{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/pro/lot05.htm","path":"isl/pro/lot05.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/pro/lot05.htm","text":"The most apparent of\nall is from throwing Abraham in the fire and breaking the idols, Nimrod\nthrew him into the fire to let him back from his religion, but since\nhis faith was strong against all odds and never shaken, he did not care\nabout anything, nor about any torture that meant to let him disbelieve,\nand for such a deed (breaking the idols) from the friend of God, their\ncorners were shaken and the beards of their youngs had been white, and\nby this deed the Throne of the Exalted became filled with happiness and\nmountains been amazed and proud and close angels did bend in a sign of\nrespect, and the whole universe smiled to him, for he is alone in the\nface of a tyrant that does not believe in the judgement day and all the\ncreatures are afraid of him, so one could do such a thing except\nsomeone that is in deep faith into God and does not see any goal in\nthis life except to obey his Lord even in the hardest moments, and He\nis the One that will bring victory to him, and for this He made the\nfire to be coolness and peace thus he was not touched by it, and when\nhe was thrown into the fire Gabriel (PUH) met him in the air while he\nwas falling and said to him: need anything? So he answered: to you no,\nbut to my Lord yes, so he was saved from their evil and fire by his own\nfaith in his Lord.\nHe broke their idols and made them into pieces except the biggest of\nthem for a sermon and we've explained it and so the king was not brave\nenough to kill him, and Abraham was alone without anyone to bring him\nvictory, but only God saved him and ordered him to travel out of their\nlands, and if anyone meditated in this he would find this amazing thing\nis only because he (Abraham) believed in his Lord, and by his faith he\ndespised the fire, meditate in these honorable situations which have\nthe sermons for the nations and generations for the coming days and\ntimes.\nAbraham was guided by intuition to the faith, and born with faith being\nside by side to him, as been told by our prophet (PUH): every child is\nborn with intuition but his parents may make him a christian or a jew.\nSo the faith of Abraham had never been corrupted, and he grew up\nseeking and getting inspired for the clues of unification by the traces\nof the One, so he guided himself to the Creator by His creation, and to\nthe Eternal\n by what is mortal. Then he looked to this human that\nwas created out of nothing while he worships something he made by his\nown hands, then he (Abraham) gradually tried to make them conclude the\ntruth and stop worshipping the idols, then he looked at the planets and\nthey were with him and said: they worth worshipping more than woods and\nother stuff that are made by our own hands, and\u00a0 when planets\ndisappeared and he knew that they were created as well he said:\u00a0 \nLo! I have turned my face toward Him Who created the\nheavens and the earth, as one by nature upright, and I am not of the\nidolaters(Al-An`\u00e2m:79).\nSo Abraham (PUH) did not deny their gods from the first glance, but he\nmade them gradually admit that these are not gods since they don't have\nfeelings or senses, then he tested their gods one after the other by\nmany ways that would be enough for them to stop worshipping them, and\nhe showed how their gods were unable to do a thing and how they do not\ndeserve to be gods.\nYes, and Abraham (PUH) was patient\u00a0 with a great patience, and not\nin a hurry to call all the creatures to know the Creator, and this is\nobvious in his answer to his father Azar when he said to him:\u00a0 If thou cease not, I shall surely stone thee. Depart\nfrom me a long while!(Mariam:46), so Abraham answered: Peace be unto thee! I shall ask forgiveness of my Lord\nfor thee. Lo! He was ever gracious unto me(Mariam:47), and in other\nholy phrase: And forgive my father. Lo! he is of\nthose who err(Al-Shu\u00e0r\u00e2':86) and so on. It is true what\nsome historians said about this matter, when they said: it is true that\nwhen a truthful belief gets deep into the soul and the heart then it\nwill occupy the mind of the man and own his heart. The revolution of\nAbraham (PUH) against the idols and its worshipping was not only\ntalkative revolution but also a practical one, and so he made their\nidols into pieces except the biggest one and made this deed as a way to\nargue with them until he made them into silence, so they came to treat\nhim hard and threw him into the fire, but she was coolness and peaceful\nupon him. Then he thanked God for saving him and never kept a single\nway that he did not take to call for the righteous path and he was\nindeed as been told by God: That is Our\nargument. We gave it unto Abraham against his folk(Al-An`\u00e2m:83),\nand he was arguing with the tyrant, Nimrod, with carelessness toward\nhis power until he made him shame of hisself and prove him wrong, so\nGod said: Bethink thee of him who had an\nargument with Abraham\nabout his Lord, because Allah had given him the kingdom; how, when\nAbraham said: My Lord is He Who giveth life and causeth death, he\nanswered: I give life and cause death. Abraham said: Lo! Allah causeth\nthe sun to rise in the East, so do thou cause it to come up from the\nWest. Thus was the disbeliever abashed. And Allah guideth not\nwrongdoing folk(Al-Baqarah:258).\nThen presenting his only son Ishmael to be slain as God ordered him in\nhis dream is the ultimate clue for his faith in God, and he prepared\neverything\n to give his only son as a gift until God ransomed him\nwith a great victim. He (Abraham) was also a man of diginity and\npurity, and he never asked someone else except God and never refused\nanyone came to him for a purpose, and he was a man of hospitality and\nwas the first to command for hospitality, and used to prostrate a lot\non the ground for God only, and used to pray a lot for Muhammad and the\nHousehold of Muhammad (PUH), and in some speeches that God did not\nconsider Abraham as a friend except for feeding people and praying at\nnight while people are sleeping, and he was a man of jealousy as well\nand whenever he goes out he locks the door behind him and took his\nkeys, and for many good virtues and deeds that Abraham had, he was\ngiven the title of friend of God.\nAs reported from Al-S\u00e2diq (PUH) that he said: Abraham once had a\nhard time so he went to his people but they were in a condition of a\ndrought so he went back as he came, and when he was close to his home\nhe came down from his ass and filled his bag of sands just to calm down\nhis wife Sarah, so when he went inside he took off the bag down from\nhis ass then Sarah came and opened it and found it was full of flour\nand so she made some bread and then she said to Abraham (PUH): finish\nyour pray and come eat, so he said to her: from where\u00a0 did you get\nthis? She answered: from the flour in that bag, so then Abraham lifted\nhis head towards the sky and said: I testify that you are the Friend.\nIt is more probable that God had Abraham as a slave before He makes him\na prophet, and made him a prophet before He make him a messenger, and\nmade him a messenger before He makes him a friend and had him as a\nfriend before He makes hima leader, so when God gathered all these\ncharacterestics for him He told him: \nLo! I have\nappointed thee a leader for mankind, so then said Abraham: And of my offspring? He answered: My\ncovenant includeth not wrong-doers. This story had been mentioned\nbefore and been explained for its purposes, and for the high place of\nAbraham in faith, and for his love to know things deeply, he asked God\nto show him how He ressurects\n the dead to make his heart more\nfaithful by looking at what humans do not believe in except by looking\nat. Quran had described his request, so God said: \nAnd\nwhen Abraham said (unto his Lord): My Lord! Show\nme how Thou givest life to the dead, He said: Dost thou not believe ?\nAbraham said: Yea, but (I ask) in order that my heart may be at ease.\n(His Lord) said: Take four of the birds and cause them to incline unto\nthee, then place a part of them on each hill, then call them, they will\ncome to thee in haste, and know that Allah is Mighty,\nWise(Al-Baqarah:260). What is apparent from the holy phrase is what we\nmentioned before about the love of knowing things deeply, and so the\nanswer came to him to distribute the parts of four birds on certain\nhills and not every hill on earth, and the interpretation of such\nphrase can be only attributed to the prophet and his Household (PUT).\nThey (the Household) (PUH) said what is in general meant that God\nordered Abraham to slay four kinds of birds: a peacock, an eagle, a\ncock and a duck. The peacock is meant to be the ornaments of this life,\nand the eagle is meant to be the long hope, and the duck is meant to be\ncaution, and the cock is meant to be the lust, so the total meaning\nthat God desired and He knows better, that if you want to be with Me\nthen cut out these four things, and if any of these were in one's heart\nthen he is never with Me. This interpretation had been told in\ndifferent ways but the general meaning is the same, for the knowledge\nof things in deep is something that only God can do and He is far from\nthe human thought about Himself.\nMaybe it is thought that God could make him able to understand such\nmatter, the answer would be yes, but maybe the thing that prevents that\nis the inability of creature and not God, as it is in the case of\nletting a camel into the needle's eye, so the fact of resurrection is\none of the facts that can not be sensed by the human beings' senses,\nbut only some of its reason can be sensed like killing, burning,\nmedicine, food..etc, and for this matter there is an investigation by\nitself. Abraham slain the birdsand distributed their parts over the\nhills then he called them back and they came together again and\ncombined as they were before slaying them by the commandments of God,\nfor He is who resurrect bones after beingrotted away. Some scholars\nsaid: Abraham wanted to know this by eyes after he knew it by heart.\nAnother reason was mentioned for this request is that was after the\nargument of Nimrod with him about resurrection when Nimrod said: I give\nlife and death, and so then he released a prisoner and killed another,\nthen Abraham said: this is not giving life (resurrection), so then\nNimrod warned him and threatened him if God did not resurrect for him\nthe dead, so then he requested from God to resurrect them and God told\nhim what to do to let Nimrod know that and for this he said \"in order that my heart may be at ease.\"\nFor the patience of Ishmael ben Abraham (PUT) troubles come so small,\nand he was so patient and no one was like him in his patience, he was\ndriven away from his family and homeland when he was a child, and no\none was with him except his pureified mother Hagar, and he opened his\neyes and did not find anyone to keep him a company from his relatives\nexcept his mother Hagar, and found himself alone in a land without\nplants or buildings or animals\n except of the beasts and insects for\na while, until God drove by His mercy some of His creation that were\ndifferent from them and they were the tribe of Jorhom and the Giants,\nand so Hagar said when Abraham brought her and wanted to leave at once:\nyou left us in a land that has no water or plants or a living thing,\nGod ordered you so? So he said: yes, so she said: if God ordered you so\nthen we not lost and He shall take care of us.\nIshmael the only that was born for his mother and father and the\nstranger from his family and homeland been told then by his father in a\nsurprise: \nI have seen in a dream that I must\nsacrifice thee. So\nlook, what thinkest thou ? He said: O my father! Do that which thou art\ncommanded. Allah willing, thou shalt find me of the steadfast, and that\nwas when he was not yet a man, but he answered without complaining, and\nwhat a patience could a child have except for him, and kids have long\nhopes in this life, but Ishmael presented himself to be slain with a\ncomplete acceptance, and so no one like him from the generation that is\nlike him or from the people before, and such a deed issued by him (PUH)\nis something holy and great, so then Ishmael is the sincere servant of\nGod the one\u00a0 that made his life for God, and we can not imagine a\nsoul purer than his nor someone closer to God more than him and no\ncreature did good to his parents more than Ishmael did, the one that\ngave himself for sacrifice, when his fatherlaid himon his side witha\nknife in his hand over his neck, then Gabriel flipped it by a\ncommandment of God and ransomed him with a great victim, and this story\nhas its pains in the heart of the believers, and its main character\ndeserves every word of beauty, because being patient for troubles is\nnot something that everyone can do,\u00a0 [then comes a line that seems\nto have printing mistakes].\nIsaac and Lot, both of them were in stand and ready to serve God\nwithout complaining, with patience and thanks to God and such\ncharacteristics now are rare in people, and the stories of Lot points\nout how much generous he was with hospitality to both neighbours and\nguests, and he struggled against the disbelievers to keep their harm\naway, for they used to attack the guests and defame him and take his\nmoney away, and Lot used to protect them (guests) and wanr them against\nthe treatment of his people and he faced many harms from them (his\npeople) and none were there to protect him among them, and the most\nharmful person to him was his wife for she was an eye for her people\nover her husband, and she was a disbeliever and did notbelieve in God\nand for this god destroyed her with them, so Lot was a man of great\nfaith and how come not that to be and he is a generous prophet,\u00a0\nand he travelled with his uncle Abraham from the land of Iraq to the\nlands of Shem leaving his homeland and his family and his tribe for the\nsake of his religion and got far away from his people. God said: And Lot believed him, and said: Lo! I am a fugitive\nunto my Lord(Al-`Ankabut:26) and this is the last thing we would like\nto mention about the stories of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac and Lot, and\npeace may be upon our prophet and his Household (PUT) and thanks be to\nGod alone.","title":"The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Lot: Sermons to be Taken From The Story of Abraham and Others Mentioned With Him","type":"page"}