The Quran

133

أَم كُنتُم شُهَداءَ إِذ حَضَرَ يَعقوبَ المَوتُ إِذ قالَ لِبَنيهِ ما تَعبُدونَ مِن بَعدي قالوا نَعبُدُ إِلٰهَكَ وَإِلٰهَ آبائِكَ إِبراهيمَ وَإِسماعيلَ وَإِسحاقَ إِلٰهًا واحِدًا وَنَحنُ لَهُ مُسلِمونَ

Muhammad Asad

Nay, but you [yourselves, O children of Israel,] bear witness¹ that when death was approaching Jacob, he said unto his sons: "Whom will you worship after I am gone?" They answered: "We will worship thy God, the God of thy forefathers Abraham and Ishmael² and Isaac, the One God; and unto Him will we surrender ourselves."

I.e., "in the religious traditions to which you adhere". It is to be noted that the conjunction am which stands at the beginning of this sentence is not always used in the interrogative sense ("is it that ...?"): sometimes - and especially when it is syntactically unconnected with the preceding sentence, as in this case - it is an equivalent of bal ("rather", or "nay, but"), and has no interrogative connotation.
In classical Arabic, as in ancient Hebrew usage, the term ab ("father") was applied not only to the direct male parent but also to grandfathers and even more distant ancestors, as well as to paternal uncles: which explains why Ishmael, who was Jacob's uncle, is mentioned in this context. Since he was the first-born of Abraham's sons, his name precedes that of Isaac.