ISLAMIC REMINDERS

Prophet Ibrahim AS
ISLAMIC REMINDERS

Prophet Ibrahim AS

Ibrahim AS was born in Iraq , in Babylon. He was a great messenger of Allah SWT. He was a
full nation but himself, he was a one man army. He was such a great man that Allah tested
him numerous times and he passed every time. Allah had taken him as a very close friend
because how did not question whatever he was commanded to do by his Lord, he did not
hesitate to follow a single command because he knew it came from his Lord. He prayed to
Allah that he wishes to be remembered as a good remembrance for the people after me and
Allah accepted that, the Christians, the Jews , Muslims , we all look up to Ibrahim AS.

Summarised Story and key events of Ibrahim AS life.

Before Ibrahim AS was born, there was a king named Namrud, he was told by a fortune teller
that in a year a boy will be born who will destroy his throne, Namrud was fearful and decided
all baby boys to be killed in that year, however, Ibrahim AS mother had decided to take him
to a another village in a cave and leave him there, he was
under the protection of Allah swt through these days
alone. One day Ibrahim AS mother came to the cave and
met, hugged and kissed him and took him home. the
soldiers of Namrud did not realise that the baby was 2-3
weeks old and had thought he was 2-3 years old, so they
let him go.
He grew up to live with his father Aazar , an astrologer
and idol maker and would sell these idols.

The young boy (Ibrahim AS) would see his father make these idols and see his father sell
these idols and see people prostrate Infront of these idols made of wood,clay,mud. Seeing
that he was very shocked. When Ibrahim AS grew up to be a boy , his father began to rely on
him to go and sell these idols to people, this was a test on Ibrahim AS.
When Ibrahim AS would be given these idols to go and sell, it was narrated that he would
throw the idols into the river and tell the idols to save their selves from drowning, and the
idols would do nothing, the prophet Ibrahim AS would then say “ you can’t even save
yourself, how will you save me? , you can’t even take care of yourself”.

At a young age Ibrahim AS rejected worshipping idols , as he grew up, some narrations say
he was about 7 years old, he started speaking up about these idols and asked his father and
the people “ what is this that you are worshipping’, they replies “ we worship idols and we
will continue to worship these diols”. Ibrahim AS questioned if these idols can hear you?
Hurt you?. The people replies “ we saw our forefathers worshipping these idols and we will
continue to do” …… and that is the only answer they had to give to Ibrahim AS. Ibrahim AS
told the people that you, these idols, the idols your forefathers worshipped are all enemies of
me because I worship the only one, The Creator of the world and every creation.
Ibrahim AS understood at a young age that he cannot worship an idol, brick or a stick , I only
need to worship who made me.

Ibrahim AS father did not allow him to question him about anything regarding the idols and
to do what their forefathers have been doing for generations. Ibrahim AS told his father “ oh
father I fear for you a punishment from the merciful, so you would be a companion of Satan”.
Ibrahim AS started questioning more and more to people about idols and them didn’t have an
ISLAMIC REMINDERS

answer. Ibrahim AS told the people that “ I will surely plan against your idols after you have
turned and gone away”. He makes a promise to himself that he will destroy the idols.

There used to be festival that everyone would leave the city and go into the dessert to worship
idols or create more idols and worship them. Everyone had decided to go and worship these
idols and had told Ibrahim AS to come along, and he replied, “ indeed I am sick” and did not
finish the sentence , what he really meant to say was “ I am sick of you people”. When
everyone had gone Ibrahim AS began to question these idols and tell them to speak to him, he
then began to break them , destroying them one by one and asking questions along with it. In
the end he left one idol remaining, which was considered the head of the idols and left an axe
Infront of it . when everyone returned from the festival very happy and saw their idols
destroyed, they panicked and raged with anger questioning who could do this disgusting act
to their ‘lords’. They discussed and thought that it was Ibrahim AS that only talked bad about
these idols and was the only one remained behind. They called Ibrahim AS and questioned
him to respond why he had done this to the idols. Ibrahim
AS responded he did not do it, he told the people to question
the head of the idols with the axe , he told the people that
the idol had done it and to question the idol. The people said
“ O IBRAHIM! O IBRAHIM! Are you making fun of us?,
you know they cannot talk or respond or hear”, so Ibrahim
AS said “ I am making fun of myself? Or your making fun
of yourself?, you just said they don’t listen, or hear , or talk ,
so why do you worship them??”.

Deep inside themselves, the people realised that Ibrahim AS was making a good point
because if they were the lords, they would protect their selves, they wouldn’t let someone
come break them into pieces….. but their ego and pride did not let them give in to the truth.
The people then decided to punish Ibrahim AS by throwing him into a blazing huge fire that
he cannot escape from. Ibrahim AS father said to him “ if you do not desist, I will surely
stone you”, his OWN father turned against him and wanted to stone him!.

They began the fire ; the fire was so big and severe that some narrations say birds could not
even fly above it. Ibrahim AS was chained with his hands together and the fire was so hot
that they could not go near it. So, they pulled Ibrahim AS on a trunk of a palm tree and
pulled the tree to the maximum they can and let it off and he was thrown into the fire. When
Ibrahim AS was flying into the fire, Jibreel came to him and said “ O IBRAHIM! DO YOU
NEED ANY HELP?”, Ibrahim AS replied “ from you? No. but from Allah ? yes.”.
This shows the love between Ibrahim AS and Allah that even in a situation like this , he did
not accept help from anyone but his LORD.

As Ibrahim AS was released into the fire, there were stairs created , so he was literally
walking down the stairs in such a beautiful way into the fire and the people were looking at
him. Allah swt then said, “ O FIRE, BE COOLNESS AND SAFETY UPON IBRAHIM”.
And Ibrahim AS then walked so calmly and beautifully out of this fire. The people were so
shocked and scared that they walked away from him and did not do anything to him. From
these people, one young man stands up and decided he wants to follow Ibrahim AS and
worship Allah swt….. Subhan Allah , this young man was Lut AS, he was not a prophet yet,
but he was the nephew of Ibrahim AS.
ISLAMIC REMINDERS

They both then decided that they must leave

because the people will not let us worship Allah
here with these people around us.

Namrud then heard about this and told his soldiers

to bring Ibrahim AS Infront of me. He began to
question Ibrahim AS to why he is worshipping
Allah and not me. Ibrahim AS said, “ MY LORD IS THE ONE WHO GIVES LIFE AND
CAUSES DEATH”, NAMRUD THEN REPLIED, “ I give life and cause death” . Namrud
then calls two prisoners that were sentenced to death and decided that one prisoner dies and
one given life and then claimed he gave life and death. Ibrahim AS did not bother to argue
with namrud because he was a fool and says “ okay…. Indeed, Allah brings the sun up from
the east, so bring it up from the west”, hearing this namrud was defeated and quiet and did
not know what to do and commanded him to get out of the country and leave because he
feared that Ibrahim AS had come out of a fire safely so he cannot harm him.

At some stage, there was a female who accepted his message, it was his own wife, Sarah (
May Allah swt peace be upon her). Ibrahim AS then migrated from Iraq to shaam ( shaam is
made up of Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan). As
he was going there he stopped at a place called
Haraan and decided to let me try and bring these
people to the path of Allah swt.

He found out that these people worship the STARS! ,

not idols or bricks or stones, they worshipped the
stars. So he came up with an idea and sat with these
people and looked up at the stars and said “ this is my
lord” and when the star went away, he then said “
where’s the star gone that I was worshipping and said now I have to wait another day for the
star to come to worship it again”, the people then stared at him and thought that he makes a
little sense. Ibrahim AS then saw the moon and said, “ this Is my lord, its much bigger”, and
the people are happy and yes. He then said “ I cannot worship this; it is now gone and
suddenly at sunrise the moon is gone. He then sees the sun rise and say, “ the sun is risen and
is the biggest , it is my lord , this is more deserving to be worshiped”, but when the sun set ,
there was nothing left, the sun was gone, stars were gone, moon was gone.
Ibrahim AS then questioned the people “ the sun has gone, so at night if you have a problem,
who do you call upon?”. He then said, “ O my people , indeed I am free from what you
associate with Allah swt, I have turned my face towards He who created the heaven and earth
inclining toward truth and I am not of those who associate others with Allah”.
After that they started threatening Ibrahim AS to kill him.

So, he then left haraan and decided to go to a closer area of shaam and after a little while,
there was a drought there. He instructed Lut AS to head to a certain area and settle there , the
place was known as Sodom. Ibrahim AS and his wife started walking in a certain direction
and headed for Egypt.
ISLAMIC REMINDERS

And when he had arrived, it was more corrupted

than he had ever assumed.
There was a king , this king was so low and
disgraceful , a bad king and was a womanizer. He
had spies to look around for beautiful women and
she must come to him whether she wants to or not
, whether she is married or not. And when
Ibrahim AS arrived with Sarah who was the 2nd
most beautiful women to exist on earth. And the
king ordered her to be brought to him and asked
that if Ibrahim AS is her husband , he shall be killed and if he is anyone besides her husband
then he shall be realised. Allah swt sent jibreel to Ibrahim AS to inform of what the king was
going to do. Prophet Ibrahim AS told Sarah to say that he is her brother and she is his sister.
When Sarah was taken to the king and was being adorned with gold and silver and jewellery,
the king came inside the room and saw Sarah looking sad, and because he wanted her so
desperately he became a little sad seeing her sad, he then fell asleep in the process of waiting
for Sarah. This king had a dream whilst he was asleep that he must let Sarah go or else he
will be destroyed, and so he did. He let her go but with a gift of a girl named hajaar as a
slave. Ibrahim AS and Sarah lived a long time in Egypt happily and had a lot of barakah in
their marriage and became a wealthy man. Seeing this, people became jealous and so Ibrahim
AS decided to emigrate back to shaam with his wife and Hajar to settle down there again.
Ibrahim AS had everything from Allah but not a child, he was 85 years old and Sarah was
barren and could not provide a child, so she had decided to give Hajar as a present to Ibrahim
AS to marry her and have a child from her. And that is when Isma’il AS was born.

THE MOUNTAIN OF SAFA MARWA AND ZAM ZAM.

Now came a BIG test Ibrahim AS from Allah swt. He was instructed to take his second wife
Hajar and baby Isma’il and to move on earth, until he reached a place which was a very quiet
place, with no people or houses nearby in sight, just soil, and this is what is described as the
valley of Makkah called Makkathul Mukkarama , Allah swt wanted to test Ibrahim AS to see
if Ibrahim AS chooses Allah or the child he has been praying and waiting for years. Allah swt
instructed Ibrahim AS to leave Hajar and baby Isma’il in the valley and to return back to
Sarah his first wife. Subhan ’Allah…. What a test for Ibrahim AS… so what did Ibrahim AS
do?....

Ibrahim AS agreed to leave his wife and started walking and Hajar from behind kept
questioning and he did not turn around or reply. So Hajar understood that there can only be
one reason for this, so she called upon him and said, “ is it Allah swt that has instructed you
to do this?”….. and that is when he said yes and kept walking.
At this point Hajar also surrendered to Allah swt and believed that He will take care of her
and baby Isma’il . So, Ibrahim AS had left and in the dry valleys of Makkah, remained Hajar
and her baby , she breastfed baby Ismail for a while and then the little amount of food they
had ran out…. No water, no food, nothing. And the mother looks at baby Isma’il AS and says
“ no, I must make an effort to look for some food”. And so she decided to go up a hillock
called safa and when she reached the top, she looked around to see if there is any person, any
food, any water but there was nothing in sight so she came down the mountain safa and then
runs up to another mountain called marwa and makes dua “ ya Allah send us some goodness,
ISLAMIC REMINDERS

ya Allah you are The One who can help us” and then a couple of times she ran up and down
the both mountains and making dua.

She then heard a sound…. She came down and looked at where baby Isma’il was and there
was a spring of water gushing out of the ground and thanked Allah swt. So she created a
basin like structure out of the dry sand that had turned into clay now because of the water and
she began to say “ zam zam zam “ , which means stop stop stop. To this day this water known
as zam zam. Subhan Allah…. And it is still gushing water till this day and after some time
birds began to come and started to drink from this water.

Because of the heat and dry dessert, the passing caravans would search for birds…. Why did
they search for birds?....because wherever you see a bird, you know there might be some
water nearby.
So, a clan of Jurhum was passing by the area and noticed the birds in the middle of nowhere
which they did not expect…. So, they decided to check and send someone to go and see. So,
the person had gone and taken a look and saw a woman with a little baby and went back to
the people of Jurhum to inform them. The people of jurhum were lovely people and had
realised that this is a miracle, so they went to the mountain and asked Hajar if they could live
here because there is water gushing here and that does not happen anywhere else.
Hajar looked at these people and answered beautifully “yes.. but on one condition that this
water belongs to me, you can drink and benefit from it, but it is mine”. So, they agreed.
They were very happy and LOVED the baby Isma’il , and as he grew, they thought him
Arabic, and manners. As Isma’il AS grew up, his father Ibrahim AS would visit often and see
the set-up of the place and would be happy with it and would come and go.

THE SACRIFICE

The tests for Ibrahim AS do not end here …. After all these trials he was faced with another
HUGE test…. Huge…. Something unimaginable for the majority nowadays. The sacrifice. A
great test from Allah swt. Just imagine it… a father who had waited years and years and years
of his life waiting for a child and when the child was born, you can only imagine how
attached Ibrahim AS heart was to Isma’il AS.
Isma’il AS grew as a virtuous Muslim and was a young ,righteous, god fearing ,loving Islam
and worshipping Allah swt and that made Ibrahim AS heart more attached to his son.

Now comes the great test… where Ibrahim AS had a dream one night of where he was seeing
himself slaughter his son Isma’il AS. And now Ibrahim AS is in a great test and a very tough
situation… where he had to slaughter his son…. Think about it .. if you had to do that?. But
what was the response of Ibrahim AS and his faith and so he said, “ O ALLAH , WE
HEARD AND WE OBEY REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU ORDER ME” . The following
day Ibrahim AS takes Isma’il AS to the side and talks to him about this and says

“ O my son, indeed I have seen a dream that I must sacrifice you, so what do you think”.
ۡ ۤۡ ِ ِ ۡ ِ ۤۡ ِ ۡ ‫ﻓـﻠﻤﺎ ﺑـﻠﻎ ﻣﻌﻪ اﻟﺴ‬
◌ؕ‫ﻚ ﻓَﺎﻧْﻈُۡﺮ َﻣﺎَذا ﺗَـٰﺮى‬
َ َُ َ‫ﲎ اِّﱏ اَٰرى ﰱ اﻟَﻤﻨَﺎم اَّﱏ ا‬
‫ﲝ‬ ‫ذ‬ ‫ﺒ‬
‫ُ َﱠ‬ ‫ـ‬‫ﻳ‬
ٰ ‫ل‬
َ ‫ﺎ‬َ‫ﻗ‬ ‫ﻰ‬‫ﻌ‬
َ ‫َ َ ﱠ ََ َ َ َ ُ ﱠ‬
Surat as -saffat 37:102

And Isma’il says

ISLAMIC REMINDERS

“ oh, my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me. If Allah wills, of the steadfast”
‫ُ ِﻣَﻦ ٱﻟ ﱠ‬0‫ﺷﺎ َٓء ٱﱠ‬
‫ﺼٰـِﺒِﺮﯾَﻦ‬ َ ‫ﺖ ٱۡﻓﻌَۡﻞ َﻣﺎ ﺗ ُۡﺆَﻣُۖﺮ‬
َ ‫ﺳﺘ َِﺠﺪُِﻧٓﻲ ِإن‬ ِ َ‫ﻗَﺎﻟَﯿَٰـٓﺄ َﺑ‬

So, Ibrahim AS took his son to find a place to slaughter his son, away from his mother. At
that moment Iblis will come and try to turn Ibrahim AS away from what he saw and said, “ o
Ibrahim, you’re going to slaughter your son?, what if it was just a foolish dream|”.
So, Ibrahim AS got stones and tried to stone Iblis. Iblis then tried to turn Isma’il away but
Isma’il also got stones and tried to cast him with them.
And that is why when you go to hajj, you also throw rocks at the Jamrat al-Aqabah to remind
yourself that when you attempt to do something for Allah swt, stay firm and strong.

Ibrahim AS then came to a rock, a perfect rock big enough to sacrifice Isma’il. And so
Isma’il says “ oh father, make my face towards the ground, because if you see my face while
slaughtering, you might feel sympathy and walk away from the order of Allah swt, and
sharpen your knife so you can complete the order of Allah swt quickly.
And so, Ibrahim AS did…. He turned Isma’il AS forehead towards the ground. And the knife
sharpened and puts it on the neck of Isma’il AS and whenever he tries to slaughter him, the
knife turns and spins the other side because the knife will only cut by the will of Allah swt.

And Allah swt says in the Qur’an

Surat As-Saffat
“ o Ibrahim, you have fulfilled the
vision” {37:104-105}
And we ransomed him with a great
sacrifice” {37:107 }
And so Isma’il was replaced with a
ram(sheep) from paradise and
Ibrahim AS slaughtered and
sacrificed a ram (sheep) from
Jannah. And he looked and had seen it was a ram and not his son Isma’il AS. And so, Allah
then called upon Ibrahim AS and says “ O IBRAHIM! YOU ARE INDEED TRUTHFUL TO
US AND WE HAVE TESTED YOU AND YOU HAVE PASSED THE TEST”…..Allahu
Akbar ….what a great test done by Ibrahim AS.

And Ibrahim AS was given the good news of another child who will be known as Isaac. And
Allah swt says “ INDEED, WE THUS REWARD THE DOERS OF GOOD”, this is how
beautifully sabr is gifted and how every test is just a trial for something sweet at the end.

The days went past and another order came down from Allah swt to Ibrahim AS to build a
house as a symbol of the oneness of the Allah Almighty. And Ibrahim AS went to the valley
of Makkah and saw Isma’il AS and said to him “ O SON, ALLAH SWT HAS GIVEN ME
AN ORDER”.
Isma’il replies “ Oh father , do what Allah swt has ordered for you to do”
Ibrahim AS says, “ and will you help me ?”
ISLAMIC REMINDERS

Isma’il AS replies “ yes”

As they were completing this order, they were doing a dua to Allah swt….and the dua was …

‫ﺴِﻤﯿﻌُﭑۡﻟﻌَِﻠﯿُﻢ‬ َ ‫َرﺑﱠﻨَﺎ ﺗ َﻘَﺒﱠۡﻞ ِﻣﻨﱠ ۖﺎ ٓ ِإﻧﱠَﻚ أ َﻧ‬

‫ﺖ ٱﻟ ﱠ‬
“ our Lord accept this from us. Indeed, you are the Hearing, the Knowing”

So, as they began to build it , it got a little bit high, so what happened next was Ibrahim AS
asked Isma’il AS to pass him the rocks and he kept building, just rocks upon rocks. There
was no cement, mortar, just rocks. And each one was fitting onto of one another like a jigsaw.
And as it kept going higher, Allah swt miraculously caused a specific rock that Ibrahim AS
was standing on , to go higher for Ibrahim AS to place the rock above each rock, and it kept
going on like that. Ibrahim AS would be lowered by the rock to grab a rock and be higher up
to place it again.
This strengthened their Iman to believe that this is Allah swt, that Allah swt had shown them
too many signs that He is with them. Once they had completed the Kaaba, there was a corner
of it which was empty, Ibrahim AS wondered and looked around for a rock to fit it there ,
Isma’il AS also looked and looked and when he had come back, he saw a beautiful rock
there…..And that rock was from Jannah , which now is called Al-Hajar-Al-Aswad.

Did you know :

The Al-Hajar-Al-Aswad was originally white and now

is black from the sins of people that touched it.

Reference : Al-tirmidhi, 877.

And suddenly the rock that Ibrahim AS was standing on,

softened just for a quick moment and his footprint was left on
the rock and to this day it is there.
When the Kaaba was built, Allah swt tells Ibrahim AS to go
and tell people to visit the Kaaba. So, Ibrahim AS looks
around and says “who’s there? Who’s going to come?, oh
Allah who will come?, 1 , 2? People from my voice”
Allah swt says to Ibrahim AS “Oh Ibrahim, you do your job
and leave the rest on us”.
So, Ibrahim AS stood up and said, “ oh people around the world, Allah has built a house of
his and He orders you to come and perform pilgrimage”. So, Allah made the voice of Ibrahim
reach everywhere and till this day when you go to pilgrimage, you go because of the voice of
Ibrahim AS.

The 3 Angels visit

Ibrahim AS went back to his first wife Sarah. Ibrahim AS was a very very generous person,
so there came a time where some visitors visited him, he didn’t know them, when they came,
Ibrahim AS asked his wife “ do you know them?”, she replies “no”. when he looked at them,
he went back inside to Sarah and asked, “ is there anything to eat”, she says “ just some meat
here”.
ISLAMIC REMINDERS

Ibrahim AS says “no, lets slaughter a calf, a nice fat calf at the back there” , so he slaughtered
it and ordered his servants to cook it and bring it. He had done this for just 3 people….how
generous was he.
Ibrahim AS placed the cooked calf Infront of the guests, and he was disturbed that these
guests are not reaching for it…so Ibrahim AS started eating a little bit to help them start but
they did not eat still.
Ibrahim AS became concerned and sensed something was wrong and so he asked “ who are
you? I have this feeling inside”.
The guests replies “ don’t fear Ibrahim, we are angels not humans, Allah sent us here for two
missions, the first to give you some news and to destroy the people of Lut”

Sarah overheard this and began to laugh in a sense that finally something is being done about
the people of Lut AS. The angels then gave the news to Sarah that she is expecting a child
Ishaaq. And at that moment she was 90 years old, she start touching her face and could not
believe that she could not bear a child when she was younger but now she is. She was
shocked and saying “I am an old woman and my husband is also old, this is amazing,
absolutely amazing”…. The angels replied “ well , there is another good news for you that
you will not only get pregnant, you will live old enough to see Ishaaq’s son Ya’qoob”.

Now Ibrahim AS was relieved of one matter but concerned about hearing the destruction of
the people of Lut AS, Ibrahim AS never wished punishment upon ANYONE. EVER. Ibrahim
AS start saying that maybe the people of Lut AS will change
and he continued praying for them that maybe they will change.
The angels replied, “O Ibrahim, it is the instruction of Allah that
these people be destroyed, and it cannot be reversed”. So,
Ibrahim AS understood that Allah will save those who are
innocent from amongst them and that those who are punished
will be deserving of their punishment.

Allah SWT tells Ibrahim AS “ O Ibrahim , the gift we want to

give to you is two things that will be kept in your family,
prophethood and revelation, the books that will come down ,
will be in your family, the messengers will also be from your
family” , Allah swt tells us in the Qur’an “ We bestowed upon
him ishaaq and ya’qoob” “ and among his descendants ,Dawud,
Sulayman and Ayyoub and Yusuf and Musa and Haroon” “ and
Zakaria , and Yahya , and Eesa and Ilyas” , and all of them were
righteous.
From this we can see that Ibrahim AS was gifted with righteous messengers in his family.

The family of Ibrahim AS were gifted three things :

- Al-kitab – which means books, they were given the revelations and books.
- Hikmah- wisdom – they were given the path, the way Ibrahim AS conveyed
messages, the same way Muhammad SAW who was also from the family of Ibrahim
AS.
- Lots and lots of authority and wealth ( Prophet Dawud and Sulayman were not
only prophets but also Kings).
ISLAMIC REMINDERS

What do we learn from the story of Prophet Ibrahim AS?

Sabr and Tawakkul.

This story highlights the love of Ibrahim AS for Allah swt. This story is an emotional and
heart touching story which shows us how little are our sacrifices compared to such major
sacrifices the prophet Ibrahim AS had to go through. Sabr is what teaches us to be gentler
towards others and teaches us that having trust a faith in Allah swt is the key to reaching all
the happiness and delights of not just this life but the afterlife too.

Tawakkul means to trust in Allah’s plan, to believe that everything will turn out fine because
it is the plan of the best of all planners. Having tawakkul can be hard sometimes but we must
understand that if there is anyone that loves us the most it is Allah swt the Al-Wadood, the
most Loving. Part of everything being okay is to believe that it is Allah swt who will open the
closed doors for you. The sacrifices that Ibrahim AS had to do for Allah swt ended with him
being given the most happiness and delights of this dunya too as well as guaranteed an eternal
life in Jannah. What we must do it have strong belief and Sabr, only those who are blessed
and amongst the luckiest that are tested by Allah swt. Never see your tests and trials as a
punishment, but a test to see how much faith and belief you have in the word of your Lord.