The Way of Truth, Lesson 7

Allah's Grace to Prophet Ibrahim

In the last lesson we looked at Allah's grace to various people at various times. We saw that when men could not keep Allah's law, Allah in his love and mercy made special grace arrangements for them so that they could survive. In this study we shall be looking at Allah's special grace arrangement for one man--Ibrahim, the friend of Allah. We shall also see how the grace of Ibrahim extends down even to us.

Allah promises to bless Prophet Ibrahim and through him to bless all nations

We see in the Taurat that Ibrahim (pbuh) was born and grew up in Ur of the Chaldees, or modern-day Iraq. His father then moved to Haran and stayed there until his death. After the death of his father, Terah (also known as Azhar), Allah commanded Ibrahim,

Now Allah said to Ibram [Ibrahim], “Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. In you will all of the families of the earth be blessed.“ (Taurat, Genesis 12:1-3)

This was indeed a beautiful promise. Allah promised to make Ibrahim into a great nation. At this time Ibrahim had no children so it was a very amazing promise. Allah also promised to make his name great. Yet, this blessing was not just for Ibrahim. Allah promised that through Ibrahim, through Ibrahim's family, Allah would bless all men. Ibrahim's blessing would extend down to all men. Ibrahim had faith in Allah's promise and was obedient to him. Ibrahim went where Allah wanted him to go and eventually came to the land of Canaan, which was the land Allah had promised to him.

Prophet Ibrahim believes Allah's promise

Ibrahim (pbuh) believed Allah's promise that his descendants would be a great nation. This required much faith because his wife Sarah was barren. After many years had passed and they still had no children Sarah decided it was time to do something. Sarah took her servant Hajira (Hagar) and gave her to Ibrahim to be his second wife. She soon conceived and gave birth to a baby whom they called Ismail. However, Allah appeared again to Ibrahim and repeated his previous promise to Ibrahim. He also added that the promise would be fulfilled through a son to be born to Sarah. Both Ibrahim and Sarah could hardly believe this because at that time Ibrahim was almost 100 years old and Sarah nearly 90. Sarah was not only barren but was now too old to bear children. Yet, Allah assured Ibrahim it would happen as he said and gave as a sign of their covenant the act of circumcision. Thus, Ibrahim at 99 years of age was circumcised and had all the males of his family circumcised. From that time on the family of Ibrahim has always practiced circumcision as the sign of this covenant.

Allah fulfills the first part of his promise

Allah's promise soon came true and Sarah conceived and bore a child. It was a baby boy whom they named Ishaq. It was through this son that Allah's promise to Ibrahim was to come true. Allah also blessed Ismail and promised to make a great nation out of him and his descendants. As it is written in the Taurat,

God said, “No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Ishaq. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him. As for Ismail, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him greatly. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I establish with Ishaq, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time in the next year.“ When he finished talking with him, God went up from Ibrahim.

(Taurat, Genesis 17:19-22)

However, Allah's promise to bless Ibrahim and to bless all nations through him was to be fulfilled through Prophet Ishaq (pbuh). We can now look back after almost 4000 years have passed and see how Allah's promise has come true. Prophet Ishaq became the father of Prophet Yaqub who in turn became the father of 12 sons, among them Prophet Yusuf (pbuh). Each of these 12 sons became the head of a tribe. By the time of the prophet Musa we see that these 12 tribes had increased into a huge nation. In the remainder of the Taurat, in the Zabur and in the Injil we see how this large nation continued to grow and to spread out and settle in all parts of the world.

Allah fulfills the second part of his promise

We thus see that the first part of Allah's promise to Ibrahim has already been fulfilled. However, what about the second part of the blessing? God also said that through Ibrahim's seed all the nations on earth would be blessed. How are we to understand this? As an aid to our understanding let us go back to a previous promise Allah made that we saw in lesson 3. As you remember, when Adam and Hawa sinned Allah's curse fell on them. Yet, Allah did not leave them in despair. He promised that through one of Hawa's descendants Satan and the effects of Satan's work would be destroyed. We see that the promise to Ibrahim is really just a continuation of Allah's earlier promise to Hawa. Allah had simply narrowed down to choices at the time of Ibrahim from any one of Hawa's descendants to only one of the descendants of Ishaq. Thus, at the time of Ibrahim Allah promised to destroy Satan and his works and to bless the people of all nations through one of the descendants of Ishaq.

What a wonderful promise Allah gave Ibrahim. In the last lesson all the grace arrangements we saw were limited in time and extent. However, Allah's blessing and promise of grace to Ibrahim was for all men. It was for you and me. Thus, we see it is very important that we understand how we can obtain the blessing of Ibrahim. We shall examine in future lessons who it was in the line of Ibrahim and Ishaq who fulfilled this promise. We shall conclude this lesson by looking at how we can become partakers in the blessing of Ibrahim.

Let us see what the Taurat has to say about this. It is written,

He [Ibrahim] believed Allah, and it was credited to him as righteousness. (Taurat, Genesis 15:6)

This agrees perfectly with what is written in the Injil,

What then will we say that Ibrahim, our forefather, has found according to the flesh? For if Ibrahim was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward Allah. For what does Al-Kitab say? Ibrahim “believed Allah, and it was credited to him as righteousness.“ Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. 

For the promise to Ibrahim and to his seed that he would be heir of the world did not come through shariah, but through the righteousness that comes from faith. For if those who are of shariah are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. For shariah brings punishment, but where there is no shariah, neither is there violation. For this reason, God’s promise comes through faith, that it may be by God’s grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are under the Taurat, but to those who have faith like Ibrahim, the father of us all. As it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations.“ This is in the sight of Allah in whom he believed. Allah is he who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. Against all hope, Ibrahim believed in the hope that he might become a father of many nations, just as had been spoken, “So will your seed be.“ Without weakening in his faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, he being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. Yet, looking to the promise of Allah, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to Allah, and being fully assured that what Allah had promised, he was able also to perform. Therefore it also was “credited to Ibrahim as righteousness.“ Now it was not written that it was credited to Ibrahim for his sake alone, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, if we believe in him who raised ‘Isa, our Lord, from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins, and was raised so that we could be made righteous. (Injil, Romans 4:1-5, 13-25)

It is clear from these passages that Prophet Ibrahim was justified before Allah and received Allah's grace in exactly the same way as did all those in the previous lesson. Allah promised to bless Ibrahim and that Ibrahim would receive Allah's grace to an unusual degree. Prophet Ibrahim's response was identical to what we have seen for Prophet Nuh, Lut, and those in Musa and Yunus' day. Prophet Ibrahim had faith in Allah and his promise. He did not doubt or reject Allah's promise or blessings and grace. By faith he accepted. Thus, because of his faith and willingness to accept Allah's blessing and grace, Prophet Ibrahim was considered righteous in Allah's eyes and was given the name Khalilullah-- "Friend of Allah".