The Mysterious Story of Abraham's Sacrificing his son - Part 2

The three remaining questions from last post were:

1. Why Abraham is so highly spoken of throughout Quran to the degree that he is called "friend of God"?
2. What is the impact of Abraham on the world after him?
3. What kind of relationship with God is illustrated in Quran by the story of Abraham's life?

1. It appears to me that the main events in Abraham's life has one thing in common which makes him so special before God.  I believe that is his total devotion to God throughout his life as far as it is narrated in Quran.  He has proven his complete surrender to God by following God's orders despite all the odds. That is to say, he surrendered himself to the fire they had thrown him in as the punishment for shattering their idols into pieces.  Abraham left his second wife "Hajar" and his son "Esmaeel" in the desert of Mecca as God had commanded him, despite the extremely harsh conditions of the terrain he left them in, with no foods and water.  The action of sacrificing his son had also the same intention although it was not commanded by God and was stopped by God. Same was true about building the "Kabaa" (God's home) in a place that was uninhabitable at the time.

Quran has not narrated the story of Abraham's life from the beginning to the end, as we can see throughout Quran it only states the highlights or the most important points of an event skipping over the details.  Perhaps we can say that Abraham like any other human being was living a normal life and he was learning by trial and errors like all of us except the fact that he has made such a critical and determinant choices to surrender to God's command in the events that has been told in Quran.  In other words, we have been given our life time to try and learn for ourselves until we spiritually ripe enough to the degree when we can surrender ourselves to God with such a pure devotion as Abraham's ,when we are tested in certain occasions.  This implies we can all walk the path Abraham did, although I do not mean we can end up being a prophet or being so special to God.  Nonetheless, everyone can have a unique relationship to God which I believe is the underlying concept of God's being "Rahim", as explained in early posts. 

Speaking practically, we can constantly try to align our intention of doing the mundane tasks with God's satisfaction as we perceive so.  Yet there will be a few occasions in everyone's life when making a choice for the sake of God will appear against the norms, against our personal interests and perhaps could be very costly to us.   I believe those are the decisions that will fundamentally affect our life afterwards.  By the way of example, if we found ourself in an unhappy marriage already with a child or with children and we feel like God would be happier with us if we stay in the marriage mostly because of the kids,  while it is clear to us that we can have a better life if separated,   this decisions can tremendously affect the future life of the children and may bear an unexpected fruit which will worth all the hardship of the long years of patience.   Needless to say, I do not mean that we should stay in a wrong marriage at all costs. 

2. I believe Abraham's surrender to God so purely not only has made him a friend of God, as stated in Quran, but it also has impacted humanity tremendously.  According to Quran in the verses following 37:110 all later prophets' ancestry could be traced back to Abraham trough either "Eshaag" or "Esmaeel".  Therefore, it maybe reasonable to assume that if it wasn't for Abraham mankind might not had the greatest/dearest prophets "Moses", "Jesus" and "Mohammad".   In verse 37:100 Abraham prayed to God to be granted a righteous child and in 3:35-37 "Omran's wife" (Maryam's mother) dedicates her baby to God which led to the birth of Jesus.  

It is fascinating how prayer of a few individuals (other humans) have affected the course of history of humanity so drastically. This is while in the eyes of the praying person God may not have granted him what he/she wished for because mother of Maryam asked for a son but she gave birth to a girl who years later turned out to be the mother of Jesus.   In the same way, it might be faire to say that if Adam's sin in heaven brought his descendants suffering on earth, Abraham's actions resulted in guiding humans to happiness again.   My point is this is potentially the scope of the effects the our relationship with God can bring about. 

3.  I believe Abraham's relationship with God illustrates an ideal way we should connect to God, that is we are to practically commit ourselves to God and do whatever we do in life for him. That is the true meaning of being God's servant (which is not the right word I believe).  We have to conceptualize the image that Quran is depicting from our potential relationship with God and discover what Quran is truly about.  We are to find a word which represents total devotion, which gives one entity priority over all others in our life in practical terms , in our actions not in our words or merely in our feelings. We are here to find out this relationship by trial and error by a learning process of dedicating yourself to different things and beings until we realize there is only one supreme being which is worth sacrificing everything we have for. That is when we fall in the true love which is eternal and will include all the humans' as well. 

The Mysterious Story of Abraham Sacrificing His Son

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

فلما بلغ معه السعي قال يا بني اني ارى في المنام اني اذبحك فانظر ماذا ترى قال يا ابت افعل ما تؤمر ستجدني ان شاء الله من الصابرين 37:102

"And when he reached with him [the age of] exertion, he said, "O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I [must] sacrifice you, so see what you think." He said, "O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast."

فلما اسلما وتله للجبين  37:103

"And when they had both submitted and he put him down upon his forehead,"

وناديناه ان يا ابراهيم  37:104

"We called to him, "O Abraham,"

قد صدقت الرؤيا انا كذلك نجزي المحسنين 37:105

"You have fulfilled the vision." Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good."

ان هذا لهو البلاء المبين 37:106

"Indeed, this was the clear trial."

وفديناه بذبح عظيم  37:107

"And We ransomed him with a great sacrifice,"

وتركنا عليه في الاخرين  37:108

"And We left for him [favorable mention] among later generations:"

سلام على ابراهيم   37:109

"Peace upon Abraham."

كذلك نجزي المحسنين  37:110

"Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good."

   صدق الله العلي العظيم

Quranic Verses from Quran.com

Having read the above verses, there are a number of questions that come to our mind namely:

1. Is it God who demanded sacrifice of Abraham's son through a dream? 
2. Why God stopped Abraham ?
3. What is praised by God on this specific act of Abraham?
4. Why Abraham is so highly spoken of throughout Quran to the degree that he is called "friend of God"?
5. What is the impact of Abraham on the world after him?
6. What kind of relationship with God is illustrated in Quran by the story of Abraham's life?

1.  Based on the other cases in Quran where a dream has been interpreted such as Yusuf's dream, it seems that true dreams are mainly an indication of what is to come in future.  Our personal prophetic dreams, which present clear vision of an upcoming event, corroborate this fact as well. They primarily show the events that are going to happen soon.

I am not sure if there is a concrete evidence in Quran in which God has explicitly given a command to a Prophet through a dream.  On the contrary, I believe "Vahy" meaning God's words (directly or indirectly) to Prophets have always been received in their state of full consciousness.

It also appears that Dreams have something to do with personal desires and conditions. That is  to say, dreams often answer an intention or a question that we have been thinking about for a long time or they address a personal deep concern or emotion.  From this perspective, it can be assumed that Abraham might have been influenced by a tradition of his time when it was common to sacrifice their children for their Gods. Judging from Abraham's life story as narrated by Quran however, we can realize that Abraham was always obsessed with the best he could do for God in the course of his life. Evidently, it is more reasonable to assume that he had believed such sacrifice could be the ultimate deed for God. This motivation as the main source of his dream would be more consistent with his other actions such as leaving his second wife with the new born son in a desert against all the odds, as instructed by God, where was later called Mecca the holiest place on earth for ever after.

That said, we can come to the belief that Abraham's dream was not a clear instruction from God asking Abraham's to sacrifice his son.   I have seen the interpretations which take the son's words "do as you are commanded" in verse 102 as the proof for considering the sacrifice a command from God. I am not sure if that is entirely the case. In my opinion, it only shows the son had surrendered himself to God and he was willing to give his life for God if it is demanded.

2 & 3. If the sacrifice was God's command, there was no reason for him to stop Abraham.  In verse 104 it is clearly stated that God calls upon Abraham and then in 105 God tells him "You have fulfilled the vision"   and he was told this not in a dream.

One would argue that verse 106 could be the evidence to the contrary. "Indeed, this was the clear trial."     The answer to this argument is hidden in the previous verse 105: "You have fulfilled the vision." Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good."   What is the good action being rewarded by God, if it is the sacrifice itself it is not done.  What is so worthy of God's praise is infact, the Abraham's sacrifice of his dearest asset in life for God.  To give a priority to God over all his interests even if it is the life of his beloved son who is given to him after years of praying and expectations. Especially a son whose birth itself was a miracle because of the age of Abraham's wife, according to earlier verses.

We can therefore, come to the conclusion that God had never intended for Abraham's to actually kill his son with his own hand but to only test him indirectly to choose between his interests  and God's, as perceived by Abraham from his dream, definitely not based on God's command.

Most importantly, I believe the message of this event for our time is the fact that we are not allowed to hurt an innocent person with the intention of doing something for God in order to purify our soul or get closer to God.  This is a clear contradiction we can see today in many evil actions that are done in the name of religion , Islam in particular. Harming innocent man, women or children, in anyway, regardless of their faith or race is a satanic criminal act and can not be based on a true religion and its potential justification is only a distortion of truth.

I would like to emphasize that ,based on these verses of Quran, no matter how devoted we believe our action is to God, we are not allowed to commit any immoral action.  If we are to follow Abraham's footsteps look how humanly he has discussed his frustration with his son and has done noting without his consent (102).


I will try to answer the remaining  3 questions in the next post, God willing.