Defending Abraham peace be upon him

 

They claimed that the Holy Quran attributed polytheism to Abraham, peace be upon him, in two places:

The first: The Almighty’s saying: ((And when the night covered him, he saw a star. He said, “This is my Lord.” But when it set, he said, “I do not like those that set.” And when he saw the moon rising, he said, “This is my Lord.” But when it set, he said, “Unless my Lord guides me, I will surely be among the people gone astray.” And when he saw the sun rising, he said, “This is my Lord. This is greater.” But when it set, he said, O my people, indeed I am innocent of what you associate with Allah (Al-An`am 76)

. The second: The Almighty’s saying about Abraham (Abraham): “Then he looked at the stars and said, ‘Indeed, I am ill.’” (Saffat 88). Astrology is forbidden

after praising Allah and sending prayers and peace upon the Messenger of Allah:

- By Allah, it is the greatest ignorance that these people thought about those noble verses, that they relate polytheism about the Prophet of Allah, Abraham, may Allah protect us, and he is the friend of the Most Merciful, whom He praised in every place in His Book, saying: “Indeed, there has been for you an excellent example in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people, ‘Indeed, we are innocent of you and of what you associate with Allah.’” You worship besides Allah. And Allah the Almighty said: ((And We had already given Abraham his sound judgment before, and We were of him Knowing.)) And Allah gave an example of the Hanifism of Abraham and confirmed with decisive texts his innocence from polytheism and polytheists forever, so Allah the Almighty said: ((Indeed, Abraham was a nation obedient to Allah, inclining toward truth, and he was not of the polytheists.)) And Allah the Almighty said: ((And who is better in religion than one who submits his face to Allah while being a doer of good and follows the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth? And Allah took Abraham as a friend.)) The hadiths of the Messenger of God (PBUH) came to exonerate our father Abraham from all blemish, to the point that he strongly denied it when he entered the Holy Kaaba and found a picture of Abraham and Ishmael, peace be upon them, with arrows in their hands, so he, peace be upon him, said: “May God fight them, by God, they have never cast lots with arrows.” (

And we explain the truth in the noble verses as follows:

1) As for the verses in Surat Al-An’am, there is no doubt that this position is not a position of contemplation and research, but rather a position of debate so that Abraham, peace be upon him, may establish the argument against his people. So he showed his agreement with them outwardly as a prelude to refuting their belief with a refutation and showing that these bright planets are not fit for divinity nor to be worshipped with God Almighty because they are created, nurtured, manufactured, managed and subjugated. They rise sometimes and set other times, then they disappear from this world, and nothing is hidden from the Lord Almighty, and He is the Eternal, the Everlasting, without passing away. There is no god but Him and no lord other than Him. And He moved with them from the planets to the sun to the moon. So when divinity was negated from these three bodies, which are the brightest that the eyes fall upon, and the conclusive evidence was established of the invalidity of their worship, Abraham revealed to them the certain truth and declared his sincerity to God, the One, the Compeller, and his complete disavowal of their false polytheism, ((So when he saw the sun And when it set, he said, "This is my Lord; this is greater." But when it set, he said, "O my people, indeed I am innocent of what you associate with Him. Indeed, I have turned my face toward He who created the heavens and the earth, inclining toward truth, and I am not of those who associate others with Him." (Al-An'am 78)

- And Allah the Almighty began these blessed verses by praising His Prophet, saying: ((And thus did We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth that he might be of the certain)) Al-An`am 75. So Allah the Almighty testified to His friend’s complete faith and bestowed upon him insight and knowledge of what His kingdom, the Almighty and Majestic, contained of conclusive evidence and shining proofs, so certainty and complete knowledge were obtained and Allah’s blessing was completed.

- And what also confirms that he was in this position debating with his people is the Almighty’s saying in the following verses: ((And his people argued with him. He said, “Do you argue with me about Allah while He has already guided me? And I do not fear what you associate with Him, unless my Lord should will a thing.” My Lord encompasses all things in knowledge. Will you not then remember? And how should I fear what you associate with Him while you do not fear that you have associated with Allah that for which He has not sent down to you any authority? Then which of the two parties has more right to security, if you should know? (Al-An`am 80:

2) As for the Almighty’s saying: ((So he looked at the stars)), Abraham, peace be upon him, did not look at the stars out of belief in them, but rather he presented this means to evade going with them on their polytheistic festival and to be able to destroy their idols. Ibn Kathir said: ((He only said Abraham, peace and blessings be upon him, said this to his people so that he could stay in the city when they went to their festival. For it was time for them to go out to their festival, so he wanted to be alone with their gods to break them. So he said to them words that were true in essence, and they understood from them that he was sick according to what they believed. “So they turned away from him, retreating.”

Qatada said: “The Arabs say to someone who contemplates, ‘He looked at the stars.’” That is, He looked at the sky thinking about what would distract them from him. The witness is that he did not believe in the stars and only wanted to trick the polytheists so that he would not witness their pagan festivals and to plot against their false gods.
Also, these verses were mentioned in the context of praising Abraham, peace be upon him, so God began them from the end of the story of Noah, so the Almighty said: ((And among his followers was Abraham, * When he came to his Lord with a sound heart * When he said to his father and his people, "What do you worship? * Do you seek false gods besides God? * What then do you think of the Lord of the worlds? * So he looked at the stars... ((


The second doubt:

They claimed that Abraham, peace be upon him, doubted In faith, as God Almighty said: “And when Abraham said, ‘My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead.’ He said, ‘Do you not believe?’ He said, ‘Yes, but [to] reassure my heart.’”

After praising God and praying and granting peace to the Messenger of God:

The answer to that is from two aspects:

The first: That faith has three levels: (1) Knowledge of certainty (2) The eye of certainty (3) Truth of certainty.
And let us give an example of this: If a person believes with absolute certainty that there is food inside the bag, then this is absolute certainty. If he opens the bag and sees the food with his eyes, then this is absolute certainty. If he holds this food and eats from it, then this is absolute certainty. Abraham, peace be upon him, never doubted his Lord, but he wanted to move from the level of inference to the level of seeing and ascending to a higher degree of faith. This is the state of believers always in their quest for perfection. The difference between Abraham’s question and someone else’s question is like the difference between Moses’ question to see his Lord and his people’s question for the same request, because Moses’ question was a question of love and longing for God, while his people’s question was a question of doubt and stubbornness. The
Messenger of God (peace be upon him) undertook to explain this meaning when some people said, “Abraham doubted, but our Prophet did not doubt.” The Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said out of humility, “We are more deserving of doubt than Abraham.” The Prophet, peace be upon him, never doubted, and he is the one who said, “I do not doubt, nor do I ask.” So this was a kind of assumption. It cannot happen to be more eloquent in indicating the intended meaning, which is the impossibility of doubt occurring from Abraham, peace be upon him
. It was said that what is meant is: We are more eager to see that than Abraham. It was said: Its meaning is that which you see as doubt, we are more deserving of it because it is a request for more clarification. There is no doubt in the Most Gracious. The second aspect: That doubt is meant by it the thoughts that are not proven, not the meaning of stopping between two matters, because the latter is denied by the decisive texts in the Book and the Sunnah and the consensus of the nation. As for the first, it is from the evidence of explicit faith as came in the hadith that some of the companions said to the Prophet, peace be upon him: ((We find in ourselves what one of us would be too ashamed to speak about. He said: “And you have found it?” They said: Yes. He said: “That is the clear evidence of faith.”


The third doubt:

They challenged the infallibility of the Prophet of God, Abraham, because the Messenger of God (PBUH) said: “The Prophet Abraham, peace be upon him, never lied except three lies. Two of them were about God. His saying: I am sick. His saying: Rather, their leader did it. And one about Sarah.”
And his saying, peace be upon him, in the hadith of intercession: “So they will come to Abraham and say: O Abraham, you are the Prophet of God and His friend from the people of the earth. Intercede for us with your Lord. Do you not see what we are in? So he will say to them: Indeed, my Lord has become angry today with an anger that He has never been angry before and will never be angry with the like thereof. I have told three lies, myself, myself, myself. Go to someone else.”

After praising God and praying and peace be upon the Messenger of God:

- As is clear to every intelligent person, this doubt does not deserve the effort of responding to it, but I deliberately mentioned it because it is evidence of the infallibility of Abraham, peace be upon him. These three lies will be considered sins by the friend. He committed it when he is asked for intercession on the Day of Resurrection, and this restriction negates any other sin from him, in addition to that they are not sins in reality, so by Allah, what kind of person is this who has not lied in his entire life except three lies, all of them by way of insinuation and two of them were for the sake of Allah?!

The first is his saying (I am sick) and it is possible for many meanings, including: I am sick, meaning I will become sick, and the active participle is often used in the sense of the future, and it is possible that he meant I am sick because of what was decreed for me of death or I am sick of the argument to go out with you...etc.

The second is his saying: (Rather, their chief did it). Al-Qurtubi said: He said this as a prelude to the evidence that idols are not gods and to cut off his people from their saying that they cause harm and benefit. This evidence allows for a connected condition, and for this reason he followed up his saying: (Rather, their chief did it) with his saying: (So ask them, if they can speak). Ibn Qutaybah said: Its meaning is that if they can speak, then their chief did it. So the result is that it is a condition with his saying: (If they can speak), or that it was attributed to him because he was the reason.

The third is his saying about Sarah that she was his sister, and this is also a correct insinuation because he is her brother in religion, as he said in the hadith: (So he came to Sarah and said: O Sarah, there is no believer on the face of the earth except me and you, and this one asked me and I told him that you are my sister... the hadith