IBRAHIM(AS) THE IMAM! QURAN AL FAJR: “124 And when his Lord tried Abraham with certain commands he fulfilled them. He said: Surely I will make thee a leader of men. (Abraham) said: And of my offspring? My covenant does not include the wrongdoers, said He.125 And when We made the House a resort for men and a (place of) security. And: Take ye the Place of Abraham for a place of prayer. And We enjoined Abraham and Ishmael, saying: Purify My House for those who visit (it) and those who abide (init) for devotion and those who bow down (and) those who prostrate themselves. 126 And when Abraham said: My Lord, make this a secure town and provide its people with fruits, such of them as believe in Allah and the Last Day. He said: And whoever disbelieves,I shall grant him enjoyment for a short while, then I shall drive him to the chastisement of the Fire.And it is an evil destination. 27.And when Abraham and Ishmael raised the foundations of theHouse: Our Lord, accept from us;surely Thou art the Hearing, the Knowing. 128 Our Lord, and make us both submissive to Thee, and (raise) from our offspring, a nation submissive to Thee, and show us our ways of devotion and turn to us (mercifully);surely Thou art the Oft-returning (to mercy), the Merciful. 129 Our Lord, and raise up in them a Messenger from among them who shall recite to them Thy messages and teach them the Book and the Wisdom, and purify them. Surely Thou art the Mighty, the Wise.130 And who forsakes the religion of Abraham but he who makes a fool of himself. And certainly We made him pure in this world and in the Hereafter he is surely among the righteous. THE QURAN ILLUSTRATED 17TH NOVEMBER 2013: “And when We made the House a resort for men and a (place of) security”. Al-Bait or The House is the famous house known by this name to this day, the Ka‘bah. It is also known as Bait Allah or the House of Allah, and is the same as the Bethel of the Bible. In the Qur’an itself it is mentioned by the name al-Bait several times, as Mecca. ... Diodorus Siculus, writing about half a century before our era, says of Arabia washed by the Red Sea: “There is in this country a temple greatly revered by the Arabs”.These words must refer to the Holy House of Mecca, for we know of no other whichever commanded such universal homage. ... Tradition represents the Ka‘bah as from time immemorial the scene of pilgrimage from all quarters of Arabia: from Yemen and Hadramaut, from the shores of the Persian Gulf, the deserts of Syria, and the distant environs of Hira and Mesopotamia, men yearly flocked to Mecca. So extensive a homage must have had its beginnings in an extremely remote age” (Life of Mahomet). “Take ye the Place of Abraham for a place of prayer”. The previous verse speaks of Abraham, and there is apparently a change now introduced in resorting to the subject of the Ka‘bah. But really there is no change. This section deals with the covenant made with Abraham and this covenant included both the Israelites and the Ishmaelites. The Ka‘bah, the spiritual centre of Islam, it is now related,was connected with the name of Abraham, and pointed reference to this is made in the mention of Maqam Ibrahim or the Place of Abraham. It is true that a particular place, a small building supported by six pillars about eight feet high, situated in the Ka‘bah, is known by this name, and was so known in the time of the Prophet and even before him, and this is incontrovertible evidence of Abraham’s connection with Arabia and its spiritual centre. But here really Maqâm Ibrahim stands for the House itself. It is The House that was made a resort for men and a place of security as stated in the opening words of the verse, and it is The House that was to be purified of idols by Abraham and Ishmael, as stated in the latter part. The injunction therefore to take the Place of Abraham for a place of prayer can carry no other significance than that The House or the Ka‘bah shall be the Central Mosque of the Muslims. It is called the Place of Abraham because it was Abraham who purified it of the idols and it was Abraham who rebuilt The House as stated further on. While some commentators take the words Maqâm Ibrahim as referring to the particular place known by that name, many of them understand by it the Ka‘bah or the whole of the sanctuary. There is a √hadīth in Bukhari according to which ‘Umar is reported to have said to the Prophet: O Messenger of Allah, wert thou to take Maqâm Ibrahim for a place of prayer. These words were spoken when the Prophet, after his Hijrah to Madinah, turned his face to Jerusalem as the Qiblah, because Jerusalem was the Qiblah of the Israelite prophets that had gone before him. It was on receiving this Divine injunction that he made the Ka‘bah the Qiblah of the Muslims “for devotion and those who bow down (and) those who prostrate themselves”. It should be noted that Ishmael is very often mentioned along with Abraham in connection with the Ka‘bah. Ishmael’s connection with Arabia is established by the Bible itself, for Kedar (son of Ishmael, Genesis 25:13) stands throughout the writings of the Old Testament for Arabia (Ps. 120:5; Is. 42:11; 60:7). The Arab tradition on this point was so strong and of such old standing that the Holy Qur’an every now and then refers to it as a matter of undoubted history. As Muir says: “This was no Muslim fiction, but the popular opinion of the Meccans long before the era of Muhammad, otherwise it could not have been referred to in the Qur’an as an acknowledged fact, nor would the names of certain spots around the Ka‘bah have been connected, as we know them to have been, with Abraham and Ishmael” (Life of Mahomet). The Arab tradition representing Abraham as coming with Hagar and Ishmael to the place where now Makkah is, is quite independent of the Bible statement, and the two taken together justify us in drawing the conclusion as to the truth of the Qur’anic statement. Moreover, the situation of Makkah on a well-recognized ancient route from Syria to Yaman and the visits from the deserts of Syria to that “Ancient House” corroborate this conclusion. Thus there is not the least reason to reject the popular tradition as a fable, and the facts recorded in the Qur’an are borne out fully by Arab tradition and the Bible. References to Ishmael, the eldest son of Abraham, are very frequent in the Holy Qur’an. (For further references see 2:133, 136, 140; 3:84; 4:163; 6:86; 14:39; 19:54, 55;21:85; 37:101–107 (where he is not mentioned by name); and 38:48. For references to Isaac, Abraham’s younger son, which are always brief, (see 2:133, 136, 140; 3:84; 4:163; 6:84; 11:71; 12:6; 14:39; 19:49; 21:72; 29:27; 37:112, 113; and 38:45–47). “And it is an evil destination”. It was Abraham who, when settling Hagar and Ishmael near the Sacred House, which was already there, laid the foundations of a city there. Makkah is elsewhere spoken of as hadh-al-Balad (14:35; 90:1, 2) or this City. In 3:96, it is mentioned by the name Bakkah. It was built in a place which was unproductive of fruit (14:37) and therefore devoid of the primal necessities of life. Hence, Abraham’s prayer for the residents of the city that they might be provided with fruits. But while Abraham prayed for provisions of life for the righteous only, God’s acceptance of the prayer included the wicked as well. Elsewhere, the acceptance of this prayer is referred to thus:“Have We not settled them in a safe, sacred territory to which fruits of every kind are drawn — a sustenance from Us” (28:57). “Our Lord, accept from us;surely Thou art the Hearing, the Knowing”. Abraham and Ishmael rebuilt the Ka‘bah, which was already there;( see 14:37). “a nation submissive to Thee, and show us our ways of devotion and turn to us (mercifully);surely Thou art the Oft-returning (to mercy), the “. The word translated as submissive is Muslim in the original. A Muslim is so called because he surrenders himself to the will of God or because he is secure from the slavery of the devil (Raghib Isfahani) or because he enters into peace. Though all prophets were Muslims but only the followers of the Prophet Muhammad are known as a Muslim nation. At the time when these verses were revealed, there existed only a few Muslims in Madinah, and reference to a Muslim nation was still prophetical. “and purify them. Surely Thou art the Mighty, the Wise”. The Messenger had appeared but the great task of teaching the Book and the Wisdom to the progeny of Ishmael, the Arabs, and the still greater task of purifying them of evil, had yet to be performed, and its mention at this time was therefore prophetical. The more one ponders on the unique transformation brought about by the Prophet in Arabia, and through Arabia in the world, the more his head bows before the grandeur of this prophecy. “And certainly We made him pure a in this world and in the Hereafter he is surely among the righteous”. Istafaina-hu means We made him pure from all dross (al-Bahr al Muhit); also We chose him (Lanes Lexicon). The root is safw meaning purity. Mustafa, the Purified One or the Chosen One, is one of the titles of our Prophet(SAW)”.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:16:16 +0000
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