name of this site is complicated, jews call it the temple mount while muslims call it noble sanctuary. on one side is the western world, the holiest site the jews come to pray at. and nearby, the christian church. in just one square mile, the most revered places of each of the three religions. and this is also the place where the bible tells us that god had finally demanded too much. abraham had waited into very old age for the children that god had promised. he had already been told to send his first son, ismaaiyl, away, now only isaac was left at home. abraham, for better or for worse, is used to hearing god s voice. and one day, as the torah tells us, god decides to test abraham. and he says, take your son, your
visitors were actually angels bringing them a message from god, and it did come to pass, sarah gave birth to the child she had wanted for so long, a son named isaac. his descendents became the jewish people. narrator: next, a family feud that are stretches back plin ya as our journey around the world and across time continues. when back to the beginning with christian yan amanpour returns christiane amanpour returns. push it. p.push it real good! ow! oooh baby baby.baby baby. if you re salt-n-pepa, you tell people to push it. push it real good. it s what you do. ah. push it. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it s what you do. ah. push it. i m pushing. i m pushing it real good!
too far. back to the beginning with christi christiane amanpour continues. the landscape of the bible is brutal as breath taking. here it s easy to imagine the suffering and patience it took for a family to survive in abraham s time. and why it s here that god would demand a stark beginning that he would never begin ask for anything like it. i m standing under the rock where muslim s believe the prophet mohammad ascended to hen, and this is holy to all three religions because jews and christians believe that this is where god commanded abraham to bring his son isaac for sacrifice. today this place is marked by the familiar gold dome of the rock that dominated the old city of jerusalem. and one of the most contested sites in the world, even the
one son is about the age abraham s son would have been. and he s try ing ing to imagine he would have felt. he was scared and very worried for his dad and knew his dad was going through a long trouble getting over the fact that he had to kill his own son, but i m sure he understood it was coming from a higher power. for jews and christians too, the story of what happened next is the same, abraham s faith was absolute. he didn t argue with god. he tied up his son and laid him on the rock and then he drew his knife. and as the story goes, abraham literally lifts the knife before god says, abraham, abraham, you don t have to do this. so the son was spared, and a lamb appeared to take his place. one of the abiding lessons we re meant to learn from genesis is obedience to god. that if you are obedient, then in the end you are rewarded.
god is testing him. he doesn t really intend for him to kill his son. at a time when offering human sacrifice was common, this was a call to end the barbaric practice. still here and in so many places around the world, so many thousands of years later, the sacrifice of sons and daughters in the name of god and faith goes on and tragic beyond. god may have been demanding total submission, but he also decided in the end that a human life has more value than blind obedience. and in the end, of course, ismaaiyl lives, isaac lives. and taking this journey with my own son darius brought these stories to life in the most