Tazkirul Quran, Qur’an 37:88–101

Translation

(88) He looked up at the stars. (89) And said, ‘I am sick,’ (90) so they turned their backs on him and went off. (91) He turned to their gods and said, ‘Do you not eat? (92) What is the matter with you that you do not speak?’ (93) then he turned on them, striking them down with his right hand. (94) His people came rushing towards him, (95) but he said, ‘How can you worship things you carve with your own hands, (96) when it is God who has created you and all your handiwork?’ (97) They said, ‘Build a pyre for him and throw him into the blaze!’ (98) They wanted to harm him, but We humiliated them all. (99) He said, ‘I will go to my Lord: He is sure to guide me. (100) Lord, grant me a righteous son.’ (101) We gave him the good news that he would have a patient, forbearing son.

Commentary

(a) The people of Abraham’s community were perhaps going out of town to participate in some festival. Members of his household invited him to accompany them, but he managed somehow to excuse himself. When all the people had left, he entered the temple during the night and broke the deities kept there. It is important to note here that Abraham did so after continuous logical persuasion had failed to yield any result. When his people did not realise or accept the falsity of the deities by means of rational pleadings, by breaking the deities Abraham demonstrated that they were just a sham. Had they been genuine deities, they would have saved themselves from being smashed.

This infuriated the people of Abraham’s community so much that they decided to kill him and throw him into a fire. But God saved him from it. Thereafter, he left his native place, Mesopotamia (now called Iraq). At that time, he prayed, ‘O, God

! Bless me with a pious and righteous offspring so that, by teaching and training, I may make him a believer and a Muslim who, after me, will continue to perform the mission of preaching the oneness of God.’