In the name of God, the Lord of Grace, the Ever Merciful
His people came to him hurriedly, but he said: “Do you worship something that you yourselves have carved, while it is God who has created you and all your handiwork?” They said: “Build him a pyre and throw him into the blazing fire.” They schemed to harm him, but We caused them to be humiliated. And Abraham said: “I will go to my Lord: He is sure to guide me. Lord! Grant me a righteous son.” We gave him the happy news that he will have a forbearing son. (Ranged in Rank, Al-Saffat: 37: 94-101)
HAVING completed the scene of Abraham’s destruction of the idols worshipped by his people, the surah paints a new one. The people return from their festivities and see their deities destroyed. Here we do not have the details given in Surah 21, The Prophets, about their asking as to what had happened and determining who was the perpetrator. Instead, the surah moves straight to their confrontation with Abraham.
“His people came to him hurriedly.” The news circulated quickly among them, and they unflinchingly sought to confront him. They were angry, agitated and numerous, while he was alone. Yet he had his faith: He knew its simple details, recognizing its soundness within himself and seeing its evidence in the universe around him. This made him stronger than this agitated, angry multitude with its confused beliefs and stupid concepts. Therefore, he put his argument straight, caring little for their number and anger: “He said: Do you worship something that you yourselves have carved, while it is God who has created you and all your handiwork?”
It is the logic of a simple and sound nature putting the case starkly and clearly to others: how come you worship what you carve with your own hands, when worship should be addressed to the Maker, not to what is made: “It is God who has created you and all your handiwork.” He is the Maker of all, and He is the One to be worshipped.
Although Abraham’s argument was clear and logical, in their blind anger, the people did not listen. When did falsehood ever listen to simple truth? Therefore, their leaders retaliated by exercising a crude tyranny: “They said: Build him a pyre and throw him into the blazing fire.” This is the only logic tyranny knows. It cares little for argument and proof. Tyrants know that they cannot face the word of truth, with its overpowering appeal.
The surah gives no details of what happened after they issued their orders. It simply shows the outcome with the fulfillment of God’s promise to His true servants and His warnings to the unbelievers: “They schemed to harm him, but We caused them to be humiliated.” What chance has such scheming when God wants it to be foiled? What can frail and powerless tyrants who cling to power do when God takes care of His true servants?
The surah moves on to the second episode it relates of Abraham’s history. After he was saved from the fire, he closed that chapter of his life to begin a new phase: “And Abraham said: I will go to my Lord: He is sure to guide me.” His words indicate that he was migrating, this in both a mental and physical sense. He was abandoning everything: his father, family, home, people and land, leaving them all behind and going to his Lord, free of all concerns. He thus surrendered himself to his Lord, assured that He would give him guidance and care, setting him on the right path. It is a migration from one state to another, abandoning all ties and bonds in favor of one bond that remains pure and strong. His words express complete faith and unqualified surrender.
Until that moment, Abraham was without children. He had left behind his relations, friends and all that was familiar to him. Needless to say, his relations with those who threw him in the fire suffered a final breakdown. Therefore, he went to his Lord, praying to Him to grant him believing offspring: “Lord! Grant me a righteous son.” And God answered his true servant’s prayer: “We gave him the happy news that he will have a forbearing son.” The son was most probably Ishmael, as clearly inferred from his life story and from the surah itself. Indeed, we can see the mark of his forbearance in his youth. We can also imagine the delight experienced by Abraham in his new abode, where he was a stranger, at the birth of this son described by God as a ‘forbearing son.’
We will be looking further at the glorious attitude that Abraham’s life story represents, drawing from it an inspiring lesson as presented by God Almighty to the Muslim community.
