His wife was standing, and she laughed when we gave her the good news about Isaac, and after Isaac, Jacob.

Isaac was the second son of Abraham, a prophet God gave him in his old age, and the father of Jacob. Through Jacob, also called Israel, his line became the prophets of the Children of Israel. The Quran does not name a people Isaac was sent to. It shows him as a prophet and leader in Abraham's own household, carrying on Abraham's religion of submission to God alone. God says, "we granted him Isaac and Jacob, and we made each of them a prophet" (19:49). He also made them "imams who guided in accordance with our commandments," taught to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and the obligatory charity (Zakat) (21:72-73).
Isaac's story begins before he was born. Abraham prayed for righteous children, and God first gave him Ismail. Ismail was the son in the great test of the sacrifice, when God ransomed him with an animal (37:100-107). Only after that does the Quran say, "Then we gave him the good news about the birth of Isaac, to be one of the righteous prophets" (37:112). Dr. Khalifa made the same point from the Bible. Genesis itself says that both of Abraham's sons, Ishmael and Isaac, buried him, and Ishmael was Abraham's only son for 14 years. In his words, "Isaac was never the only son".
Angels brought the news. They came to Abraham as guests, and he served them a roasted calf. When they did not eat, he grew afraid of them (11:69-70, 51:24-28). They told him the good news of "an enlightened son," and he asked how that could be, given how old he was. They answered, "do not despair," and he replied, "None despairs of his Lord's mercy, except the strayers" (15:53-56). Abraham's wife was standing nearby. She laughed when she heard the news "about Isaac, and after Isaac, Jacob," and said, "how could I bear a child at my age, and here is my husband; an old man?" The angels asked her, "Do you find it strange for GOD?" (11:71-73, 51:29-30). Abraham later thanked God: "Praise be to GOD for granting me, despite my old age, Ismail and Isaac. My Lord answers the prayers" (14:39).
Isaac grew up a righteous, chosen servant. The Quran names him with Abraham and Jacob as men who "were resourceful, and possessed vision," blessed with "awareness of the Hereafter" (38:45-47). Abraham urged his children to die as submitters (2:132). The faith held through the generations: on Jacob's deathbed his sons promised to worship "the god of your fathers Abraham, Ismail, and Isaac; the one god" (2:133). Isaac's grandson Joseph later said he followed "the religion of my ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We never set up any idols beside GOD" (12:38). God completed His blessings on Jacob's family "as He did for your ancestors Abraham and Isaac before that" (12:6).
The Quran draws several lessons from Isaac's story. He was a reward: God gave Isaac and Jacob to Abraham "because he abandoned them and the gods they worshiped beside GOD" (19:49). His late birth teaches that no believer should despair of God's mercy (15:56). Isaac was neither Jewish nor Christian. He was a submitter, and the Quran rebukes anyone who claims otherwise (2:140). Believers are to accept what was sent down to Isaac alongside all the prophets, making "no distinction among any of them" (2:136). Finally, a blessed family line does not save anyone by itself. Of Abraham's and Isaac's descendants, "some are righteous, and some are wicked transgressors" (37:113). That fits the Quran's principle that every person answers for what they earned (2:134).
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