By HARUN RAZAQ

We thank almighty Allah for sparing our lives to witness the great acts of worship in Islam such as Hajj, Umrah, Day of Arafah (for those on Hajj 2013), Edul-Adha, Al-Udhiyyah, Ayyamut Tashriq, etc. It is very important to understand the fact that the aforementioned acts of Ibadah and many others emanated from Prophet Ibrahim (a.s) and his family.

Allah distinguished Ibrahim first in the Qur’an with the title of Khalilu llah (intimate friend of Allah). On this Allah says:“….And Allah did take Ibrahim as an intimate friend (Q 4:125) Again, Allah addressed him as Ummah, Obedient, Hanif, in the following verse of the Qur’an:  Verily, Ibrahim was an Ummah (a leader having all the good righteous qualities); or a nation obedient to Allah, Hanifa (i.e. to worship none but Allah), and he was not one of those who were Al-mushirikin (Polytheists).

Thirdly, there is a special place in Ka’abah called “Maqam Ibrahim (Station of Ibrahim) in which the Hujaj are encouraged to perform Mafilah.

Prophet Ibrahim (AS) is regarded as the father of the religion with revealed books more importantly Islam. A surah in Qur’an (i.e. Suratul Ibrahim) Qur’an Chapter 14 was named after Ibrahim. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) named one of his sons after Nabi Ibrahim (AS) etc. But, most of us do not really understand what Ibrahim (AS) went through before he became prominent in the sight of Allah to the extent Allah commands believers to emulate Ibrahim. Allah said …

Indeed, there has been an excellent example for you in Prophet Ibrahim… It is on record that Allah tested him with regard to his faith; faced persecution from mushrikeen; he was asked to discard his family (wife and son) in a barren land (Makkah); he did not gave birth to a child untill his old age; he was asked to slaughter his only son among other trials among other trials.