The story of Ibrahim in the Quran, scene by scene
Ibrahim as the Quran tells him, read in three commentaries - al-Muyassar, al-Safi and al-Mizan: the question to his father, the star and the moon and the sun, the idols and the fire, the sacrifice, the trial and the imamate in Al-Baqarah 124, and the building of the House.
Ibrahim's story is not told in one place. Unlike Yusuf, it is spread across many surahs, each taking the scene that suits what it is saying. This article puts the major scenes back in order, each with its verses.
It gives al-Tafsir al-Muyassar first at every place, then Tafsir al-Safi and al-Mizan, and sets out where they agree before where they differ. It does not adjudicate between schools.
The Arabic of every commentary quoted below is on the Arabic version of this page and on the page of each verse; the English renderings are ours.
His father, and his people
The first scene opens with a question:
And [mention, O Muhammad], when Abraham said to his father Azar, "Do you take idols as deities? Indeed, I see you and your people to be in manifest error."
In Surah Al-Anbiya he asks about the same objects again:
When he said to his father and his people, "What are these statues to which you are devoted?"
The preaching begins with the people closest to him, and it begins with a question rather than an announcement.
The star, the moon, the sun
Then comes the scene most often quoted from his life, and it is an argument built in three steps:
So when the night covered him [with darkness], he saw a star. He said, "This is my lord." But when it set, he said, "I like not those that disappear."
And when he saw the moon rising, he said, "This is my lord." But when it set, he said, "Unless my Lord guides me, I will surely be among the people gone astray."
And when he saw the sun rising, he said, "This is my lord; this is greater." But when it set, he said, "O my people, indeed I am free from what you associate with Allah.
(Al-An'am 6:76, Al-An'am 6:77, Al-An'am 6:78)
Al-Muyassar reads "this is my lord" as a trap rather than a confession: he watched his people — star-worshippers — and led them step by step to the conclusion he wanted them to reach themselves. The argument is one argument made three times: what sets cannot be a lord. It ends in a statement:
Indeed, I have turned my face toward He who created the heavens and the earth, inclining toward truth, and I am not of those who associate others with Allah."
The idols, and the fire
In Surah Al-Anbiya he moves from speech to action:
So he made them into fragments, except a large one among them, that they might return to it [and question].
They question him, and his answer binds them:
They said, "Have you done this to our gods, O Abraham?"
He said, "Rather, this - the largest of them - did it, so ask them, if they should [be able to] speak."
(Al-Anbiya 21:62, Al-Anbiya 21:63)
Sending them to ask the idols is the same argument as before: what cannot speak is not worshipped. With the argument lost, the answer came as force:
They said, "Burn him and support your gods - if you are to act."
Allah said, "O fire, be coolness and safety upon Abraham."
(Al-Anbiya 21:68, Al-Anbiya 21:69)
Al-Muyassar's comment is brief: their proof had failed and the truth had shown, so they fell back on the one thing they still had, which was power.
Leaving, and asking for a son
He leaves his people, and in Surah As-Saffat we hear what he says as he goes:
And [then] he said, "Indeed, I will go to [where I am ordered by] my Lord; He will guide me.
My Lord, grant me [a child] from among the righteous."
(As-Saffat 37:99, As-Saffat 37:100)
Having left every relative he had, the first thing he asks for is a righteous child.
The sacrifice
This is the scene the rite of sacrifice is built on:
And when he reached with him [the age of] exertion, he said, "O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I [must] sacrifice you, so see what you think." He said, "O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast."
Then:
And when they had both submitted and he put him down upon his forehead,
You have fulfilled the vision." Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good.
And We ransomed him with a great sacrifice,
(As-Saffat 37:103, As-Saffat 37:105, As-Saffat 37:107)
Three things in that scene are easy to pass over. The command came in a dream. The father put it to the son instead of keeping it from him. And it was the son who said: do as you are commanded.
The trial, and the imamate
One verse in Surah Al-Baqarah gives Ibrahim a standing under another name, and it is the most disputed verse in his story:
And [mention, O Muhammad], when Abraham was tried by his Lord with commands and he fulfilled them. [Allah] said, "Indeed, I will make you a leader for the people." [Abraham] said, "And of my descendants?" [Allah] said, "My covenant does not include the wrongdoers."
Al-Muyassar reads it within what a prophet already is. God tested Ibrahim with the obligations He laid on him and he discharged them well; I will make you a leader is glossed as an example for people; Ibrahim's request is read as asking that some of my offspring be made leaders; and the answer is that leadership in religion does not fall to wrongdoers.
Al-Safi begins by saying what the trial was. Quoting Tafsir al-Qummi: it was what he was tried with in the dream of sacrificing his son — he carried it through, resolved on it and submitted, and when he had resolved, God said, as a reward for having been true and submitted and done what he was commanded, I will make you a leader for the people; and My covenant does not include the wrongdoers means there shall be no wrongdoing imam by My covenant.
On then he fulfilled them, al-Safi reports a second reading: asked what the phrase meant, al-Sadiq said it means he fulfilled them down to the Qa'im — twelve imams, nine of them from the offspring of al-Husayn.
Then it reports from al-Kafi, from al-Sadiq, a sequence of ranks: God took Ibrahim as a servant before He took him as a prophet; as a prophet before a messenger; as a messenger before an intimate friend; and as an intimate friend before He made him an imam — and when He had gathered all of it for him, He said, I will make you a leader for the people. Seeing how great it was, Ibrahim said, and of my descendants; and the answer was that the foolish shall not be the imam of the God-fearing. Al-Safi reports much the same from al-Rida, with the added point that the imamate is a third rank after prophethood and intimate friendship, and that the verse voided the imamate of every wrongdoer.
Al-Mizan starts where al-Muyassar does, from the word itself: one who is followed, whom people take as a model and follow in his words and deeds; the imam is the one people follow and take as a leader. It then states the majority reading fairly — several commentators, it says, held that what is meant is prophethood, since a prophet is followed by his nation in their religion, citing An-Nisa 64.
Against that it argues from the order of events in the story itself: the imamate episode falls late in Ibrahim's life, after the angels brought him the news of Ishaq and Isma'il on their way to the people of Lut — and he was already a prophet sent with a message by then. So he was a prophet before he was an imam, and his imamate is other than his prophethood.
On the last clause it argues that the answer grants the request rather than refusing it: Ibrahim asked for the imamate for some of his offspring and not for all of them, and the reply denies it to the wrongdoers among his children — and not all his children are necessarily wrongdoers, so denying it to the wrongdoers is not denying it to everyone. The reply answers what he asked while stating that this is a covenant, and God's covenant does not reach wrongdoers.
Where they agree: that the imamate in this verse is a standing given to Ibrahim after a trial, and that imam means one whom people take as a model — al-Muyassar's "an example for people" and al-Mizan's "one who is followed, whom people take as a model" are the same gloss. And that the last clause denies it to wrongdoers, so that no wrongdoer holds it: al-Muyassar says "leadership in religion does not fall to wrongdoers", and al-Safi reports it as "there shall be no wrongdoing imam by My covenant".
Where they differ: over what the standing is, and who holds it. Al-Muyassar treats it as leadership in religion and names no one after Ibrahim. Al-Mizan argues from the sequence that it is an office distinct from prophethood rather than a part of it. Al-Safi reports traditions that fix then he fulfilled them in a definite number of imams. The difference is over the nature of the standing and over its referent — not over the point that a wrongdoer does not reach it.
Building the House
Then the scene that ties the whole story to the Kaaba, and to the pilgrimage as it is performed today:
And [mention] when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House and [with him] Ishmael, [saying], "Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed You are the Hearing, the Knowing.
Our Lord, and make us Muslims [in submission] to You and from our descendants a Muslim nation [in submission] to You. And show us our rites and accept our repentance. Indeed, You are the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful.
(Al-Baqarah 2:127, Al-Baqarah 2:128)
And in Surah Ibrahim, his prayer for the people he had settled there:
Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in an uncultivated valley near Your sacred House, our Lord, that they may establish prayer. So make hearts among the people incline toward them and provide for them from the fruits that they might be grateful.
Al-Muyassar adds one sentence at the end of its comment on that verse: and God answered his prayer. He closes by gathering himself, his descendants and his parents into one request, in Ibrahim 14:40 and 41.
How the Quran sums him up
After all of it, two verses:
Indeed, Abraham was a [comprehensive] leader, devoutly obedient to Allah, inclining toward truth, and he was not of those who associate others with Allah.
[He was] grateful for His favors. Allah chose him and guided him to a straight path.
(An-Nahl 16:120, An-Nahl 16:121)
And yet the Quran marks off one thing in his life as not to be copied — the forgiveness he sought for his father:
There has already been for you an excellent pattern in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people, "Indeed, we are disassociated from you and from whatever you worship other than Allah. We have denied you, and there has appeared between us and you animosity and hatred forever until you believe in Allah alone" except for the saying of Abraham to his father, "I will surely ask forgiveness for you, but I have not [power to do] for you anything against Allah. Our Lord, upon You we have relied, and to You we have returned, and to You is the destination.
The story is offered as a pattern, and the exception to the pattern is named in the same verse.
What the verse does not say
- Al-Baqarah 124 does not say what the "words" of the trial were. Naming them is the work of the commentaries, not of the wording.
- It names none of his descendants, and what he asks for is for some of them, not all.
Counted against the mushaf
- The name Ibrahim occurs in fifty-nine verses: forty-seven of them in the long spelling across twenty-four surahs, and twelve in the short spelling, every one of them in Surah Al-Baqarah — the name never appears in Al-Baqarah written the long way.
- The word rendered "a leader" in this verse occurs in four verses: Al-Baqarah 124, Hud 17, Al-Furqan 74 and Al-Ahqaf 12 — and Al-Baqarah is the only one in which God tells a person that He is making him one.
- The description "a [comprehensive] leader, devoutly obedient" occurs nowhere else in the Quran than An-Nahl 120.
- The word hanif, "inclining toward truth", occurs in ten verses; Ibrahim is named in seven of them, and five of those seven have the phrase "the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth".
- That God took him as an intimate friend is said once only, at An-Nisa 125.
Sources
- The Quran text — the Madinah mushaf, Hafs from 'Asim, King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Quran. English renderings of verses are the Sahih International translation this site serves.
- Tafsir al-Muyassar — a panel of commentators, King Fahd Complex.
- Tafsir al-Safi — al-Fayd al-Kashani.
- Al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Quran — al-Sayyid Muhammad Husayn al-Tabatabai.
The counts in this article are computed against the mushaf text this site serves, not quoted from a source.
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