LIFE AND MISSION OF PROPHET IBRAHIM
Which Muslim, Christian or Jew does not know the name of Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him)! Two-thirds of mankind revere him as their leader. The Prophets Musa, Isa and Muhammad, peace be on them, are all his descendants. It is the lamp of guidance lit by him that has for long illuminated the whole world.
Prophet Ibrahim was born in what is now Iraq, over four thousanwd years ago. At that time the people had forgotten the One God. No one recognized Him as the Master, no one lived in surrender and obedience to Him. The people among whom Ibrahim was born, while the most advanced in the world in art and science, industry and agriculture, were also the most steeped in ignorance and error. One simple thing they, despite their technological advance, could not understand, any thing which has itself been created cannot be worthy of worship. Idolatry was the norm superstitions like astronomy, idol worship, divination, witchcrafts and use of talisman and amulets were widespread.
A priest class controlled the temples, supervised worship rites and rituals, conducted marriage and funeral ceremonies, and claimed to be oracles, able to disclose the unknown, foretell the future and determine Divine wishes. And the people, in general, believed that they indeed had such powers, that they had access to their deities, that they could intercede with them on their behalf or invoke their wrath to fall upon them. For them the priests were the Lords of their fate.
The kings were is collusion with the priests, the two sides working together to keep the people under their servitude. They gave full backing to the priests, and the priests made the people believe that the king of the day, as well as being the owner of his country and complete master of his subjects, was also a God among other gods. His word was the supreme law; his power over their lives and properties was absolute. Indeed, worship rites were performed for and before the king so that the belief in his godhood came to be entrenched in the minds of his subjects.
In times like this, the Prophet Ibrahim was born into a family of privileged priests, His forefathers were high priests and it was quite natural that he should follow in their footsteps. He received the same education and training; the same gifts and offerings were awaiting him. Many adherents were eagerly waiting for the moment when they could bow their head before him with folded hands. The ancestral seat of priestly power could be his for the taking. In this dismal darkness, where not a single soul existed who knew or believed in the Truth, it would not ordinarily have been possible for a man like Ibrahim to find its light, nor break away from the life of comfort and power mapped out for him by his family.
But Prophet Ibrahim was no ordinary man, he was made of different stuff. On reaching maturity he began to reflect thus: how can the sun, moon or stars, which are rotating as if by order like slaves, and these stone idols, which are made by man himself, and these kings, who are human beings like ourselves, be gods? What is there in these powerless objects, which cannot move of their own volition, which have no power to help themselves and have no control over their own lives and deaths, that man should worship them, seek fulfillment of his wants from them. Fear their power and submit in obedience to them? Among all the objects on earth and in the heavens, there is not a single one which itself is not subject to some higher power and which does not fade away into oblivion at some time or other.
When none of them is my creator, when neither my life nor death is in the hands of any of them, when none of them possesses the key to my means of sustenance or the fulfillment of my needs, why should I accept them as Lords, surrender to them, and obey them? Only that Being can be my Lord who created all things, on whom depends everything and in whose hands are the lives and deaths of all people.
These thoughts led Prophet Ibrahim to the decision that he would never worship the deities which his people worshipped, and he openly declared before them.
“Verily, I have turned my face towards Him Who has created the heavens and the earths Hanifa (worshipping none but Allah Alone), and I am not of Al-Mushrikun” (Surah Al-Anaa’m:6,79)
No sooner had he made this declaration than tribulations and calamities of the greatest magnitude descended on him. His father threatened him with expulsion from the family would give him refuge. And the government officials insisted on his case being brought before the king. But Ibrahim, lonely and forsaken by his relatives and friends, stood firm as a rock in the cause of truth. He told his father respectfully: “O my father! Verily, there has come to me of the Knowledge that which came not unto you. So follow me, I will guide you to the straight path. (Surah Maryam; 19:43)
In answer to threats of his community he broke their idols with his own hands to prove how powerless they were. In the court of the king, he boldly declared; you are not my Lord. My Lord is He in Whose hands are your life and death as well as mine, and within the bounds of Whose law even the movements of the sun are circumscribed. The royal court decided that Ibrahim should be burnt alive and he willingly came forward to suffer this horrible punishment for the sake of his inshakeable faith in One God. After Allah with His supreme power saved him from this fate, he abandoned his home, his relations, his community and his country. He set out with his wife, Sarah, and nephew, Lut, to wander from one land to another.
To this man the undisputed religious leadership of his people had been available. Yet he gave up wealth and power and preferred the life of a homeless and destitute wanderer rather than have to mislead people into the continuing worship of false gods. He chose to live for the purpose of summoning people to their true God, even though he would be driven from place to place.
After leaving his home, the Prophet Ibrahim wandered in Egypt, Palestine and Arabia. God alone, knows what sufferings he went through on his journeyings. He had no money or possessions nor did he have time to earn his livelihood. His sole vocation, day and night, was to bring people to the worship of One God. If a man of such ideas could not be tolerated by his own father and his own community, how was he going to be any more successful elsewhere? Where would he be welcomed? Every where the same temple priests and kings claiming godhood held sway; every where the same confused and ignorant common men lived.