Abraham’s Trial~conclusion

Early one morning Abraham took some food and a full water skin and gave them to Hagar. He set the child on her shoulder and sent her away and she wandered about in the wilderness. When the water in the skin was finished she placed the child under a bush and ran to a high vantage point. Ishmael cried out from where he had been laid and Hagar ran to another high point but found no sign of help. She passed seven times in all between the two points until coming to a stop she heard an angels voice, ‘What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, God has heard the child crying where you laid him. Go; lift the child in you arms. I will make him a great nation.’ When she picked him up God opened her eyes and she saw a well full of water and filling the water-skin gave the child his drink.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am El-Shaddai. This is my covenant with you; you are to be the father of many nations. Your name shall no longer be Abram but Abraham, for I shall make you father of many nations. As for Sarai your wife, you are not to call her Sarai but Sarah. I shall bless her and she will be the mother of nations.

Messengers came to Abraham with good news. They said, ‘Peace.’

‘Peace,’ he answered, and hastened to the herd to choose a tender calf. And when he observed they had not touched it, he lost trust and was afraid. They said, ‘Have no fear, our business is with the people of Lot,’ but they asked him the whereabouts of his wife Sarah. When he replied,  ‘She is in the tent,’ one of them said, ‘About this time next year I shall come back to you, and your wife Sarah will have a son.’

Sarah was listening at the tent opening and she laughed to herself saying, ‘How can I bear a child when I am old and my husband is well advanced in years? This is a strange thing indeed.’

They replied, ‘Do you marvel at the ways of God?  May God’s mercy and blessings be upon you, kind hosts.  Most worthy of praise is He and glorious.’

So when God had called to Abraham, he had replied, ‘Here I am,’ and God said, ‘Take the son whom you love with you out onto the land where you shall offer him as sacrifice on one of the heights I shall show you.’

Abraham had not replied. He had uttered no sound since hearing these words the previous day. Now he felt as the fatigue of his entire adult life had gathered and returned to this dark morning, pressing upon his chest. He stood and almost before he knew it had saddled his donkey and woken two of his men. He did not recall what he had said to them only moments ago. Perhaps the sound of splitting firewood he would use for the sacrifice had spoken for him. Sarah still slept but his son, always obedient had ventured through the dark and took his hand.

Abraham was fully aware of the direction he would take but had no instruction as to the distance or actual destination. They traveled an entire day at a leisurely pace, with the two men more often that not traveling behind them. So evening came and morning came and on this day death was avoided. The second day was much like the first. Occasionally Abraham would slow and allow his men to take the lead. They concluded he was finally exhibiting his age, but this was Abraham and most certainly that was not the case.  Abraham had traveled a life time and while lesser men might have worn down, he was well up to the task.

On the third day, when he looked up and still in the distance saw a shine he said to the men, ‘Remain here with the donkey, while I and the boy continue ahead where we will worship, and come back to you.’

Abraham took the wood for the event and put it on his son’s shoulder and as they continued on together he carried the fire and the knife.  The boy said, ‘We have the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the sacrifice?’  Abram answered, ‘God will provide for Himself the sacrifice, my son.’

The two of them went on together until they came to the place referred to by God.  Abraham had built the alter and while arranging the wood said, ‘My son, I dreamt I was sacrificing you.’

Neither bird nor breeze broke the silence until he continued, ‘Tell me what you think.’

He replied, ‘Father, follow your command. God willing, you shall find me obedient.’

So he bound his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And when they had both submitted to God’s will, and Abraham had laid down his son prostrate upon his face reaching out for the knife to slay his son, the angel called to him from heaven, ‘Abraham, Abraham.’

‘I am here,’ he said.

The angel said, ‘Do not lift your hand against the boy. Do not touch him. You have fulfilled your vision.’

Abraham looked around, and in a thicket spied a ram caught by its horns so offered it as a sacrifice instead of his son. Death had been denied, yet the will of God fulfilled on this day.

Thus the Lord put Abraham to the proof by enjoining on him certain commandments and Abraham fulfilled them, so He said, ‘I have appointed you a leader of mankind.’

‘And what of my descendants?’ he asked.

‘My covenant,’ said He, ‘does not apply to the evil-doers. Make the place where Abraham stood a house of worship, for those who walk around it, who mediate in it, and who kneel and prostrate themselves.’

Abraham and Ishmael built the House and dedicated it, saying, ‘Accept this from us Lord.  You are the One that hears all and knows all. Lord, make us submissive to You; make among our descendants a nation that will submit to you.  Teach us our rites of worship and turn to us with mercy.  You are forgiving and merciful. Lord, send forth to them an apostle of their own who shall declare Your revelations, and instruct them in the Book and in wisdom and purify them of sin.  You are the Mighty, the Wise One.’

‘Lord,’ Abraham said, ‘make this a secure land. Preserve me and my descendants from the worship of idols. Lord, they have led many astray.  Whoever follows me shall become a brother, but even to those who turn against me, You are yet forgiving and merciful.

‘Lord, I have sheltered some of my offspring in a barren valley near your Sacred House so that they may observe true worship.  Bestow kindness in the hearts of men towards them, and provide them with the earth’s produce, so that all may give thanks. And bestow plenty upon its people, those of whom believe in God and the Last Day.

‘Lord, You have knowledge of all that we hide and all that we reveal, nothing on earth or in heaven is hidden from God. Praise be to God who has given me Ishmael and Isaac in my old age!  All prayers are heard by Him.

‘Lord make me and my descendants steadfast in prayer. Lord accept my prayer. Forgive me, Lord, and forgive my parents and all the faithful on the Day of Reckoning.’

The first temple ever to be built for mankind was that at Bekka, a blessed site, a beacon for the nations.  In it are veritable signs and the spot were Abraham stood. Whoever enters it is safe. Pilgrimage to the House is a duty to God for all who can make the journey.  When the site of the Sacred Mosque was prepared, We said, ‘Worship none besides Me.  Keep My House clean for those who walk around it, and for those who stand or kneel in worship. Exhort all men to make the pilgrimage.  They will come to you on foot and on the backs of camels from all distant corners. Let the pilgrims spruce themselves, make their vows, and circle the House.  Such is God’s commandment.  What is of your herds are useful to you in many ways until the time of the slaughter.  Then they are offered for sacrifice at the Ancient House, and when they have fallen to the ground eat, and feed the grateful beggar and the insistent suppliant.

After they all returned, Abraham remained there with Sarah who lived to be a hundred and twenty-six years old.  He purchased a cave on land suitable for burial and buried Sarah there. Abraham married another wife Keturah and had children with her. Abraham lived to be a hundred and seventy-five years old and at his death Ishmael and Isaac buried him in the cave he had acquired with Sarah.

Who but a foolish man would ignore the faith of Abraham?  Chosen in this world and in the world to come, he shall abide among the righteous. When his Lord said to him: Submit,’ he answered, ‘I have submitted to the Lord of the Worlds.’ Well done, noble prophet, well done.