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
Assalam O Alaikum warehmatuAllah I am a person in search of truth and persuing that I read this article and I am enriched. Thanks for providing us the muslims who know very less not only about our own religion Islam but about our cousins Christians and jews too. Abraham forms the common ground where we all three can stand firmly> I hope this happens because we all are waiting for Jesus to come and we all three wud like to be in his grroup. and now for Aparna's querry No dear God is not bias He is the Boss and He has his own set plans, its not bush who set a world order its only THE GOD and if Jesus was made to face his crucification and Ismail and Issac saved well thats part of HIS plan and prophets dear are always bestowed with special powers to withstand tortures. There is no prophet ever recorded less for Solomon perhaps which have not faced tortures miseries and hungers to the extreme and they did all this to tell us that in the end only solemn FAITH on God is what defeats all miseries. So pls be stead fast and keep beliving in our one and only BOSS, THE GOD. my e mail is surgeonimtiazshaikh@hotmailmail.com and I wud like to get views from all to further enrich my self . THANKS AGAIN.
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Great work! Excellent comparative article with absolutely no bias. It's time we realised that we are the children of the same father, the same God, Allah! Hope people from all religions read this article and learn this eternal truth from it.
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salaam! really a great job done by the researchers by presenting the best available facts.it provided an oppurtuinity to everyone to conduct comparison among truth and fabricated tales.
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it's great love of allah! for a man to have children and be the father of the jew's and arab's and even the christians! let allah be with us and us and our faith, belife and love be with allah!p.s thank you and god bless you all!
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The truth of God (Allah) springs from one source. Abraham is evidence. Love God with All your heart and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself. We will never resolve the differences in our faiths. Rather than mull upon what is left out in each others religion, why not build upon what we all have in common. That in itself is a lifetime of work.
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For those wondering why Jesus was "sacrificed": A difference between Islam and Christianity is that in Islam, Jesus is NOT the son of God but his SLAVE, His prophit, submitting to His will, as he claimed as a baby, but words get changed and beliefs change to suit some people, thus the need for the last prophit Mohamad to clarify once and for all the TRUTH. The person who was sacrificed was someone resembling Jesus, (may have been a criminal but not sure only about that), and God saved the prophit from death by raising him to the heavens. God can do that and more if he created the universe, and allowing Mary to give birth to a prophit, as he did with Sara, Abraham's old and barren wife, does not make Jesus a SON, because He has no need for associates. He is the one and only, and believing He has accomplices, a son...means you don't believe in a ONE true God, again that is why His last word was sent with Mohamad in the Koran, words which are still present today as they were given to Mohamad, and however they are translated or changed, the original texts are here to stay till the end of time, unlike those of the previous religious books which had facts changed overtime.
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if we take the non-objective and prejudical comments on islam into account,this article is between the best ones. there is no comment on it and it is purely explains what islam tells. there is a fact i'd like to emphasize and take all people's interest on. Muhammed was the only man during his age that had accepted Jesus,the Christ and his doctrine-except some details. he is the man that is no-one else will reach the place where he stands,because he was the last prophet world has seen,until the day when Jesus come back and invite all for God's singlarity as all prophets had invited. there is another point that no-christian has visited this site or writed down any comments. that's sad... i'd hope to see them all diccussing the realities,not the living ones then same point will be created. again thanks for all.
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Salaam,thank you for this wonderfull writting, it helped me alot on my essay. where can I find more writings like this?
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asalamu calaykum warahmatullahi wabarakaatuhfirst of all, i would like to thank you and all the brothers and sisters who take their precious time to do good deeds and educate not only our moslim chileren ,but also millions of non moslims about islam. because we all need to learn and study and devote our selves to the true religion and the only true god /allah for our own sake because only believing in allah and only him is the only way to survive here after and the jugment day as the holly qur'an tells us. again, thank you for your time and this oportunaty and may allah beless all my moslim brothers and sisters. asalacalakum waraxmah.
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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
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