March 6th: Prophet Ibrahim

The story of Prophet Ibrahim (part 1)

-He is from the lineage of Prophet Nuh
-Born in Babylon, modern day Iraq

Why is Prophet Ibrahim special? Why do we mention him every prayer?
-He is: the father of the prophets
-He is from “ulil azm min arrusul”
-He is Khalil arrahman: the Prophet was “habibullah”. Allah loves us as much as we love Him.
-Allah described him in the Quran as being “an ummah”
-Mentioned in 73 places in the Quran, in 25 surahs.
-Aya: “Ibrahim allathee waffa”
-Also described as “awwahun 7aleem”, which means “tender-hearted and forebearing”
-He resembeled the Prophet the most.

Dawah to his father: (how do we make dawah to our parents?)
-Some people backbite their parents and they try to give them dawah in a tough way.

-Who was his father”
His name was Azar, he was old, stubborn, a kafir, and his profession was to make idols.
-How old was Ibrahim? 16 (never too young to give dawah)
-Ibrahim was so afraid for his father, he loved him.
-He said: “And mention in the Book Ibrahimg, surely he was a man of truth, a Prophet. When he said to his father: ‘Ya abati! Why do you worship that which can neither see or hear, nor can avail you to anything?, Ya abati! I have received knowledge that has not come to you, so follow me, and I will guide you to the Straight Path. Ya abati! DO not worship Saran, surely Saran is rebellious to Allah, the Most gracious. Ya abati! I fear that you will be punished by the Most Gracious, and so you become a companion of Satan” Maryam 19: 41-45
- Ibrahim made it clear to his father in a gentle way that the idols he worships cannot benefit or harm him… he tried to open his father’s eyes to the truth. Yet his father was stubborn.
-His father “do you reject my gods O Ibrahim, if you don’t stop I will stone you (I’ll kill you)”. His father was willing to kill him… that’s how deep he was into his ignorance.

How will Ibrahim respond to this? Will he yell at his father at this point?
-Ibrahim responded with peace.. and he said he’d ask Allah to forgive him: “Peace be upon you. I will pray to my Lord to forgive you; indeed, He is to me the Most Gracious. And I am leaving you and those whom you invoke besides Allah”
- We’re not allowed to make istighfar to non-believers.
-When it became clear to Ibrahim that his father is an enemy of Allah, he disassociated himself from him.
-Ibrahim and his father on judgment day: (hadith from Bukhari) Ibrahim will meet his father on the day or judgment, his father will tell him ‘Today I shall not disobey you’ So Ibrahim would say ‘O Lord, you rpomised me that You shall not disgrace me on the Day of Judgement. So today there is no disgrace greater than the disgrace of my father being in hellfire. Allah would say: ‘I have made Paradise forbidden for the disbelievers’ Then Ibrahim will look at his father and find him in the form of a hyena.. and then he’ll be thrown into the hell fire.

Ibrahim makes dawah to his people: don’t forget how young he is
-Do something in your young age so when you die and people are carrying you to your grave, they actually have something good to say about you
- Aya (Ashuara 26: 69-76): “And relate to them the story of Ibrahim, when he said to his father and to his people: ‘What is it that you worship?’ They said: ‘We worship idols, and we worship them with devotion.’ He said: ‘Do they hear you when you call, or do they benefit you or harm you?’ They said: ‘No, but we found our fathers doing the same’”
-They had no evidence for that they worshipped except the blind following of their parents. Do we blindly follow ours?
-He tried to call them to worship only one God.
-“Uffin lakum, indeed you and your fathers have been in manifest error”
-They couldn’t believe this statement…
-He said between him and himself that he’s going to destroy their idols. (notice the toughness comes out now)
-They go out of town for their festival. Ibrahim doesn’t join them, he says he is sick. Meaning that he is sick of their doing.
- He was all alone in the town. He found their idols surrounded with food of every kind, so he said to them: “Why don’t you eat? What’s the matter with you that you don’t speak?”(37: 91-93) and he started smashing them into pieces.
-He hung the ax in the neck of the biggest idol.
-They came back and discovered what happened to their gods, they said: “Who has done this to our gods? Surely he is one of the most unjust” 21:59
-“ we heard a young man mentioning them, he’s called Ibrahim” he wasn’t known to the society…
-They said “Bring him before the eyes of the people, that they may bear witness” 21:61. So people could witness what’s going to happen to him.
-They asked him: “Have you done this to our gods O ibrahim?”
-He said “It was the biggest of them that did it. So ask them if they are able to speak” this was the point he wanted to get to.
-Ibrahim woke them up for a moment… “they turned to their own conscience and said: Surely, you are yourselves unjust” but shaytan made them go back to their ignorance.
-They said “you know that they don’t speak”
-“do you then worship other than Allah what can’t benefit you? Or defend their own selves?”
-They lost the dialogue and now they resulted to force. So they said “burn him”.

The fire: (16 years old): an example of tawakkul
-They said: “prepare for him a furnace and cast him into the blaze”
-It took them a long time to prepare this fire.
-Women would vow to collect wood for the fire when they got ill.
-Birds that flew over the fire would fall into it dead.
-Everyone came out to witness this event.
-How would they throw him in the fire when no one could even walk near it?
- They made a catapult.
-The man who made it was swallowed by the earth as a punishment from Allah.
-They shackled Ibrahim with chains.
-He said “7asbiyaAllah wa ni3mal wakeel”. Which means: “Allah is sufficient for us, and how good a Protector He is”
-After Ibrahim was thrown and he was in midair. Jibril came to him and asked “Do you need any help?. And Ibrahim said: “If from you, then no”
-Allah created the fire and gave it it’s characteristics.. so Allah made the fire cool and comfortable. Allah said: “Ya naru kooni bardan wa salaman 3ala ibrahim”.
-The only thing the fire burned was the shackles.
-JIbril was with him wiping his sweat. That was the only “suffering” he faced in there.
-His father said when he say this: “How good a Lord is your Lord, O Ibrahim!”
-His mother:
She said: O Ibrahim, I want to come to you. So pray to Allah so He could save me from the fire around you.
He said: Yes.
His mother came to him without being harmed, she embraced him, kissed him and left.
-The Prophet ordered us to kill lizards because they were the only animal to help flare up the fire.
-Later in life Prophet Ibrahim would describe the days he spent in the fire as the best days of his life.
-Allah said: “They wanted to harm him but we made them the worst losers”
-His people saw him come out of the fire unharmed, yet they still did not believe.


Nimrod: He’s not going to be tough or gentle with the king. Just strong and firm.
- The kindgof Bayblon. Ruled for about 400 years, he was arrogant and rebellious.
- Heard about the story and he wanted to meet Ibrahim
- Ibrahim came to him and immediately called him towards the worship of one God without associating any partners with him.
- The king claimed lordship for himself.
- Ibrahim: “Allah is the one who gives life and the one who takes it away, can you do that?”
- Nimrod says yes. (two prisoners)
- Ibrahim didn’t mean this foolish shallow meaning of giving life and death. Allah gives life and death in every single moment of this life.
- When he found his opponent trying to trap him in an insignificant fact he left it and he wanted to get him from another angle.. he didn’t go down that road with him..
- Ibrahim “Allah brings the sun from the East, so bring it from the West”
- Nimrod could not respond to this… he was dumbfounded.

Nimrod’s punishment:
- Allah sent an angel commanding him to believe in Allah but he refused.
- He challenged the angel and said: You call forth and gather your people and I will gather mine.
- Nimrod gathered his army at sunrise and Allah sent an army of mosquitos that overshadowed the sun.
- They are their flash and drank their blood and left a structure of bones.
- One of mosquitos entered the nose of Nimrod and stayed inside. He was so bothered by it that to relieve himself from the pain he kept hitting himself in the head with a hammer until he died.

Bringing life to the dead:
- Ibrahim asks Allah: “My lord show me how you give life to the dead”
- It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t believe in it, of course he does. He just wanted to see it.
- Allah asked him “Do you not believe?”
- He said “I do but to be stronger in faith”
- 4 birds, chopped, meshed flesh, placed a quarter of the amount on the tops of 4 mountains. Then he called them and all of the birds came together alive.

Migration:
Syria:
- No one believed in Ibrahim, even after they witnessed the miracle of the fire.
- The only one who believed in him was his nephew Lot (AS).
- He first went to Syria, he passed the town of Harran and he met the people who worshipped the stars.
- He made dawah to them in his own way.
- First they see Venus (looks like a star). Ibrahim says: this is my Lord.
- The planet set and then he said “I do not like those that set”
- Then he saw the moon and said “The moon is my lord”
- The moon set, and he said “If my Lord does not guide me I will amongst the misguided”
- The sun came up, He said “This is my Lord, it’s the biggest”
- The sun set and then he said “I am indeed free from all that you join as partners in worship with Allah and I have turned my face to the one who created the heavens and the earth on the straight path and I am not one of those who associate others with Allah”



Egypt:
- Prophet Ibrahim lied three times in his life: “I am sick”, “It was the biggest one that did it”, and the third one was when he and Sarah passed by the tyrant ruler, and he said that he is her brother and not her husband.
- Sara was the second most beautiful woman to be created after Eve.
- The king heard that this man is coming and he has a very beautiful woman with him so he wanted her to himself.
- He said if the man with her is her husband we will kill him.
- He asked Ibrahim: “Who is this woman?” and Ibrahim said “She is my sister”
- Ibrahim told Sara: We are the only believers here so I told the king that you are my sister.
- She made dua: “O Allah, if you know that I believed in You and in Your Messenger, and I kept myself chaste except for my husband, so do not let this disbeliever overpower me”
- The ruler sent for Sara. He tried to touch her but he was paralyzed. He asked her to help him.
- She made dua: “O Allah if he died, people would say she killed him” and he was returned back to normal. This happened three times and then the kind told her to go and gave her gifts and along with them was Hajar.
- Allah tells us in the Quran: “And seek help in patience and prayer”
Palestine:
- After living in Palestine for 20 years. Ibrahim is now in his 80s.
- Sarah asks him to marry Hajar since she could not have any children.
- He does and she becomes pregnant with Ismael.
- Shortly after the birth, Allah commands Ibrahim to take Hajar and Ismael to Mecca.
- Mecca was empty, no people, no life whatsoever.
- When Ibrahim left them and walked back. Hajar clinched his cloth and said “Ibrahim! Where you going, leaving us here here alone? We do not have sufficient food and drink”
- Ibrahim did not answer her. She asked him three times but no answer.
- Finally she said: “Has Allah commanded you to do this?”
- He said: “Yes”
- She said: Then Allah will not leave us to perish (another example of tawakkul)
- He left them there, all they had was some dates and a little bit of water.
- When Ibrahim reached a place where they couldn’t see him, he looked back and made dua: “Our Lord! I have settled some of my offspring in a valley without any cultivation, by your Sacred House, Our Lord! So they may establish regular prayers. So make the hearts of people yearn towards them, and provide them with fruits that they may be grateful”
- Hajar runs out of water and starts to look for it.
- Her running between safa and marwa
- Finally the angel comes and strikes his wing by Ismael’s foot for Zamzam water to come out.
- She started to dig around the water so she would trap it, she kept saying “zam.. zam..”
- Hadith: “May Allah bestow His mercy ipon the mother of Ismael. Had she let Zamzam flow the water would have been a flowing stream”
- The angel then told her: “Don’t be afraid… The House of Allah is here, which this child and his father will build. Allah certainly does not neglect His people”
- The tribe of Jurhum