Prophet Ibrahim

Long, long ago in a great city called Babylon, in the land of Iraq there lived a people who had completely forgotten Allah.

Everywhere you looked: idols. Statues of stone and wood and metal, filling temples and homes and marketplaces. The people bowed to them, brought them offerings, and asked them for help.

Ibrahim's own father whose name was Azar carved and sold these idols for a living.

From a very young age, Ibrahim ﷺ looked at these idols and felt something was deeply, terribly wrong. They could not move. They could not speak. They could not see or hear. How could anyone worship a lump of stone?

He went to his father and asked with full respect and gentleness "O my father, why do you worship that which does not hear, does not see, and cannot benefit you at all?"

The question his people had never thought to ask was already burning in Ibrahim's heart.

Ibrahim's people did not only worship carved idols some worshipped the stars, the moon, and the sun. They thought these mighty heavenly lights were gods.

Ibrahim had a powerful argument for them one he laid out under the open sky, so they could see with their own eyes.

One evening, a bright star rose. Ibrahim said to his people: "Could this be a lord?" But when it set and disappeared into the darkness, he said: "I do not love things that set."

Then the moon rose, full and brilliant. "Could this be a lord?" But when morning came and the moon faded, he said: "If my Lord does not guide me, I will be among the misguided."

Then the sun blazed up the largest, brightest thing in the sky. "Could this be a lord? This is the greatest!" But when the sun set too, Ibrahim turned to his people and declared:

"O my people! I am free from all that you associate with Allah. I have turned my face toward the One who created the heavens and the earth in pure faith, and I am not of the polytheists."

Ibrahim's words had not moved his people. They kept bowing to their stone gods. So Ibrahim made a plan.

When the festival day arrived and the whole city left to celebrate, Ibrahim stayed behind. Before they left, he glanced toward the idol hall and said quietly:

"By Allah, I will surely plan against your idols after you have gone away."

The city was empty. Ibrahim walked into the great hall rows and rows of statues, food offerings laid at their feet, incense burning before them.

He looked at all that food piled in front of silent, motionless stone and said with a challenge in his voice "Will you not eat? What is wrong with you that you do not speak?"

Silence. Of course.

Then Ibrahim raised his hand and began.

Ibrahim smashed them one after another. Every idol in that hall came crashing down.

All except one: the biggest idol, left standing with the axe hung around its neck.

When the people returned and found their gods shattered, they were furious.

"Who did this to our gods? He must be one of the wrongdoers!"

Someone said: "We heard a young man called Ibrahim speaking about them."

They brought Ibrahim before the crowd. "Was it you who did this, O Ibrahim?"

Ibrahim replied calmly, brilliantly:

"Rather, this biggest one of them did it. So ask them if they are able to speak."

The crowd fell silent. They looked at one another.

Then slowly, they said: "You know they cannot speak."

Ibrahim said: "Then do you worship, instead of Allah, that which cannot benefit you at all, nor harm you? Shame on you and on what you worship besides Allah. Have you no sense?"

The argument was unanswerable. Their own mouths had exposed the truth. But pride is a terrible thing instead of accepting, they turned to anger.

The people were humiliated. Their beliefs had been exposed as empty. But instead of thinking they raged.

The king of that land Nimrod had Ibrahim brought before him. Ibrahim said to him plainly: "My Lord is the One who gives life and causes death."

Nimrod was arrogant beyond measure. He dismissed every word and declared: "Burn him! Support your gods, if you are going to act."

The order went out across the whole kingdom. People gathered firewood from every direction. They piled it into an enormous heap a fire so massive, so terrifyingly hot, that no one could go near it.

They built a catapult to launch Ibrahim into the heart of the flames, because no human could get close enough to throw him in.

Ibrahim ﷺ was calm. He was in the hands of Allah.

Ibrahim was hurled into the roaring fire.

And in that moment Allah spoke to the fire itself:

يَا نَارُ كُونِي بَرْدًا وَسَلَامًا عَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ

"O fire be coolness and safety upon Ibrahim."

The fire obeyed. Every particle of creation obeys Allah.

The flames did not touch Ibrahim. The heat did not harm him. The fire that had scorched the air for miles around became cool and safe around the one man it was meant to destroy.

Ibrahim walked out unharmed. Not a hair on his head, not a thread of his clothing, was burned.

Nimrod and his people stood in stunned silence. They had no answer for what they had just witnessed.

Ibn Kathir narrates that Ibrahim said he had never spent a more pleasant time than when he was inside that fire because he was completely under Allah's protection.

Ibrahim ﷺ continued calling to Allah. He debated Nimrod. He called his father and his people with patience and wisdom year after year.

Eventually he migrated, leaving his homeland behind for the sake of Allah, trusting that wherever he went, Allah was with him.

His life was one test after another: leaving his home, leaving his infant son in a waterless valley, and one day being commanded to sacrifice the one he loved most. Through every test Ibrahim submitted completely.

Because of this total devotion, Allah gave him the highest title any human being can receive, Khalilullah, the Friend of Allah.

Not just a prophet. Not just a messenger. A friend of Allah.

The Ka'bah stands today because Ibrahim and his son Ismail built it with their own hands. We perform Hajj following his footsteps. And in every single salah the prayer of Ibrahim is on your lips.

That is the legacy of the man who chose Allah over everything.