The Place of Prophet Abraham in Islam

The Place of Prophet Abraham in Islam

Faith, sacrifice, commitment and patience.

These are just some of the qualities that characterize Prophet Ibrahim or Abraham as he is called in English, God’s peace be upon him. He is revered in not just Islam, but in Christianity and Judaism as well. 

"Salam (peace) be upon Abraham!" God says in the Quran (37:109).

In Islam, Prophet Ibrahim is the friend of God and the father of Prophets (Ismail or Ishmael in English and Ishaq or Isaac in English; he is also the grandfather of Prophet Yaqub or Jacob. Peace be upon them all). He is also one of the ancestors of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.

In terms of beliefs, a Muslim must believe in all of the Prophets, including Abraham and his children and descendants. 

When it comes to the five pillars of Islam, the importance of Prophet Ibrahim becomes even more evident.

The second pillar of Islam is Salat, the obligatory five daily prayers. Every Muslim who has reached the age of puberty is accountable for their prayers. During one part of each of these five prayers, Muslims must ask God to send His blessings upon Prophet Ibrahim. Now calculate this: you've got more than a few million Muslims, every day, five times a day, in virtually every time zone on this planet asking God to send His blessings on Prophet Ibrahim in the course of his or her prayer.

As well, the direction in which every Muslim must face when praying is towards a structure Prophet Ibrahim built with his son Ismail: the Kaba, in Mecca, also called Makkah, in Saudi Arabia.

With regards to the Kaba, God says this about it: "The first House (of worship) appointed for men was that at Bakka (another name for Makkah); full of blessings and guidance for all kinds of beings: in it are signs manifest, the station of Abraham-whoever enters it attains security; pilgrimage thereto is a duty men owe to God-those who can afford the journey; but if any deny faith, God stands not in need of any of His creatures" (Quran 3:96-97).

This leads to the second way in which this Prophet, described as the intimate friend of God, (Quran 4:125), is revered: Hajj.

Hajj is the pilgrimage every Muslim must make to Makkah at least once in his or her lifetime. Hajj is also an obligation no Muslim is allowed to reject or ignore. It is in this rite that Prophet Ibrahim's importance becomes even more prominent.

In general, Prophet Ibrahim's centrality to this fifth pillar of Islam is indicated by the Prophet Mohammed's statement, “You must adhere to the traditions and rituals (of Hajj), for these have come down to you from (your forefather) Ibrahim in heritage (Tirmidhi). God’s peace and blessings be upon him. 

The Kaba is the central structure around which the Hajj takes place. No Hajj is valid without going around this structure built by Prophets Ibrahim and Ismail in counterclockwise fashion seven times.

Another connection to Prophet Ibrahim in Hajj is that Muslims who perform the Hajj or Umra (which is not compulsory) must run in the middle portion of the distance between Safa and Marwa (two hills close to the Kaba) seven times. This is a commemoration of the sacrifice of the wife of Abraham, Hajar (may God be pleased with her) for her son Prophet Ismail.

Prophet Ibrahim had settled his wife and son in the valley of Makkah by God's order to pioneer a civilization. It was from this civilization that Prophet Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him, was born.

Finally, Prophet's Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his beloved son Ismail for the sake of God exemplifies not only his sincere devotion to God. The commemoration of this sacrifice is practiced with the sacrifice of an animal during Hajj and during one of the two Islamic holy days: Eid-ul-Adha.

Both father and son willingly submitted to God's command. God substituted a ram in Ismail's place at the last moment. God talks about this incident in the Quran (37:100-107).

The sacrifice that is offered by Muslims all over the world every year at Eid-ul-Adha is in commemoration of the supreme act and spirit of sacrifice offered by Prophet Abraham in lieu of his son Ismail.

Comments

Assalamu AlaikumPeace Be Upon YouThank you Sound Vision for always giving us the background information not always known about the practices and rituals that we must perform as Muslims, and the reasons for the Holidays we celebrate. They help tremendously in helping to teach our children the "why" of what we do.Thank you to those who responded to your article.InshaAllah the words spoken by so many in answer to this column are truly heard and LISTENED to. We are all the same-humans-from the SAME God-Allah! We must learn to accept one another to survive with one another, and live in peace.InshaAllah, we will see that day!Eid Mubarak!!!!!Happy Eid!!!!!Salam,Peace,Truly

Location

Streamwood, Illinois,USA

God is great and his mercy is boundless. He stopped Abrahams son from being sacrificed when he understood Abraham's good true nature. But God didn't intervene, when his own son - Jesus was being sacrificied. Why? If God is so generous then why didn't he just redeem the people from the original sin? Jesus also proved his honesty by hanging on the cross then why did God allow his own son Jesus to suffer a painful death whereas he let go of Isaac or Ishmael. Why? Was God being partial? Who can justify this?

Location

Canada

Very pithy -- very helpful. Thank you.However, everyone -- all so-called believers -- need a healthy dose of FORGETTING.

Location

Boston

Really intresting how much reach religion is linked. And What you are expected to know before going to the GREATEST trip on earth HAJJ.God created humanity and religion. We have to learn to respect each faith and each person of God. We all believe in one God and one only.

Location

England

Its strange how much you have to know before you know how little you know.Mr. Daniel Murphy just emphasised the statement 'don't sacrifice your son' and concluded that Prophet Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) was the lamb of god and was sacrified by men for our salvation. So we donot have to sacrifice our sons.But please note,IF GOD WONT ALLOW OUR SONS TO BE SACRIFICEDTHENHOW CAN HE LET "HIS SON" TO BE SACRIFICEDANDJESUS "according to Christians" IS THE SON OF GODTHENJESUS CANNOT BE SACRIFICED.please give it a positive thaught.........truth stands clear from error. Al-Quran(2:256)

Location

Pakistan

God is God of all Humanity.All Humanity believes in the same God, as is written and explained in this fine article.Why then cannot all Humanity come together, in friendship and peace, under the One God we so worship???

Location

Do u know what i think that i have a new wor d i want to say that word is while jews or christians believe only in their teaching an do not believe in all the holly books,muslims believe in god(Allah)without any condititions,they believe in all prophits of god alla of them(adam,noa,ibrahim,david,soliman,mosa,jesus,ezra,edris,younes,ayoob,haroon,izak,ismaeel,jacob,yousef,and jesus)and we believe also in the other holly books not only quraan (the bible,the gospel,the teaching of david)we belive also in the miracles that happened with all the prophits,and the most wonderfull is that our quraan says in baqara shapter(all who believe in god whether they are jews,christians,muslims)who believe in allah,and the day of judjement and did good things with their lifes ,shall feal no pain,shall feal no grief),and muslims said no lies about Mohammed(peace and prayers over his soul),however no other human whatever the race ,region and language achieved all that success,not only as a prophit but also as leader in the battle field,and as a father ,and as a husband and as a grandson,we as muslims do not need from any one to say good things about our religion because we believe in good so strongly and we believe in all the teachings of other prophits,we do not need any support we believe in all that u believe in except that jesus(peace on him)is a god or the son of god,and we love you because god asked us to love all his creatures and asked us to forgive,but also god(Allah)asked us to defend or beliefs and defend our land and we can not accept what is going in jerusalem(elqods),we may be weak now but for long time,one day when Jesus come from the sky he will show you,as we believe he was not killed but he is living in heaven,salamo alikom wa rahmat Allah we barkatoh(peace on you and god mercy and bless)

Location

egypt

Thank you for the opportunity of being able to comment on your comparison between Islam, Judaism and Christianity. In a world of so much religeous conflict it is refreshing to encounter some who desire to unite rather than divide people of differing religeous beliefs; ie., by emphasising our common relationship to Father Abraham.I am Christian but I deeply respect and admire the faith, committment, sacrifice and patience of the adherents of Islam and Judaism.As a contribution to this discussion I would like to suggest that we concentrate not only on our common links to Abraham/Ibrahim but also on our common link to the one True God; the Everlasting Father, Allah, Jehovah, the Creator, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is the Father of us all. He created us all. He rules us all. He is capable of providing us all with the place, peace and future we all desire.All religeons have rituals, and they may be good, but all men have hearts and it is the heart of man that God is looking at.If we desire a better world for ourselves and our children (and/or a place we all call Paradise}, our hearts must desire the things that God desires and we must walk in the way that God walks.At the heart of God is Love, Truth, Justice, Mercy, Compassion, Goodness, Kindness. We are his children if we express the same.The lesson of Abraham/Ibrahim is Obedience rather than Sacrifice. In all things Abraham/Ibrahim obeyed God. He took his son to the mountain. He put him on the alter. He raised the sacrificial knife. But when God said, 'don't sacrifice your son'. then Abraham/Abrahim did not sacrifice his son. Abraham/Abrahim sacrificed nothing of his own. God in his love and mercy provided his own sacrifice. A lamb without spot caught in the bushes. Yes Abraham/Abrahim killed the lamb but perhaps this speaks to us of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was blameless and was provided by God, was slain by man.And I wonder if we haven't all at one time or another in our lives slain the Lamb of God. Like having denied the Truth, perverted Justice, withheld Mercy, hated our brother, done evil? All of which are contrary to the heart of God. All of which are disobedience to God.Is this a message for Christians only? Or is it a message for everyone?I pray that all men regardless of present religeous persuasion seek and obey God. Not man, but God. There is confusion with man but peace and harmony with God.Will mankind one day totally and freely accept the will of God? Or will God himself find it necessary to one day have to come down to earth and put things right himself?One way or another His will will be done on earth. And I hope and pray that that day will soon be near. For on that day there will be peace and harmony forever between all men; and all will serve and worship one God; and there will be forgivness and Justice and Mercy and Truth and there will be no more wars or famine or pestilence. For God will be our King and he will be our ruler and where He is, there will we his creation be also.God bless you and I pray that God will bring us all into the Truth.

Location

Australia

While it is great to be informed about what is the Islamic faith, I am concerned that Catholicism is equated with Christianity. Not all who are Christians, are Catholic. There is Protestant belief that differs from Catholic, in that we exemplify Jesus Christ as the focus of the whole Holy Bible. The life of Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac are told for the purpose of showing God's mercy, and to foreshadow the advent of God's only Son, Jesus Christ. We believe that whenever The Angel of the Lord is shown, that He is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, ie. that Christ visited the Earth on occassion before taking on the flesh of man. Later, by living for 33 years in sinlessness, and dying for the sake of all who accept Him as the Sacrifice, He might save all who believe from their sins. Christ, not Abraham is most revered, and He is the One who held the hand of Abraham from the sacrifice of his son, Isaac.Further, while Abraham is accepted as a large figure in the Bible, we think of him as an example of faith... Faith counted for righteousness. Both Christ, and Paul, speaking to Jews, spoke about Abraham, but for the sole reason of pointing out that his faith is what made him differ from others.I do not need to accept the similarities in the accounts of Abraham's life within Judaism, Islam, and "Christianity". Certainly there are some.... But here is the point that these differ: Jesus Christ is God's Only Begotten Son, and the entire canon of the Holy Bible is centered in and on the revealing of Jesus Christ as mankind's only way of salvation. It is by faith in Christ, as Abraham's faith was counted for righteousness, we have eternal life.

Location

Apopka, Florida

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