THE STORY OF ABRAHAM (IBRAHIM) THE PROPHET

THE STORY OF ABRAHAM (IBRAHIM) THE PROPHET


The Holy Quran says: Abraham was certainly a model of faith for the people, obedient to God and upright, and was not an idolater but grateful to Him for His favors; so He chose him and guided him on the right path, and gave him what is good in this world, and in the hereafter he will be amongst the righteous ones. (16:120-122)
 
King Namrud son of Canaan ruled the city of Babylon; he was a proud man and forced the people to believe in him as their God. He used to imprisoned and killed people. He took whatever he wanted of their crops. Since the people were idolaters, who already worshipping idols of wood and stone, they accepted this additional chain of slavery around their necks because they were afraid of his power. After some time, Almighty God decided to send Prophet Abraham to these people so they may be guided.

 A short while before Prophet Abraham was born; Namrud was told by his high rank astrologers that a child would soon be born in this country. He would stand against him and tell the people to stop worshipping idols. Instead he will invite people to a new religion.

Namrud who was terribly horrified, commanded his agents to somehow prevent his birth. To prevent such danger arising in his kingdom, Namrud ordered all male babies born in that year killed. Contact between men and women should be avoided, and if pregnant women bore boys, they boys should be killed. But in spite of the extreme alertness of Namrud’s cruel agents, through God’s will the embryo of Abraham eveloped in the womb of his mother, she had shown no signs of pregnancy when she carried him, so she knew that her baby was special.

 Abraham’s mother who was very much afraid of Namrud’s agents had left the city before giving birth to her kid. She hid herself in a cave in the desert. This was the cave in which Abraham was born in the city of Kawthariya, near Ur and Babylon. She then covered the

child with a cloth, closed the mouth of the cave with stones and returned home without the child. She told nobody of what had happened. The child was all alone in the cave with no one to care for him. When he become hungry, he used to suckle his own fingers.

Almighty God caused milk to flow from his fingers and thus provided him with a source of food. The child grew up under God's protection. From time to time, his mother would come secretly to the cave to watch him. Abraham gradually grew up in this cave and when he was thirteen (13), he secretly came back to the city with his mother. His father, Taraq, had already died, so he was adopted by Azar, uncle (his father’s brother). Azar was a famous sculptor who used to make idols out of stone. His sons used to sell these idols to the people. Azar gave Prophet Abraham the same job as his sons.

Even in his young age, Prophet Abraham already believed in God and he hated idols. On the first day of his job, he tied a rope around some idols and dragged them through the dirt to the market-place. He then called to the people, “Come and buy these lifeless idols who have no understanding and wisdom and no power to do any good or cause you any loss.”

The people looked at the dirty idols and were angry at the disrespect that Prophet Abraham had shown to their Gods. They complained to Azar and Prophet Abraham was not allowed to sell any more idols.

As time passed, Prophet Abraham tried to show the people the error of their ways. He first approached his uncle, who was like a father to him, and advised him to worship God and abandon the idols. The Holy Quran records his conversation with Azar in the following verses: O my father! Serve not the Satan; surely the Satan is disobedient to the Beneficent God: O my father! Surely I fear that a punishment from the Beneficent God should afflict you so that you should be a friend of the Satan. He said: Do you dislike my Gods, O Abraham? If you do not desist I will certainly revile you, and leave me for a time. He said: Peace be on you, I will pray to my Lord to forgive you; surely He is ever Affectionate to me: (19:44-47)

Although he was unsuccessful with Azar, Prophet Abraham did not lose hope and began preaching to the people. He used to tell them, “Can your idols hear you? Can they ever help you or harm you?” They would say, “We worship them because our forefathers worshipped them.” Prophet Abraham would then teach them that only God, the Creator of the heavens and earth, should be worshipped.

Although the people could not answer Prophet Abraham’s arguments against their idols, they were stubborn and only a few people listened to him and began worshipping unique God.

Abraham and a sign of Resurrection

The Almighty God appointed Abraham to guide the deceived people and idolaters. So He was honored to be granted the high position of Prophethood. Abraham had a faithful heart, he had no doubt about his God’s power but he wanted the reality of things to become clear to him and thus invest his insight. So he sincerely asked his God to show him how His greatness could revive the dead and bestow life upon them. He was so addressed by God: “Haven’t you believed resurrection (giving life to the dead) yet?”

 Abraham said: “I do have faith but I am eager to see the reality of things to make certain and strengthen my faith.” Since, Abraham had no intention but being reassured.

The Almighty sent him a revelation: “Catch four (4) birds and after killing them, mash them all together into a pile then, divide the pile to four different parts and put each part on the peak of a mountain, call them one by one and you shall see that they will be revived at our order and shall come to you.”

Prophet Abraham did so and when he called them by saying, come to me with the permission of Almighty, the pieces gathered from the piles and joined together to make four birds once again alive through God’s will. Abraham observed one of the greatest manifestations of God’s power in making the dead alive. His heart already full of faith was then even more reassured. He prostrated to God, the Almighty.

Abraham the leader of the monotheists

When Abraham noticed that people didn’t accept to leave idolatry, he decided to break idols and prove their inability and weakness. He got his chance during the annual festival, which was held outside the town, young and old, had left the town to celebrate the day.

Prophet Abraham pretended to be sick and stayed home. When he found the city deserted of people and the idol temple without any guards as he easily stepped inthe idol temple (Ziggurat), and walked around. Idols were decorated with different ornaments and were placed all around the idol temple according to their ranks and importance. Then, joking and with contempt, he showed them the food and said: “Don’t you eat food?” He got no answer, so he asked again jokingly: “Why don’t you say something?” Again he heard no answer. Abraham, who was determined in carrying out his mission, shattered all the idols into pieces except the big one (Mardukh, the God of Gods) then hung his axe on its shoulder and left the temple.

 People having performed the ceremonies, returned to the city, but when they saw the mess in the temple as well as the broken idols, they became so shocked and angry. You could hear some saying: “We know the young man who’s done this. He is the one, who always insults the idols, his name is Abraham. He believes it’s foolish to worship idols and he reproaches us for doing that, we believe he has broken our idols.”

Namrud came to the temple because something dangerous had happened. He feared for his throne, so he ordered Abraham to be arrested. He ordered him to be tried in the temple. The Judge sat beside Namrud in the temple, which was full of people. The soldiers brought the young man, Abraham. They made him stand before Namrud and the Judge.

The trial started with the Judge’s questions. The Judge asked Abraham: “We know that you mock our Gods. We also know that you don’t celebrate the arrival of spring as the people of Babylon do. Now, tell us who has broken our Gods. Have you broken them, Abraham?”

Abraham answered firmly: “How do you know, it must have been done by the biggest idol, which is standing safe. Ask him about it and get reassured of course if he is able to answer your question.”

All the people looked at the biggest of the gods, which was carrying an axe on one of its shoulders. They knew that it can not speak.

The Judge said: “But our idols do not talk or answer questions.” Now Prophet Abraham took the opportunity to make the people understand how useless their idols were. He said, “Shame on you! How can you worship pieces of wood and stone, instead of great unique God? They do not know anything and can neither harm nor benefit you.”

Namrud remembered the prophecy of astrologers: “A person will be born, and he will destroy your kingdom.” Thus, he said with anger: “Abraham has committed a crime! Judge you must punish him to please our idols!” All the people stood up for Namrud and supported him.

Then Namrud said: “We must protect our sacred God’s! We must punish Abraham by throwing him into the fire!” The people began to shout, “Burn him alive! Let him be with his Lord.”

Very few people felt sad for Abraham. Among them were Sarah, Abraham’s cousin, and Prophet Lut Abraham’s nephew. Sarah believed Abraham’s words. Prophet Lut was a wise man. He believed in God, the One and only, and the message of Prophet Abraham.

Abraham on fire

Prophet Abraham was arrested and imprisoned. Then Namrud ordered that wood be collected to make a huge bonfire. Soon after a heap of firewood was prepared they set it on fire and made a huge fire out of it in the middle of the desert. The fire burnt fiercely and widely for days and days. It had generated so much heat that no bird dared to fly nearby. The dancing flames of fire were so outstretched and hot that nobody could even get close. The people of Babylon retreated so that the fire would not burn them. Abraham’s hands were tied. The fortune tellers thought that he would be afraid of the fire, and that he would apologize to them for destroying their Gods. However, Abraham was waiting calmly for his fate, for he believed in God and was not afraid of anybody or anything except Him. It is related that when Prophet Abraham was being thrown into the fire, the angels in the heaven and the birds in the air cried in protest.

At the appointed day on which Prophet Abraham was to be put in the fire and burnt, Namrud with his large army and followers came out to that place to watch. On seeing the huge fire and the intense heat, he began to ponder as to how it would be possible to convey Prophet Abraham into the fire. In the mean time a lizard slithered as close to the fire as he could get. With water in his little mouth he spit it at the fire trying to douse it. The other animals around him seeing him said, “What difference will it make?” The lizard replied: “On the day of Judgment (Qiyama), when I will come before my Creator, I will say that I tried my best.”

Namrud decided to build a large catapult and Prophet Abraham was thrown into the fire using this catapult. So they used a large catapult to throw Abraham into fire to console themselves and decrease their rage. When Prophet Abraham was flying in the air towards the fire, the angel Gabriel (Jibraeel) came to ask him if he needed his help. Prophet Abraham replied, “It is a matter between my Lord and me I do not want any one to intervene.” As God the Glorified, created fire and gave it the ability to bum, He was able to take that ability away from it.

At first, Abraham was disappeared in the fire and people thinking that he was burnt, started to shout happily. But it was through God’s will that the flames of fire got cold for

Abraham and did not harm him. The area on which Abraham fell became a beautiful garden of flowers, but the fire surrounded the garden. Namrud and his followers were amazed to see Prophet Abraham sitting calmly and comfortably in the middle of the burning fire, realized that fire had done no harm to Abraham. While they were all gazing admiringly of this heavenly miracle and sign of God, they understood the righteousness of Abraham’s invitation and the truthfulness of his words and claims. But even then they did not learn any lesson and had something up their sleeves, especially Namrud, remained proud and stubborn.

The dispute between Namrud and Abraham

After Abraham was unbelievably saved from that huge fire Namrud’s followers and especially he himself become very much surprised by this divine miracle. So Namrud called Abraham and asked him: “Who is this God that you invite people to and you want them to worship?”

Prophet Abraham replied to Namrud, “I worship Almighty God Who gives life to the dead and brings death the living.” Namrud said, “This is nothing, I can also do that. Do you want to know how? I’ll show you right away. Just watch it.”

He clapped his hand and commanded his guards: “Bring me two prisoners? One who has been sentenced to imprisonment and the other has been sentenced to death.” The guards brought him two chained prisoners to his presence. Namrud commanded the swordsman: “Cut off the head of the prisoner. Then release the one who has sentenced to death.”

Namrud turned to Abraham and asked him: “Did you see what I did. I brought death to the prisoner who was only sentenced to imprisonment and gave life to the one sentenced to death.” Namrud himself know this is not true. Because, He wanted to burn Abraham but God saved him from the burning. Prophet Abraham refrained from discussing with Namrud on such a matter, for what Namrud had done was incorrect. For this reason he asked him: “I worship my Lord, for He makes the sun rise in the east. Can you make it rise in the west?”

Namrud was astonished at Abraham’s question, for no one had asked him such question before. However, Namrud kept silent. He was unable to answer. But remained stubborn and did not accept the religion of Prophet Abraham.

After some years, our Prophet Abraham married his believing cousin, Sarah. Sarah was a beautiful, wise and rich young lady; she owned land and cattle, so she gave everything to her husband Abraham. Prophet Abraham worked on his farms and grazed cattle. God blessed him, so his land bloomed, and his cattle increased.

Namrud knew that he could not harm Prophet Abraham, because he was under the protection of God. So he ordered Prophet Abraham to leave his kingdom and stopped everybody from following his religion.

Prophet Abraham thus left his homeland with his family and sheep. He took with him his wife Sarah and his nephew Prophet Lut and left for Egypt. After some time, Namrud the tyrant king had expressed his desire to fight the army of God. And there was a host of mosquitoes, descended from above, which ate the flesh and drank the blood of the people.

It is stated that one of the mosquito entered the nostrils of Namrud and reached his brain and he met a painful death.

The Migration

After this eventful episode, Prophet Abraham left the city of Babylon in disgust and migrated towards Egypt to start the monotheist community. Prophet Abraham,

his wife Sarah, and his nephew Prophet Lut arrived at a place known as Ghazaza in the kingdom of the Egypt.

During this journey Prophet Abraham had kept his wife  Sarah in a box. At Ghazaza the custom officer Al-Ashir asked Prophet Abraham to open the box and show its contents.

Prophet Abraham asked the officer to take as much duty as he liked but not to open it. In spite of persistent request by Prophet Abraham the officer opened the box and found Sarah she was extremely beautiful. He informed the king of Egypt. King on seeing Sarah could not resist his temptation. He stretched his hand towards her. Prophet Abraham asked Almighty to protect Sarah from the wicked King. God, the Glorified accepted his prayer. He supported His Prophet Abraham and paralyzed the King’s hand. The King of Egypt was unable to touch Sarah. He knew that the Lord of Abraham prevented him from doing that. Thus, he asked Abraham: “Has your Lord prevented me from doing this?” Abraham replied: “Yes. Indeed my Lord is Merciful.”

The King of Egypt explained: “Your Lord is Merciful. You are also merciful, so ask your lord to heal my hand, and I’ll never do anything like that again.”

Prophet Abraham asked God to heal the King’s hand and He, the Glorified, healed his hand. But the king again repeated what he did in the beginning. Abraham’s prayer again cursed him and again for the third time the king did what he did before. This time Abraham took a promise from the king not to repeat in which case he would not invoke God. Then Abraham prayed, “O my Lord, if this man is truly sorry, then change his hand to its original form.”

Through this prayer, the king was cured. He was impressed with the power of Prophet Abraham, andaccepted his faith. He treated Prophet Abraham with great respect & presented him with a beautiful well-behaved maid Hagar (Hajira), to serve Sarah, and allowed them to go wherever they wanted.

Abraham and the star worshipers

Then again Prophet Abraham migrated towards Palestine (Baytul Muqaddas), from Egypt after growing rich and possessing enough livestock and wealth. On his way to Palestine and Jerusalem, Abraham happened to see a group of star worshipers who were praising stars instead of Almighty God. These people were called the Magi. Abraham, getting aware of their great mistake, decided to show them God’s way and save their lives. To achieve his goal. Abraham pretended to have the same religion as theirs.

At night when everything had gone under a veil of darkness, Abraham said: “My God is this star.” But soon afterwards, the star set and disappeared from the views. Abraham said: “I don’t like the God who sets down.” After a while, the moon appeared from a corner in the horizon. Abraham, while the star worshipers were listening to him, looked at the moon and said: “This is my God. This one is bigger than that star.” By the end of the night the moon set too. Prophet Abraham said: If my God doesn’t guide me, I’ll surely be misled. The next morning Prophet Abraham pointed to the sun rising from the east. He stared at Sun’s glory and brightness and said: “This should be my God. This one is bigger and brighter than all the stars.”

And finally, at the time when the sun, like the moon and all the stars set and disappeared in the horizon he pretended to be very much discouraged and showed great displeasure from idolatry, he said: “I disgust these ever-changing things. I shall praise the God who is the creator of the earth and heavens. I only worship Him and I shall reject all these dualists in this way.” Abraham justified the way of God and draws their attention towards the real deity. But those misled men instead of accepting Abraham’s words, opened up a dispute with him. Prophet Abraham Said: “Are you arguing about the God who has guided us and showed the right path to His creatures.”

The star worshipers, releasing that they could not have any influence on Abraham, and had failed to make him charge his idea regarding God, so they started to threaten and warn him against the stars’ anger. For Abraham, these threatening were only ridiculous because he was fully aware that there was no power in the world more effective than that of God and stars were only powerless things under the command of the creator of the earth and heavens. Then Prophet Abraham continued his journey towards Palestine. When he arrived at the coast of the Dead Sea, he left Prophet Lut at the land of Sodom to summon its people to believe in God and to do good. As for Abraham, he went to the city of al-Khalil in Palestine and lived in that city for many years.