The Birth of Abraham (P.B.U.H.)
For the kingdom by means of owing people's order and judgment and getting the loyalty of people that God guided, such things are not given by God except for one who God knows that they call for rightness and guidance and it is not to be except for a prophet or a viceroy or anyone faithful that God had chosen for His religion, and they know by the guidance of God what do people need in their life for religion, life matters and for the after-life. They say that when Abraham said to Nimrod that God brings the sun from the east so bring it from the west, Nimrod got surprised and couldn't answer because of his surprise and he knew that Abraham got the rightful clue. Nimrod could have said to Abraham let your God bring it from the west but he was afraid from God's reply to Abraham as He saved Abraham before from the fire. When Nimrod saw the miracles he knew that if he suggested that (bringing the sun from the west) Abraham would do it without a doubt and would make people believe him and in that way Nimrod would be ashamed, and God guided not the wrongdoing folks. As reported from Ibn-`Abbâs he said that God sent a mosquito to Nimrod and stung his lip, and when he tried to catch it it flied to his nose, and tried to get it out but then she got into his brain, so then God tortured him for forty nights then destroyed him.
In tidings, when Abraham broke the idols and after throwing him into the fire and getting out of it with no harm, he (Nimrod) ordered for Abraham to be exiled out of the lands, and avoid him from taking his money and cattle, so then Abraham asked for judgment to be made according to their own laws and regulations. In general he argued with them by saying: if you want to take my money, then you should give me an exchange for my life that I spent in your lands, so then they went to the judge of Nimrod to make a judgment about this matter, and the judge decided that Abraham was right, so they released him and released his cattle's and all of his money, so then Abraham and Lot got out in the direction of the land of Shem (Syria and the surroundings) approaching the position of the holy shrine in Jerusalem before it had been built by many following centuries, and he made a bed for his wife Sarah and closed it roughly for he was so jealous, and she was the daughter of his uncle Pethuel the brother of Terah ben Nahor, and she was the first to believe in him, and other things rather than this had been said as in Muruj Al-Ðahab for Al-Mas`udi, but it also mentioned as we said before that she is Abraham's maternal cousin and she was the sister of Lot ben Haran.
So he went along far away from his home to some where else like a stranger, he did not know anyone and no one invited him to his land, so he travelled until he was out of Nimrod's kingdom until he got into the kingdom of a Coptic man called `Urara [maybe the author used "Coptic" here as a general name for Egyptians, the coming story is similar to the one mentioned in the chapter of Genesis in Torah, but the name of the Pharaoh is not mentioned in Torah], then he passed by a tithe-gatherer that takes tithes from people passing by his lands, so he blocked the way of Abraham to take the tithes of his money and cattle's, so the officer that was appointed from `Urârah said: open the tomb (or the palanquin which had his wife Sarah in it) to take the tithes of it, so then Abraham said: say whatever you think it is there and ask for whatever you want of gold and silver to give you the tithes of it and don't open it. But the tithe-gatherer denied that and insisted on opening the palanquin and he did, and Abraham became so angry because he was so jealous and afraid for his wife Sarah, and when the tithe-gatherer looked at Sarah, and she was pretty, he said: who is she? and what is her relation to you? So then Abraham said: she is my wife and my cousin. Then the officer said: I won't let you go until I tell the king about you and her. Then he sent a messenger to the king and told him everything happened, and when the tidings reached the king he ordered the palanquin to be brought to him with what it had, and so they took the palanquin and Abraham went with them and never left the palanquin, and when they reached the king, the king said: open the palanquin, then Abraham answered: my wife and my cousin is inside and I am ready to give everything I have for not opening it, but the king was not satisfied until they opened it. When they opened it and he looked into Sarah he couldn't hold himself and extended his hand trying to touch her, and Abraham then turned his face away for his jealousy and said: O God keep his hand away from my wife and my cousin, and so his hand didn't reach her and didn't get back to him (it is understood from this line that his hand was paralyzed) Then said the king: your God did that to me? So said Abraham: yes, then he said: pray to him to get it back to me, and if it was back to me I will leave you alone. So then Abraham prayed to God and so his hand got back to him, but the king looked at her again and extended his hand to reach her and Abraham turned his face away and said: O God keep his hand away, and so his hand was paralyzed and couldn't reach her, so then the king said to Abraham: your God is jealous and you are jealous as well so call your God to let my hand back to me, and if it was so I will not do it again. Then said Abraham: O God if he was truthful let it back to him, and so it was, and when the king saw that Abraham grew so great for him and made him his guest and then said to him: go to wherever you want but I have a request, and that is to allow me to give her (Sarah) a pretty Coptic maid that I have and she is intelligent and I want her to be as a servant for your wife, and so Abraham allowed that, and so the king gave her to Sarah, and she was Hagar the mother of Ishmael (P.B.U.H.).
Then Abraham got out with all what he had and the king went out with him and walked behind Abraham for his greatness but Abraham refused this and didn't accept that the king would walk behind him and so he made him in the front and Abraham walked behind him and he said: my God ordered me to walk behind you and respect you for your highness and so then the Coptic king said: I swear that your God is Clement and Generous, and you make your religion beloved by me, and then the king said farewells to him, and then Abraham went along until he reached the upper parts of Shem's lands and left Lot in the lower parts of them, and God did say about this: And We rescued him and Lot (and brought them) to the land which We have blessed for (all) peoples(Al-Anbiyâ':71) and it is the lands of Shem and Palestine because God had destined them to be the homelands for prophets and the lands of their tombs after Abraham (P.B.U.H.), and then when Abraham recognized that he did not have any children from Sarah, he said to her: if you like, you can let me have Hagar as a wife, maybe God will give me a son from her and he would be as a son for us as well, so he paid the dowry for Sarah and took Hagar as a wife and she gave birth to Ishmael (P.B.U.H.), and more to come about that later on.
God had revealed for Abraham twenty books as reported from the prophet (P.B.U.H.), and he (the prophet) was asked about their contents so he said: they were all proverbs and it had: O you egoist king of many troubles, I did not send you to gather earth all together, but I sent you to answer the calls of the wronged, for I do answer his calls even if he was a disbeliever, and every man of thought unless he was sick, he got three hours a day, an hour for his God, and an hour to judge himself, and an hour to think about God's deeds to him, and one more hour for him to take what he likes by ways that God did allow,for this hour helps him to accomplish the other hours. The man of thought should live for three: to make a living, to get prepared for his after-life, or to get satisfied in ways that God allowed. Then a man asked the prophet (P.B.U.H.): and what was there in the books of Moses (P.B.U.H.)?, he (P.B.U.H.) answered: they were all examples (lessons) and they contained: I am amazed for the one who is certain of death, how come he becomes happy? And for whoever is certain of hell and fire, how come he laughs? And whoever sees this life and its fluctuations how come he is certain of safety? And for whoever that believes in destiny how come he runs after wealth and riches? And for whoever that is certain of the judgment, why he doesn't work for that day?...etc..
Some tidings about the interpretation of God's saying: Thus did We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth(Al-An`âm:75) as reported from Al-Bâqir (P.B.U.H.) , a speech that has the meaning of that God gave Abraham a strength in his sight to see what is beyond heavens so he saw the Throne and what's beyond it and saw the earth and what was beneath it, and so God did with his beloved the prophet (P.B.U.H.) and the viceroys after him from his Household (P.B.U.H.). In some other tidings that Abraham (P.B.U.H.) saw an angel so he asked: who are you? He answered: I am the angel of death, so then Abraham said to him: can you show me in what shape do you take the soul of a faithful man? Then said the angel of death: turn your face to the other way, and so did Abraham and then he looked back again at him and he saw a young man with a nice shape and beautiful clothes and with good scent, then said Abraham: if the faithful man isn't see in his life except your shape then he had what he desires in this life, then he said to him: can you show me how your shape would be if you're going to take the soul of a disbeliever? So he answered: you won't bear it, but Abraham said: yes I d, and so the angel said: then turn your face away from me and so he did and looked back at him and then he saw a black man with standing hair and an awful smell with black clothes and flames with smokes going out from his mouth and nose, so when Abraham saw this he went into a coma, and then he woke up and saw the angel back again to his original shape so he said to the angel: O angel of death if the disbeliever just saw your shape he would stop doing wrongdoings in his life.
It is reported from Al-Sâdiq (P.B.U.H.) back from the prince of believers (P.B.U.H) that he said: when God wanted to take the soul of Abraham (P.B.U.H.) He sent down the angel of death and he said to him: Peace upon you Abraham, he then answered: and peace upon you O angel of death, did you come to me as an inviter or to announce my death? So he answered: but as an announcer for your death O Abraham so answer the call, then he said: O angel of death did you see a friend that makes death to his friend? So then the angel of death got back until he stood between the hands of God, the Exalted and said: O God You heard the talk of Your friend Abraham, so then God did say: O angel of death go back to him and ask him: did you ever saw a lover than don't want to see his love? The great scholar Al-Sayid Ne`matullah Al-Jazâ'iri, the one who mentioned this story, said: inviter here is meant to be as for someone asking and giving the choices as if someone is inviting some guests, and a death announcer is meant to be as someone getting what he desires by force. So when Abraham (P.B.U.H.) knew that he has the choice, he asked for life to worship God more.
We say yes, and such thing would be done by a man like Abraham (P.B.U.H.) naturally, and it is possible that he had done such a thing as if he couldn't imagine the situation and got afraid of moving from one world to another and there is the grave and the loneliness and judgment, did you not think about the saying of our prophet (P.B.U.H.) and his Household (P.B.U.T.): Whenever a faithful increase in his faith, the more fearful he becomes for God? There are certain tidings and speeches of certain origin and all agreed on their contents that denotes that a believer is in between fear and hope from God as the hands of a balance. Every prophet is scared to the maximum of God and at the same time he has the maximum hope and faith in His mercy. In tidings it is mentioned that when Al-Bâqir (P.B.U.H.) at the time of his death cried, and then his son, Al-Sâdiq (P.B.U.H.), said to him: O father why are you crying? So he answered him: for two things, the first is for leaving the beloved and the second is for the greatness and holiness of this situation. Then the most apparent clue for this matter, look to the pray of Abi-Hamza Al-Þumâli, and it is the pray of `Ali ben Al-Husain (P.B.U.H.). Whoever investigated the lives of prophets and viceroys and their followers he would be sure of what we've mentioned and I think that Abraham refused to move from this life to the after-life because the situation was so holy and great for him, and if he was to live all the age of life itself he would spend it as a worshipper and obeying God without a doubt.
Yes, Al-Husain ben `Ali (P.B.U.H.) at the day of Karbala at the time of his death and when Al-Shemer ben Ði Al-Jawshan sat over his holy chest, he (P.B.U.H.) was smiling and the halo filled his face, and he did not care about what they did to him beside raising the truth and showing the true and the false. Can you imagine how the angel of death faced him? I think he was crying as well. Shiites after his death kept saying as reported to him (P.B.U.H.):
If the religion of Muhammad won't be fixed except by killing me
Then O swords come and take me
Yes some tidings say that Abraham made a pilgrimage to the Holy House at the end of his life, and after the pilgrimage he went back to the lands of Shem, and then the angel of death came to him to take his soul but Abraham hated death, so the angel of death got back to his Lord and said: Abraham hated death, so God then said to him: let go of Abraham, he likes to worship me. Then he (Abraham) saw an old man eating and vomiting whatever he eats, so then Abraham hated life and loved death, then he went into his home and saw a man with a good shape that he never saw something like it before, so he asked him: who are you? He answered: I am the angel of death, so then he said: O Holy Lord! Who hates your closeness and visiting you and you are in such a shape? So he answered: O friend of God, if God wanted goodness for His slave, He sends me in this shape, and if He wants evil for His slave, He sends me in another shape, and so he took his soul in the lands of Shem where his tomb lies now.
When God ordered Abraham to build the House, he did not know where to make it, so then God sent Gabriel (P.B.U.H.) and he planned the position of the House, then God revealed the basis from paradise, and the stone that God revealed on Adam was whiter than snow but turned to be black when disbelievers touched it, so then Abraham built the House and Ishmael moved the stones for building from Ði-Tiwâ [seems a place name] (and in some other tales from the mount of Abi-Qobays) so he made it as high as nine cubits, then Gabriel (P.B.U.H.) guided Abraham to the position of the Stone and so he got it out and placed it in his current position as today, and he made two doors for it, one to the east and another to the west, and the door to the west is called Al-Mostajâr. When he built it and finished it all, Abraham and Ishmael made a pilgrimage, and Gabriel (P.B.U.H.) came down for them at the day of Al-Tarwiyah [meaning: day of giving water] and ordered them to give water and they carried it to `Arafât and Minâ [a place name] because there were no waters in those spots, then Abraham said what was mentioned in Quran: And when Abraham prayed: My Lord! Make this a region of security and bestow upon its people fruits, such of them as believe in Allah and the Last Day, He answered: As for him who disbelieves, I shall leave him in contentment for a while, then I shall compel him to the doom of Fire - a hapless journey's end!(Al-Baqarah:126).
Some Sentences About Sarah The Wife of Abraham As Told By Historians
Some historians gave some pictures about Abraham and his wife Sarah and what happened between her and Hagar with her son Ishmael (PUT) and about the reasons for Hagar and her son Ishmael travelling to Fârân (Paran) as in Torah, and Paran is a name given to some locations of which Mecca's mounts are one of them, and lot of these are not suitable for such a high place of prophecy and unjust, and even can not be committed by a conscious man and some of them are not right at all, but it has lot of exaggeration as mentioned in the book of Genesis in Torah, and most of such pictures are taken from Jews and it has such matters that they report to Sarah the wife of Abraham (P.B.U.H.) but it opposes the dignity and nobleness, and there is no doubt that for Muslims, Sarah is considered one of the best of women, and she is attached to the degree of infallibility, and for the prophet and his Household (P.B.U.T.) she occupies a high level, and for them she is like Eve the mother of human beings and like Mary the daughter of Amram (P.B.U.T.), so she is a lady of her time and faithful souls do not accept to report about her and other women untrue things. They mentioned that when Sarah saw the son of Hagar that she gave birth to from Abraham, she said then to Abraham: banish this maid and her son for this maid's son will not inherit with my son Isaac, and they said: then God said to Abraham: Whatever Sarah says do. They say also: So Abraham went in the early morning and took with him bread and water and gave them to Hagar then she put them on her shoulder and her son with her, then he banished her with her son and she went along in the deserts lost and did not know where to go. They said a lot of such tidings and legends, but what we can say for the press that printed such lies and what we can say for its owner, but no strength except by God, the Exalted.
No comments:
Post a Comment