Prophet Ibrahim (AS) – The Friend of Allah حضرت ابراہیم علیہ السلام – خلیل اللہ

After the destruction of ‘Ad and Thamud, idol worship spread again, and its great centre was Mesopotamia, the land of the two rivers. Here, according to the historians, in Babylon or in the city of Ur in southern Iraq, Ibrahim (AS) was born. The genealogists record his lineage as Ibrahim son of Tarikh (Terah) son of Nahur son of Sarugh son of Ra’u son of Faligh son of ‘Abir son of Shalikh son of Arfakhshad son of Sam son of Nuh; the Quran names his father Azar (Al-An’am 6:74), and the scholars explain that Azar was either his name or his title. His people worshipped carved idols in their temples and the heavenly bodies in the sky, and their king, whom the commentators name Namrud (Nimrod), claimed divine authority for himself.

Allah says: “And We had certainly given Ibrahim his sound judgement before, and We were of him well-knowing” (Al-Anbiya 21:51). From his youth he saw that what his people worshipped could not be God. The Quran records how he drew them, step by step, to the same conclusion, in a passage that the scholars describe as a debate with his people rather than a personal doubt – for a prophet is never in doubt about his Lord: “And thus did We show Ibrahim the realm of the heavens and the earth, that he would be among the certain” (Al-An’am 6:75).

“So when the night covered him, he saw a star. He said: This is my lord. But when it set, he said: I do not like those that set. 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. 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” (Al-An’am 6:76–79).

The argument is simple and devastating. Each object of his people’s worship rose, shone and then disappeared. Something that sets – that comes and goes, that is subject to a law it did not make – cannot be the Lord of the worlds. The true Lord is the One who created them all and never sets. By speaking as if he were considering each in turn, Ibrahim led his audience along with him, so that they could see the conclusion for themselves.

His people argued with him, and he answered: “Do you argue with me concerning Allah while He has guided me? And I fear not what you associate with Him… And how should I fear what you associate while you do not fear that you have associated with Allah that for which He has not sent down to you any authority?” (Al-An’am 6:80–81). Allah then gives the verdict: “They who believe and do not mix their belief with injustice – those will have security, and they are rightly guided” (Al-An’am 6:82). When the Companions asked the Prophet ﷺ which of them had not wronged himself, he explained that the “injustice” here is shirk, as Luqman said to his son: “Indeed, association with Allah is great injustice” (Sahih al-Bukhari 32; Sahih Muslim 124).

The popular stories that Ibrahim was hidden in a cave as a baby because astrologers had warned the king that a boy would be born who would destroy his kingdom, and that he first saw the sky when he emerged from it, are from the Isra’iliyyat and not established. What is established is the Quranic picture: a young man of clear mind and pure heart who refused to accept that anything created could be worshipped.

The first person Ibrahim called was the closest to him: his father. And the manner in which he did so is one of the most tender passages in the Quran. “And mention in the Book, Ibrahim. Indeed, he was a man of truth and a prophet. [Mention] when he said to his father: O my father, why do you worship that which does not hear and does not see and will not benefit you at all?” (Maryam 19:41–42). Four times in a few verses he addresses him as “ya abati” – a form of “my father” that carries affection and respect, like “my dear father.”

“O my father, indeed there has come to me of knowledge that which has not come to you, so follow me; I will guide you to an even path. O my father, do not worship Satan. Indeed Satan has ever been, to the Most Merciful, disobedient. O my father, indeed I fear that there will touch you a punishment from the Most Merciful so you would be to Satan a companion” (Maryam 19:43–45). He did not insult his father or belittle him. He explained that he had been given knowledge, that idolatry was in reality obedience to Satan, and that his concern was for his father’s welfare.

The father’s reply was harsh: “Have you no desire for my gods, O Ibrahim? If you do not desist, I will surely stone you, so avoid me a prolonged time” (Maryam 19:46). Ibrahim’s response is a model of how a believer answers rejection from those he loves: “Peace will be upon you. I will ask forgiveness for you of my Lord. Indeed, He is ever gracious to me. And I will leave you and those you invoke other than Allah and will invoke my Lord. I expect that I will not be in invoking my Lord unhappy” (Maryam 19:47–48).

Ibrahim kept his promise to pray for his father’s forgiveness for as long as there was hope. Later, when it became clear that his father had died an enemy of Allah, he stopped: “And the request of forgiveness of Ibrahim for his father was only because of a promise he had made to him. But when it became apparent to Ibrahim that he was an enemy to Allah, he disassociated himself from him. Indeed, Ibrahim was compassionate and patient” (At-Tawbah 9:114). The Quran adds that his prayer for his father is the one part of his example that believers should not follow (Al-Mumtahanah 60:4), because praying for forgiveness for those who die as idolaters is not permitted.

The Prophet ﷺ described a scene from the Day of Resurrection that shows how deep Ibrahim’s love for his father remained. “Ibrahim will meet his father Azar on the Day of Resurrection, and Azar’s face will be dark and covered with dust. Ibrahim will say: Did I not tell you not to disobey me? His father will say: Today I will not disobey you. Ibrahim will say: O my Lord, You promised me that You would not disgrace me on the Day they are resurrected; what disgrace is greater than my father being far from mercy? Allah will say: I have forbidden Paradise to the disbelievers. Then it will be said: O Ibrahim, what is beneath your feet? He will look, and there will be a hyena smeared in filth, which will be taken by its legs and thrown into the Fire” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3350). The scholars explain that his father was transformed so that Ibrahim would no longer see him as his father and would be spared the grief.

From this relationship believers learn how to call their families to the truth: with gentleness, respect, sincere concern and patience, without compromise on tawhid and without harshness of speech – and to leave the outcome to Allah.

From his family Ibrahim turned to his people as a whole. “When he said to his father and his people: What are these statues to which you are devoted? They said: We found our fathers worshipping them. He said: You were certainly, you and your fathers, in manifest error” (Al-Anbiya 21:52–54). In Surah Ash-Shu’ara he pressed them: “Do they hear you when you supplicate? Or do they benefit you, or do they harm?” They could only answer: “But we found our fathers doing thus” (Ash-Shu’ara 26:72–74). Then he described the Lord he worshipped in words of great beauty: “He who created me, and He guides me. And it is He who feeds me and gives me drink. And when I am ill, it is He who cures me. And who will cause me to die and then bring me to life. And who I aspire that He will forgive me my sin on the Day of Recompense” (Ash-Shu’ara 26:78–82).

When words failed, Ibrahim resolved on an act that would make the helplessness of the idols visible to all. “And by Allah, I will surely plan against your idols after you have turned and gone away” (Al-Anbiya 21:57). The occasion was one of their festivals, when the people went out of the city. They invited him to come, and the Quran records: “And he cast a look at the stars and said: Indeed, I am ill. So they turned away from him, departing” (As-Saffat 37:88–90). The scholars explain that he was speaking in a way that was true in one sense – he was sick at heart at their idolatry, or he expected to become ill – while they understood it otherwise; this is one of the three statements of Ibrahim that the Prophet ﷺ described as having an apparent meaning other than the intended one (Sahih al-Bukhari 3358; Sahih Muslim 2371).

Alone in the temple, he went to the idols and found food offered before them. “He said: Do you not eat? What is wrong with you that you do not speak? And he turned upon them a blow with his right hand” (As-Saffat 37:91–93). “So he made them into fragments, except a large one among them, that they might return to it [and question it]” (Al-Anbiya 21:58). Many commentators add that he hung the axe on the neck of the largest idol; this detail is from the reports.

When the people returned, they were outraged. “They said: Who has done this to our gods? Indeed, he is of the wrongdoers. They said: We heard a young man mention them who is called Ibrahim” (Al-Anbiya 21:59–60). They brought him before the assembled people, and asked: “Have you done this to our gods, O Ibrahim?” He answered: “Rather, this – the largest of them – did it, so ask them, if they should be able to speak” (Al-Anbiya 21:62–63). This too was one of the three statements mentioned in the hadith: a sarcastic challenge designed to force them to admit that their gods could neither act nor speak.

For a moment it worked. “So they returned to themselves and said: Indeed, you are the wrongdoers.” Then, the Quran says, “they were turned upside down [in their minds]: You have already known that these do not speak!” Ibrahim seized the moment: “Then do you worship instead of Allah that which does not benefit you at all or harm you? Uff to you and to what you worship instead of Allah. Then will you not use reason?” (Al-Anbiya 21:64–67). In Surah As-Saffat: “Do you worship that which you carve, while Allah created you and that which you do?” (As-Saffat 37:95–96).

They had been shown the truth by their own mouths. But pride would not let them accept it. Unable to answer him, they turned to force. “They said: Burn him and support your gods, if you are to act” (Al-Anbiya 21:68).

The people built a great structure and filled it with fuel. “They said: Construct for him a furnace and throw him into the burning fire” (As-Saffat 37:97). The commentators report that for days they gathered wood, that the fire was so great that birds flying over it were scorched, and that they had to use a catapult to throw him into it because no one could approach. These details come from the early reports and are not established by authentic hadith, but they convey the scale the Quran implies.

As he was thrown, Ibrahim said the words that Muslims have repeated in every hardship since: “Hasbunallahu wa ni’mal-wakil – Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best Disposer of affairs.” Ibn Abbas said: “Hasbunallahu wa ni’mal-wakil was said by Ibrahim when he was thrown into the fire, and by Muhammad ﷺ when they said to him: The people have gathered against you, so fear them” (Sahih al-Bukhari 4563, referring to Al Imran 3:173). A widely reported narration adds that Jibril came to him in the air and asked if he needed anything, and Ibrahim replied: “From you, no” – this is reported from some of the early generations but is not authentic as a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ.

Then Allah spoke to the fire: “We said: O fire, be coolness and safety upon Ibrahim. And they intended for him harm, but We made them the greatest losers” (Al-Anbiya 21:69–70). The fire obeyed its Creator. It did not cease to be fire, but it did not burn the one Allah had protected. The scholars note the precision of the command: had Allah said only “be cool,” the cold might have harmed him; so He said “coolness and safety.” Ibrahim walked out unharmed. “So We saved him from the fire. Indeed in that are signs for a people who believe” (Al-‘Ankabut 29:24).

The Prophet ﷺ commanded the killing of geckos and said that the gecko used to blow on the fire of Ibrahim (Sahih al-Bukhari 3359; Sahih Muslim 2237), while other creatures tried to put it out according to reports; the meaning, the scholars say, is that every creature showed its nature in that moment.

Ibrahim also faced the king himself. “Have you not considered the one who argued with Ibrahim about his Lord because Allah had given him kingship? When Ibrahim said: My Lord is the one who gives life and causes death, he said: I give life and cause death. Ibrahim said: Indeed, Allah brings up the sun from the east, so bring it up from the west. So the disbeliever was overwhelmed. And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people” (Al-Baqarah 2:258). The king, whom the commentators name Namrud, tried to answer the first argument with a trick – the commentators say he brought two condemned men, executed one and freed the other – but the second argument left him speechless. The reports that Namrud was later killed by a gnat that entered his nose are from the Isra’iliyyat and are not established.

After the fire, only a few believed. The Quran names one: “And Lut believed him” (Al-‘Ankabut 29:26). His wife Sarah, according to the hadith, was also a believer; Ibrahim later told her, “There is no believer on the face of the earth except you and me” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3358). The miracle of the fire had been seen by the whole nation, and still they would not follow him. Ibrahim told them: “You have only taken, other than Allah, idols as a bond of affection among you in worldly life. Then on the Day of Resurrection you will deny one another” (Al-‘Ankabut 29:25). Their idolatry was held together not by conviction but by social ties. It was time for him to leave.

“And he said: Indeed, I will go to my Lord; He will guide me” (As-Saffat 37:99). “And Lut believed him. And Ibrahim said: Indeed, I will emigrate to my Lord. Indeed, He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise” (Al-‘Ankabut 29:26). Ibrahim became the first great emigrant for the sake of Allah. With his wife Sarah and his nephew Lut, he left Iraq and, according to the historians, travelled north to Harran, then west and south into the land of Canaan – Palestine and Syria – which Allah called “the land which We had blessed for the worlds” (Al-Anbiya 21:71).

During his travels he passed through Egypt, and the Prophet ﷺ told the story of what happened there. Sarah was extraordinarily beautiful, and Egypt was ruled by a tyrant who seized beautiful women and killed their husbands. Ibrahim told Sarah that if asked he would say she was his sister, “for you are my sister in Islam, and there is no believer on the face of the earth except you and me” – the third of the three statements of Ibrahim that had a hidden meaning. When she was brought to the king and he reached for her, she made wudu, prayed and said: “O Allah, if I have believed in You and Your Messenger and guarded my chastity except for my husband, do not give this disbeliever power over me.” The king was seized by a fit so that his hand was paralysed. He begged her to pray for him, and was released; he tried again and was seized again, and after the third time he called his guards and said: “You have brought me a devil, not a human being.” He let her go and gave her a servant named Hajar. Sarah returned to Ibrahim, who was praying, and said: “Allah has turned back the plot of the disbeliever and given me Hajar as a servant.” Abu Hurayrah, narrating this, said to the Arabs: “That is your mother, O sons of the water of the sky” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3358; Sahih Muslim 2371).

The Prophet ﷺ explained the three statements: “Ibrahim did not lie except three times: two of them for the sake of Allah – his saying ‘I am ill,’ and his saying ‘Rather, this largest of them did it’ – and his saying about Sarah, ‘She is my sister’” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3358). The scholars explain that none of these was a lie in the blameworthy sense; each was a true statement with a meaning other than the one the listener understood (tawriyah), used to protect the truth or his wife. Yet Ibrahim was so careful about truthfulness that on the Day of Resurrection he will cite them as his reason for not interceding (Sahih al-Bukhari 4712).

Ibrahim and Sarah settled in Palestine. Lut, at Ibrahim’s instruction, went to the towns near the Dead Sea as a messenger to his own people. Years passed and Sarah had no children. Ibrahim prayed: “My Lord, grant me [a child] from among the righteous” (As-Saffat 37:100). Sarah, seeing her own barrenness, gave Hajar to Ibrahim as a wife, and Hajar bore him a son. Allah describes the answer to his prayer: “So We gave him good tidings of a forbearing boy” (As-Saffat 37:101). The boy was named Isma’il. According to the historians, Ibrahim was eighty-six years old.

About the circumcision of Ibrahim the Prophet ﷺ said: “Ibrahim circumcised himself when he was eighty years old, with an adze” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3356; Sahih Muslim 2370). Circumcision is among the practices of the fitrah inherited from him. The Quran says: “And when Ibrahim was tried by his Lord with commands and he fulfilled them, [Allah] said: Indeed, I will make you a leader (imam) for the people. [Ibrahim] said: And of my descendants? [Allah] said: My covenant does not include the wrongdoers” (Al-Baqarah 2:124). The commentators list many of these “commands” – the practices of cleanliness, the rites of Hajj, the trials of fire and sacrifice – and say Ibrahim fulfilled every one. The greatest of them were still to come.

Then came a command that no human reasoning could explain. Ibrahim was to take Hajar and the infant Isma’il far to the south, to a valley in the mountains of the Hijaz where no one lived, and leave them there. The fullest account is from Ibn Abbas in Sahih al-Bukhari (3364, 3365), a long narration that includes words of the Prophet ﷺ.

Ibrahim brought Hajar and her son, whom she was still nursing, to the place of the House, by a great tree above the spot where Zamzam now is. There was no one in Makkah at that time, and no water. He left them a leather bag of dates and a waterskin, and turned to go. Hajar followed him, saying: “O Ibrahim, where are you going, leaving us in this valley where there is no person and nothing?” She said it again and again, but he did not look back. Then she asked: “Did Allah command you to do this?” He said: “Yes.” She said: “Then He will not let us be lost,” and she went back.

When Ibrahim reached a mountain pass where they could no longer see him, he turned to face the place of the House, raised his hands and made the supplication preserved in the Quran: “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” (Ibrahim 14:37).

The dates and water ran out. Hajar’s milk dried, and the baby began to writhe with thirst. She could not bear to watch him, so she climbed the nearest hill, Safa, and looked for anyone. Seeing no one, she came down, ran across the valley floor with her garment lifted, and climbed the opposite hill, Marwah. She did this seven times. The Prophet ﷺ said: “That is the origin of the sa’i of the people between them.” On the last time, at Marwah, she heard a sound and said to herself, “Be quiet,” and listened, and said: “You have made me hear; if you have help, then help.” There was an angel – Jibril – at the place of Zamzam, who struck the ground with his heel (or his wing) until water burst out. She began to make a basin around it, scooping water into her waterskin as it gushed. The Prophet ﷺ said: “May Allah have mercy on the mother of Isma’il. Had she left Zamzam alone – had she not scooped from it – it would have been a flowing spring on the surface of the earth.” The angel told her: “Do not fear being lost, for here is the House of Allah, which this boy and his father will build, and Allah does not let His people be lost.”

The water brought life. A tribe of Yemen, Jurhum, passing nearby, saw birds circling and knew there must be water. They asked Hajar’s permission to settle, and she agreed on condition that the water remained hers. Isma’il grew up among them, learned Arabic from them, and married a woman from among them. Hajar died, and Ibrahim came to visit his son. The narration in Bukhari continues with the famous story of the two visits: on the first, Isma’il’s wife complained of hardship and Ibrahim left the message, “Tell him to change the threshold of his door,” and Isma’il understood that he should divorce her; on the second, the new wife praised Allah for their provision, and Ibrahim left the message, “Tell him to keep the threshold of his door” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3364).

Thus the most sacred city on earth began with a mother’s trust in Allah, a father’s obedience, a baby’s thirst and seven runs between two hills. Every pilgrim who performs sa’i, and every person who drinks Zamzam, re-enacts Hajar’s faith: “Then He will not let us be lost.”

Isma’il grew into a boy who could walk and work alongside his father. Then came the greatest of all Ibrahim’s trials. “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” (As-Saffat 37:102). The dreams of prophets are revelation, as the Prophet ﷺ taught and as Ibn Abbas said; Ibrahim knew that this was a command from Allah.

The son who had been longed for through decades of childlessness, who had been left as a baby in a barren valley and preserved there by a miracle, was now to be offered with his father’s own hand. Ibrahim did not take him by force or deceive him; he told him and asked his view. The answer of Isma’il is one of the most beautiful sentences in the Quran: “O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast” (As-Saffat 37:102). He did not say “of the brave” but “if Allah wills, of the steadfast” – relying not on his own strength but on Allah’s help.

“And when they had both submitted and he put him down upon his forehead, We called to him: O Ibrahim, you have fulfilled the vision. Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good. Indeed, this was the clear trial. And We ransomed him with a great sacrifice. And We left for him [favourable mention] among later generations: Peace upon Ibrahim” (As-Saffat 37:103–109). The word aslama, “they had both submitted,” is the root of the word Islam. In that moment, father and son embodied the meaning of the religion: total surrender to the command of Allah.

Which son was it? The Quran does not name him in this passage, and the scholars of the early generations differed. But the structure of the surah points clearly to Isma’il: the sacrifice is told first, and only afterwards does Allah say, “And We gave him good tidings of Ishaq, a prophet from among the righteous” (As-Saffat 37:112), as a separate and later gift. Moreover, when Sarah received the good tidings of Ishaq, she was also told of Ya’qub to come after him (Hud 11:71); a son promised a son of his own could not be commanded to be sacrificed as a boy. Ibn Kathir argues strongly for this view and states that the claim it was Ishaq comes from the People of the Book, who altered the account in favour of their own ancestor. The “great sacrifice” was a ram; the reports that it was the same ram offered by the son of Adam, or that its horns hung in the Ka’bah until it burned, are from the early reports and not established.

The commentators also record that Shaytan tried three times to dissuade Ibrahim, Hajar and Isma’il, and that Ibrahim stoned him at the places of the Jamarat at Mina; this is reported from Ibn Abbas (Musnad Ahmad 2707; al-Hakim) as his own statement rather than as a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, and many scholars have accepted it as the origin of the stoning rite.

The day of the sacrifice became the day of ‘Eid al-Adha. Every year, Muslims across the world slaughter an animal in memory of Ibrahim’s obedience, and Allah says of it: “Their meat will not reach Allah, nor will their blood, but what reaches Him is piety from you” (Al-Hajj 22:37). The lesson is not about blood; it is about a heart that will give up anything – even what it loves most – when Allah commands.

On a later visit to Makkah, Ibrahim found Isma’il sharpening arrows beneath a tree near Zamzam. He said: “O Isma’il, Allah has commanded me to do something. Will you help me?” Isma’il said he would, and Ibrahim pointed to a rise in the ground: “Allah has commanded me to build a house here.” Isma’il brought the stones and Ibrahim built, and when the walls grew high, Ibrahim stood on a stone – the Maqam Ibrahim – while Isma’il handed him stones, and both of them said: “Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed, You are the Hearing, the Knowing” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3364; Al-Baqarah 2:127). The Prophet ﷺ said that the Sacred Mosque was the first mosque placed on the earth, and al-Aqsa the second, forty years later (Sahih al-Bukhari 3366; Sahih Muslim 520).

As they built, they prayed for the future: “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… Our Lord, and send among them a messenger from themselves who will recite to them Your verses and teach them the Book and wisdom and purify them” (Al-Baqarah 2:128–129). That prayer was answered more than two thousand years later in Muhammad ﷺ, who said: “I am the answer to the prayer of my father Ibrahim” (Musnad Ahmad 17150, graded hasan). Then Allah commanded: “And proclaim to the people the Hajj; they will come to you on foot and on every lean camel from every distant pass” (Al-Hajj 22:27).

Ibrahim also received the good tidings of a second son. Angels came to him in the form of guests; he hurried to serve them a roasted calf, and when they did not eat he felt fear, until they said: “Fear not. We have been sent to the people of Lut.” His wife Sarah, standing nearby, laughed, and they gave her good tidings of Ishaq, and after Ishaq, Ya’qub. She said: “Woe is me! Shall I give birth while I am an old woman and this, my husband, is an old man?” They said: “Are you amazed at the decree of Allah? The mercy of Allah and His blessings be upon you, people of the house” (Hud 11:69–73; Adh-Dhariyat 51:24–30). Ibrahim then pleaded with the angels for the people of Lut, “for Ibrahim was forbearing, grieving and frequently returning [to Allah]” (Hud 11:74–75).

Ibrahim once asked to see how Allah gives life to the dead – “not that I do not believe, but to satisfy my heart” – and was told to take four birds, cut them into pieces, place the pieces on different hills and call them; they came to him flying (Al-Baqarah 2:260). The Prophet ﷺ said: “We are more entitled to doubt than Ibrahim” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3372; Sahih Muslim 151), meaning that if Ibrahim did not doubt, then certainly no one should think he did.

Allah gave Ibrahim titles He gave no one else in the same way: “And Allah took Ibrahim as an intimate friend (khalil)” (An-Nisa 4:125). “Indeed, Ibrahim was a nation, devoutly obedient to Allah, inclining toward truth, and he was not of those who associate others with Allah” (An-Nahl 16:120). He revealed to him scrolls (Al-A’la 87:19). The Prophet ﷺ called him “the best of creation” (Sahih Muslim 2369), out of humility, and said he would be the first to be clothed on the Day of Resurrection (Sahih al-Bukhari 3349; Sahih Muslim 2860). On the night of the Mi’raj he saw him in the seventh heaven, leaning against al-Bayt al-Ma’mur (Sahih al-Bukhari 3207; Sahih Muslim 162), and said that he resembled him more than anyone (Sahih al-Bukhari 3394). Every Muslim prayer ends with the words: “O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad … as You sent blessings upon Ibrahim” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3370).

The historians report that Ibrahim lived to about one hundred and seventy-five years, that Sarah died before him in Hebron, and that he was buried beside her in the cave there, in the city now called al-Khalil after him. These reports come from the earlier scriptures and history; Ibn Kathir accepts that his grave is at Hebron, while noting that its exact spot cannot be fixed with certainty. His legacy is beyond dispute: through Isma’il came the Arabs and Muhammad ﷺ; through Ishaq and Ya’qub came the prophets of Israel. Jews, Christians and Muslims all claim him, and the Quran answers: “Ibrahim was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was one inclining toward truth, a Muslim, and he was not of the polytheists” (Al Imran 3:67). May the peace of Allah be upon him.