Unveiling the Profound Tests of Ibrahim (AS)

Unveiling the Profound Tests of Ibrahim (AS) - Friday Khutbah

By Nouman Ali Khan

Introduction: The Connection Between Ibrahim (AS) and Ramadan

Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. My objective in this khutbah is to share something some of you might find strange. Ramadan is getting closer and usually when Hajj season is getting closer we start talking about Ibrahim (AS). But it is actually pretty usual practice for me that as Ramadan gets closer I start thinking a lot about Ibrahim (AS). And there's a reason for that.

Ibrahim's Dua for the Sacred House

Of course Ibrahim (AS) built the Kaaba and as he was building the Kaaba he made this dua for people's hearts to turn towards that house. So that people's hearts would turn towards that Kaaba and believers around the world if they haven't had a chance to see the house of Allah it is their great desire to have the opportunity to go visit the house of Allah and that's why the entire institution this magnanimous institution of Hajj is actually in a sense a result of the effort and even more importantly the dua of Ibrahim (AS). We're living the dua of Ibrahim (AS) when we're seeing Hajj and when we're performing Hajj.

The Dua for the Final Messenger

But actually just like that there's another very profound dua of Ibrahim (AS) that he made as he was building the foundations or elevating the foundations of the Haram of the Kaaba along with his son Ismail after passing all of the tests Allah gave him this task to build the Kaaba with his son Ismail and this is at the end of all of the tests. And as he's building it he says:

"Our Lord, and send among them a messenger from themselves"

That "them" refers to the offspring of Ibrahim and Ismail together.

So Ibrahim (AS) as we know has other children including Ishaq (AS). Ishaq is not part of this conversation, Ismail is part of this conversation. Now Ishaq (AS) is a prophet and Ishaq will have a child Yaqub who was a prophet, Yaqub will have a child Yusuf who was a prophet. So actually in a narration of the Prophet (SAW) and in the Quran:

From Ishaq every generation had a prophet. So they kept on getting prophets non-stop like a continuous chain. But Ibrahim (AS) is not asking about his son Ishaq right now, he's building the Kaaba with his son

Ismail and as he's building this Kaaba he's making a dua: "Ya Allah send a single messenger among them." So now on one side with Ishaq multiple prophets, multiple multiple prophets from the line of Ismail he's asking for how many? Just one.

What will that messenger do? He will read your ayat onto the people and he will purify them and teach them the book and wisdom.

The Connection to Muhammad (SAW) and Ramadan

That is the dua for Muhammad Rasulullah (SAW) that will come eventually thousands of years later and will recite the ayat of Allah, the Quran, right at that house where he was making dua with his son Ismail thousands of years ago. What is it that we are celebrating in Ramadan? We're celebrating the coming of the Quran which actually means we're celebrating the fulfillment of the other dua of Ibrahim (AS). So actually Hajj is an answer to one of the duas of Ibrahim (AS) and Ramadan is the answer and a celebration to the answer of the other dua of Ibrahim (AS).

Modern Doubts About Ibrahim's Tests

Now having said that it's very interesting. I've you know ever since TikTok blew up I've been watching a lot of TikTok and it's you know you could think it's a waste of time but actually TikTok is also very educational. Some of the leading intellectuals and scientists and thinkers and professors and scholars are actually posting some really interesting research and findings on TikTok also so it's created a platform for unique kinds of conversation and one of the kinds of conversations that happen on TikTok is why people start doubting their religion.

There's a lot of conversations like that about Jews who left Judaism and Christians who left Christianity and of course Muslims who were doubting Islam, but I became very curious about Christians and Jews who start having doubts about their faith especially American Christians and European Christians etc.

And one of the most common questions they have - they can't get their head around Ibrahim. They have a problem with Ibrahim. They say what kind of God makes you kill your own child? I mean how sick, why would you want - you've called this God loving and caring and merciful and he wants you to slaughter your own child as a show of what - loyalty to him? And they're disgusted by this idea and they use this idea to say I don't want to believe in a God like that, I don't want to believe in a God that wants you to kill your own child.

The Quranic Account of the Sacrifice

Right now of course Muslims we believe in that story too:

"I see in my dream that I'm slaughtering you"

And the son says:

"O my father, do what you're commanded"

I'm going to share a couple of quick things with you about this story and I'll make it even more disturbing for you before we solve the problem, okay?

Ibrahim's Childhood Trauma

So the Quran's version is actually even more problematic if you want to look at it from the Christian mind or the skeptic mind. Ibrahim in his childhood - when a child is young their protection, their ultimate protection comes from the father. "Baba where's Baba?" You want to just run to your dad and your dad will protect you no matter what, right? If you're scared your mom and your dad but even more because the dad is the protector of the entire family.

So your dad - Ibrahim as a child is being kicked out of his home, is he not, by his own father? So the one as a child, the source of your protection, is now abandoning you. He's denying you the basic right of being protected as a child. That's pretty bad. So he's suffering from the trauma of abandonment as a child.

And then on top of that, make it worse: when he destroyed all of their idols and there was a decision, a communal decision that we're going to burn him alive, guess who's also part of the decision-making process? Who says yes he deserves to be burned alive? His own father. His own father. And this is when Allah says it became clear to Ibrahim also that he is also an enemy of Allah.

Allah does not call every disbeliever an enemy of Allah, but when someone goes beyond just disbelieving and tries to do harm then they become an enemy of Allah. Here you are killing, attempting to kill a prophet - this is now you're an enemy of Allah. Now your own father didn't just abandon you, he also tried to kill you.

The Psychological Impact and Test Pattern

Now what happens in children's lives if that was done to them by their father? Two things happen: one, that young man grows up and he says I will never be like my father, I will never abandon my child and I will never hurt my child, I will make sure I am nothing like my dad. Or they become exactly like their dad. One of two things happen: either they repeat the mistakes of the father or they live their life trying to be the opposite of their father.

You can imagine Ibrahim (AS) must have in his heart the opposite intention, meaning I will never do to my child what my father did to me as a child. And what did Allah test him with? First he tells him to leave

his child, tell him to leave his child in the desert. He's telling him to abandon his child - something he experienced when he was a child. And no doubt he must have promised himself I will never abandon my child and Allah says but what if I tell you to do it?

That's bad enough but the second one's worse. His father tried to kill him, throw him in a fire, and Allah says - Allah shows him in a dream multiple times - what should you do with your own child? Kill your child. And now he's being tested with that.

The question that arises: why is Ibrahim (AS) being given such a painful test? Like we know these tests but maybe sometimes we don't connect these tests to his own childhood. His own childhood had the opposite - he was the receiving end of these tests and now he has to repeat them and Allah is telling him to repeat them. This is a terribly, terribly difficult test.

The Difference in Ibrahim's Responses

So a couple of things that I want to help you understand and I'll add one more curious question to this problem. The nation - the angels came to the house of Ibrahim (AS) when he was very old and they told him after some conversation that they are here to kill everybody in the nation of Loot except a few, and Ibrahim (AS) questioned their decision: why are you killing them? And there's a back and forth like this.

This is the same Ibrahim (AS) Allah says about him: when Allah said to him surrender, every time Allah says to him surrender he surrenders. But when the angels came and said we're going to kill everybody in the nation of Loot, he didn't surrender. And the question arises: you are arguing Ibrahim (AS), you're arguing to save the lives of the nation of Loot, but you didn't argue a few years later when Allah told you to kill your own child. What is this? How come sometimes you surrender, sometimes you don't surrender?

Understanding the Different Types of Divine Commands

We need to understand: in the case of the nation of Loot, in that case it was clear that they are criminals and as a result of their crime Allah decided this punishment. And it is in the nature of every prophet that even though the qawm is worthy of punishment, they beg for them to be forgiven anyway. They somehow try to make some negotiation on behalf of their people even though they know they're bad, even though they know - and these are not even his people but he's still trying to - is there any way I could negotiate something? That's part of the rahma Allah put inside the hearts of prophets.

But there's a cause and effect, there's a reason they're sinful, they've deserved it, and he's questioning whether that can be delayed or minimized or some kind of conversation can happen. On the other hand, when he sees the dream that his son is to be slaughtered, his son is not a sinner, his son is not a rebel against Allah. This is a command from Allah and Allah didn't say "and here is why he deserves to be slaughtered." There's no reasoning.

Some commandments of Allah, Allah gives reason. Some commandments of Allah, Allah gives no reason. There's no room to negotiate, there's no room to ask questions, and he understands that. He gets it right away. But that still doesn't answer the question: why give Ibrahim such unthinkable kinds of tests?

The Unique Nature of Ibrahim's Tests

Actually this is where we depart and it's similar but it's actually so profoundly different from the Christian tradition. In the Christian tradition Jesus gets tortured and killed so that the followers of Jesus their sins are paid for, right? So the blood of Jesus paid for his followers' sins, that's the idea, right?

It's not quite that idea but it's actually quite a profound transformation of that idea. Ibrahim (AS) was given tests in his life that no other prophet was ever given. No prophet was told to kill their child. No prophet was told to himself jump into a fire willingly, allow himself to be thrown into a fire. If that would come for any other prophet there would be hijra before them. Before they're ready to come and take you and throw you into a fire, Allah will tell that prophet: migrate, get away - like Musa (AS), they were ready to kill him, Allah said get out before that. Not with Ibrahim (AS). I'm gonna let you be thrown into the fire, I'm gonna let you be thrown.

No prophet is told leave your family, and the only time a prophet is told to leave their family is where? When they're among the kuffar like the wife of Nuh - this is unique to Ibrahim (AS). No other prophet to make a point breaks idols. Even if there was false religion in the nation of Salih or the nation of Shuaib, other nations, they didn't go break the temple's idols to make a point. Nobody did dawah like this.

No other prophet in the Quran made dawah by pointing at the sun and the moon and saying things like "this must be god, this is bigger, oh this one must be god, this is bigger" just to demonstrate how silly that religion was. No prophet did this before him. The way he makes his case, the way that he is tested, the way that Allah put him through his seerah is like no other prophet - not before him, not after him. He's in a unique position. And no other prophet by himself was called an ummah.

The Special Instructions for Ibrahim

Now what did Allah teach us about that unique way in which Ibrahim (AS) was tested? Even if you look at the language, those of you that are familiar with the Arabic, when Allah says:

Allah could have said "kalimat" right, but Allah says "kalimatin" as if to say Ibrahim was tested like nobody else was tested. When Allah especially uniquely tested Ibrahim with certain instructions, and even the word "kalimatin" is not "al-kalimat" - there's some special instructions that are just for Ibrahim (AS).

The Purpose: An Example for the Final Ummah

But what is the point of that? The point of that in the Quran seems to be that he will become an example for the children of Ismail that will have the final prophet Muhammad Rasulullah (SAW). Why? Because they will look at his legacy and they will learn that if Allah can make those tests easy for Ibrahim, what is he asking us by comparison? Is he asking us to kill our children? Is he asking us to leave our family in the middle of a desert? Is he asking us to jump in a fire? He didn't ask any of those things.

The Ease in Hajj and Ramadan

I started this khutbah by saying there are two institutions that are tied to Ibrahim (AS): the Hajj and Ramadan. Look at the language of Hajj. When Allah talks about Hajj - oh by the way, if you can't make it, if you can't do this, if you can't do that - multiple times even though Hajj is tough, Allah puts lots and lots of conditions inside Hajj to make it easier and easier and easier over and over again. This is supposed to be the thing that's difficult and if you study the language of Hajj, multiple times there is ease and ease and ease and ease.

And then when it comes to Ramadan what does Allah say?

"Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship"

The Ultimate Lesson: No Hardship in Religion

And the ultimate example of this to me comes at the end of Surat al-Hajj where Allah says:

He put those two things together - "He didn't put any difficulty in the religion for you, you are the continuity of the religion of your father Ibrahim."

Learn from Ibrahim and basically what that means is you ain't got no excuse because he was actually tested. By comparison you've been given something that isn't tough at all. And every time you think your religion is hard, remind yourself of Ibrahim and you will remember how easy your deen has been made for you, how profoundly easy it has been made for you. And if Allah can make those impossible tasks easy for Ibrahim, then Allah will make any difficulty for you easy. Allah will put ease for you.

Conclusion: The Mercy in Ibrahim's Tests

So actually it is true he was tested like nobody else, but that was for the benefit of the rest of humanity. That was actually a rahma that Allah had given to Ibrahim (AS) and through him to all of us.

May Allah make us committed to the religion of our father Ibrahim (AS) and have us fulfill the sunnah of his profound messenger Muhammad (SAW).