Ibrahim (Abraham)

Ibrahim is one of the five great Messengers endowed with resolve (ulu al-'azm) and the common patriarch of the great monotheistic traditions. The Quran calls him Khalil Allah, the intimate friend of God. From his two sons, Isma'il and Ishaq, will descend major prophetic lineages.

From his youth, Ibrahim rejected the idols his own people carved. By observing the celestial bodies — the star, the moon, the sun — he understood that what sets and disappears cannot be a god, and turned towards the unique Creator.

To show his people the powerlessness of their idols, he smashed them all except the largest, so that they would acknowledge themselves that statues incapable of speaking or defending themselves could not be worshipped.

In retaliation, a great fire was lit to throw him into it. But God commanded the fire to be for him coolness and peace, and Ibrahim emerged unharmed.

Later, on God's command, he led his wife Hajar and his son Isma'il to the barren valley of Mecca. And when he saw in a dream that he must sacrifice his son, both submitted to the trial — before God ransomed the child. With Isma'il, Ibrahim raised the foundations of the Ka'ba.

Ibrahim teaches that faith is not an inheritance one receives without reflection, but a lucid search and an entire submission to God — one that can turn fire into coolness, and trial into blessing.

قُلْنَا يَا نَارُ كُونِي بَرْدًا وَسَلَامًا عَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ

Nous dîmes alors au bûcher : « Sois pour Abraham d’une fraîcheur inoffensive. »

21:69