A prophet · link 6 of 25 in the chain
إبراهيم
Ibrahim
Khalilullah · the intimate friend · one of the five of firm resolve
Smasher of idols, survivor of the fire, builder of the House. Nearly every later link is his line.
- EraThe father of the prophetic line
- PlaceUr, then Sham, then the valley of Makkah
- Named in the Qur'an69 times
The story
Ibrahim reasoned his way out of his whole civilization while still young. He watched a star set, a moon set, a sun set, and concluded that whatever sinks cannot be a lord (6:76-79). Then he did what no polite philosopher would: he walked into his people's temple and reduced the idols to splinters, leaving the biggest one standing with the axe, so the statue could be interviewed (21:58-63). The argument won itself; their answer was a bonfire built by a whole city.
To the fire, the Owner of fire said: 'O fire, be coolness and peace upon Ibrahim' (21:69). He walked out unburned into a life of departures: from his father who chose the idols, from his homeland, and finally into the barren valley where he left Hajar and the infant Ismail with nothing but trust and a prayer that hearts would fly toward them (14:37). Zamzam answered from under a baby's heel; a city answered over centuries.
Then the hardest test ever put in a dream: the sacrifice of the son given in old age. Father told son; son answered, 'Do as you are commanded; you will find me, if Allah wills, of the patient' (37:102). The blade was on its way when heaven called it a fulfilled vision and sent the ransom ram. Out of that surrendered family came the House: Ibrahim and Ismail raising the foundations of the Kaaba, praying over wet stone for a messenger to rise from that valley (2:127-129). Every prayer of every Muslim ends by blessing him, the one the Qur'an calls 'an ummah in himself' (16:120) and whom Allah took 'as an intimate friend' (4:125).
The Qur'an on it
'O fire, be coolness and peace upon Ibrahim.' The element obeyed its Owner.
Qur'an 21:69
Father and son at the summit of surrender: 'Do as you are commanded.'
Qur'an 37:102
'And when Ibrahim was raising the foundations of the House, and Ismail: our Lord, accept from us.'
Qur'an 2:127
'Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in a valley without cultivation, by Your sacred House.' The birth-prayer of Makkah.
Qur'an 14:37
'Ibrahim was an ummah, devoutly obedient to Allah, inclining to truth.' One man counted as a nation.
Qur'an 16:120
'And Allah took Ibrahim as an intimate friend.' Khalilullah.
Qur'an 4:125
The narrations
The first of creation to be clothed on the Day of Resurrection will be Ibrahim.
Sahih al-Bukhari
In the seventh heaven the Prophet ﷺ found Ibrahim reclining against al-Bayt al-Mamur, the Frequented House, into which seventy thousand angels enter daily and never return.
Sahih al-Bukhari (the Night Journey)
In numbers
- Named in the Qur'an69 times
- Blessed in every prayeras-salat al-Ibrahimiyya
- A whole surah bears his nameSurah 14 · Ibrahim
The journey
- The setting star
- The axe and the idols
- The cool fire
- The great departure
- Zamzam valley
- The sacrifice ransomed
- Raising the House
Read beside it
The words
On the Path
People beside it
Places