a measuring stick you can always use to find the truth!