Tafheem ul Quran

Surah 21 Al-Anbya, Ayat 51-70

وَلَـقَدۡ اٰتَيۡنَاۤ اِبۡرٰهِيۡمَ رُشۡدَهٗ مِنۡ قَبۡلُ وَ كُنَّا بِهٖ عٰلِمِيۡنَ​ۚ‏  ﴿21:51﴾ اِذۡ قَالَ لِاَبِيۡهِ وَقَوۡمِهٖ مَا هٰذِهِ التَّمَاثِيۡلُ الَّتِىۡۤ اَنۡتُمۡ لَهَا عٰكِفُوۡنَ‏ ﴿21:52﴾ قَالُوۡا وَجَدۡنَاۤ اٰبَآءَنَا لَهَا عٰبِدِيۡنَ‏ ﴿21:53﴾ قَالَ لَـقَدۡ كُنۡتُمۡ اَنۡتُمۡ وَاٰبَآؤُكُمۡ فِىۡ ضَلٰلٍ مُّبِيۡنٍ‏ ﴿21:54﴾ قَالُوۡۤا اَجِئۡتَـنَا بِالۡحَـقِّ اَمۡ اَنۡتَ مِنَ اللّٰعِبِيۡنَ‏ ﴿21:55﴾ قَالَ بَلْ رَّبُّكُمۡ رَبُّ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَالۡاَرۡضِ الَّذِىۡ فَطَرَهُنَّ ​ۖ  وَاَنَا عَلٰى ذٰلِكُمۡ مِّنَ الشّٰهِدِيۡنَ‏ ﴿21:56﴾ وَ تَاللّٰهِ لَاَكِيۡدَنَّ اَصۡنَامَكُمۡ بَعۡدَ اَنۡ تُوَلُّوۡا مُدۡبِرِيۡنَ‏  ﴿21:57﴾ فَجَعَلَهُمۡ جُذٰذًا اِلَّا كَبِيۡرًا لَّهُمۡ لَعَلَّهُمۡ اِلَيۡهِ يَرۡجِعُوۡنَ‏  ﴿21:58﴾ قَالُوۡا مَنۡ فَعَلَ هٰذَا بِاٰلِهَتِنَاۤ اِنَّهٗ لَمِنَ الظّٰلِمِيۡنَ‏ ﴿21:59﴾ قَالُوۡا سَمِعۡنَا فَتًى يَّذۡكُرُهُمۡ يُقَالُ لَهٗۤ اِبۡرٰهِيۡمُ ؕ‏ ﴿21:60﴾ قَالُوۡا فَاۡتُوۡا بِهٖ عَلٰٓى اَعۡيُنِ النَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمۡ يَشۡهَدُوۡنَ‏  ﴿21:61﴾ قَالُوۡٓا ءَاَنۡتَ فَعَلۡتَ هٰذَا بِاٰلِهَتِنَا يٰۤاِبۡرٰهِيۡمُؕ‏ ﴿21:62﴾ قَالَ بَلۡ فَعَلَهٗ ​​ۖ  كَبِيۡرُهُمۡ هٰذَا فَسۡـئَلُوۡهُمۡ اِنۡ كَانُوۡا يَنۡطِقُوۡنَ‏ ﴿21:63﴾ فَرَجَعُوۡۤا اِلٰٓى اَنۡـفُسِهِمۡ فَقَالُوۡۤا اِنَّكُمۡ اَنۡـتُمُ الظّٰلِمُوۡنَۙ‏  ﴿21:64﴾ ثُمَّ نُكِسُوۡا عَلٰى رُءُوۡسِہِمۡ​ۚ لَـقَدۡ عَلِمۡتَ مَا هٰٓؤُلَاۤءِ يَنۡطِقُوۡنَ‏  ﴿21:65﴾ قَالَ اَفَتَعۡبُدُوۡنَ مِنۡ دُوۡنِ اللّٰهِ مَا لَا يَنۡفَعُكُمۡ شَيۡـئًـا وَّلَا يَضُرُّكُمۡؕ‏ ﴿21:66﴾ اُفٍّ لَّـكُمۡ وَلِمَا تَعۡبُدُوۡنَ مِنۡ دُوۡنِ اللّٰهِ​ؕ اَفَلَا تَعۡقِلُوۡنَ‏  ﴿21:67﴾ قَالُوۡا حَرِّقُوۡهُ وَانْصُرُوۡۤا اٰلِهَتَكُمۡ اِنۡ كُنۡتُمۡ فٰعِلِيۡنَ‏  ﴿21:68﴾ قُلۡنَا يٰنَارُ كُوۡنِىۡ بَرۡدًا وَّسَلٰمًا عَلٰٓى اِبۡرٰهِيۡمَۙ‏ ﴿21:69﴾ وَاَرَادُوۡا بِهٖ كَيۡدًا فَجَعَلۡنٰهُمُ الۡاَخۡسَرِيۡنَ​ۚ‏ ﴿21:70﴾

(21:51) Surely We had bestowed wisdom upon Abraham even earlier, and We knew him well.53 (21:52) Recall,54 when he said to his father and his people: "What are these images to which you are devoutly clinging?" (21:53) They answered: "We found our fathers worshipping them." (21:54) He said: "Certainly you and your fathers have all been in manifest error." (21:55) They said: "Are you expressing your true ideas before us or are you jesting?"55 (21:56) He said: "Nay, but your Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth which He created and to that I bear witness before you. (21:57) By Allah, I shall certainly carry out my plan against your gods after you are gone."56 (21:58) Then he broke them all into pieces,57 sparing only the supreme one among them that they may possibly return to him.58 (21:59) (When they saw the idols in this state) they said: "Who has done this to our gods? Surely he is one of the wrong-doers." (21:60) Some of them said: "We heard a youth called Abraham speak (ill) of them." (21:61) The others said: "Bring him, then, before the eyes of the people that they may see (what will be done to him)."59 (21:62) (On Abraham's arrival) they said: "Abraham, are you he who has done this to our gods?" (21:63) He answered: "Rather it was this supreme one who has done it. So ask them, if they can speak."60 (21:64) Thereupon they turned to their (inner) selves and said (to themselves): "Surely it is you who are the wrong-doers." (21:65) Then their minds were turned upside down,61 and they said: "You know well that they do not speak." (21:66) Abraham said: "Do you, then, worship beside Allah a thing that can neither benefit you nor hurt you? (21:67) Fie upon you and upon all that you worship beside Allah. Do you have no sense?" (21:68) They said: "Burn him, and come to the support of your gods, if you are going to do anything." (21:69) We said: "O fire, become coolness and safety for Abraham."62 (21:70) They had sought to do evil to him, but We caused them to be the worst losers,

Notes

53. The Arabic word rushd is very comprehensive and means righteousness as well.

We had blessed Abraham with discretion: The discretion he showed in discriminating between the right and the wrong etc. was not of his own acquirement but had been bestowed on him by Us.

We knew him well: We knew that he was worthy of Prophethood, therefore We appointed him as such. According to (Surah Al-Anaam, Ayat 124): Allah knows best whom to entrust with His Mission. It contains a subtle answer to the objection raised by the chiefs of the Quraish: Why has Allah appointed this man, the Prophet (peace be upon him) to the office of Prophethood, when he is in no way superior to us. This objection has been answered, as if to say: The same objection might even have been raised against Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) by his people, but We knew his capabilities. Therefore We selected him for Prophethood.

In this connection, please also see (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayats 124-141, 258-260): (Surah Al-Anaam, Ayats 74-84): (Surah At- Tauba, Ayat 114): (Surah Houd, Ayats 69-76): (Surah Ibrahim, Ayats 35-41): (Surah Al-Hijr, Ayats 51-58 )and (Surah An-Nahal, Ayats 120-122) and the E.Ns thereof.

54. Before proceeding further, it should be kept in mind that the incident from the history of Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) has been cited here to refute the erroneous creeds of the Quraish. This was meant to hit them hard for they were the descendants of Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) and were proud of their relationship with him. It was he who had built the Kabah which had become the center of the entire Arabia and they, being its keepers, were its most important clan. Therefore, they could not remain indifferent to this answer.

55. The literal translation will be: Are you presenting the truth before us, or just playing with us? They were so sure of the truth of their creed that they could never imagine that anyone could be serious in declaring it to be false.

56. That is, if you do not understand this by argument, I will present a practical proof that these idols are helpless and have no powers. Therefore, it is wrong to make them your deities.

57. This was that practical proof. In the absence of the priests and attendants, Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) entered their central Temple and broke all the idols to pieces.

58. The pronoun in the original text may be translated into it or him. In the former case, it will refer to the chief idol and in the latter to Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him). In the first case, it will imply a subtle sarcasm in order to make them realize that their creed of idol worship was foolish, for obviously the chief idol could not break the minor idols. In the second case, it will refer to Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him), who thought that they might turn to him about the incident and he might get an opportunity to have a frank talk with them about their absurd creed.

59. This was exactly what Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) expected to happen. He wished that the matter should not remain confined to the priests and the attendants but the common people also should be present there to witness that their deities were helpless and their priests were deluding them about their powers. The priests committed the same folly as was later committed by Pharaoh when he arranged an encounter between Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) and the magicians in the open in front of the multitudes of the common people, and the former got an opportunity to show publicly the miracle of the staff which shattered the illusory, magical tricks of the magicians.

60. The very sentence, “So ask them, if they can speak”, is a clear proof that it was not a lie when Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) said: “But this has done it, biggest of them, this one”. What he intended by this was to make them realize and confess that their idols were helpless because they could do nothing to protect themselves and could not even speak. It is clear that when a person poses an unreal question for the sake of argument in order to bring home the fact that the position taken by the other party is untenable, it cannot be considered as a lie; firstly, because the speaker himself never intended it to be a lie, and secondly, because the addressees also knew that it was not a lie.

The foregoing remarks have been necessitated because of a tradition that Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) told three lies in his life, of which one is the above mentioned event. The second lie is contained in SUrah As-Saffaat, Ayat 89: I am indisposed, and the third lie is not contained in the Quran but in the Bible that he declared his wife to be his sister. (Gen. 12:12,13, 18;19). It is a pity that this tradition has given rise to two divergent opinions. The orthodox traditionalists actually believe that Prophet Abraham told these lies just because an authentic tradition says so. They do not consider that it is far better to discard the tradition according to which a Prophet is accused of being a liar. On the other hand, those who are against the traditions, discard all of them just because this solitary tradition, which has been reported as authentic by Bukhari and Muslim, is unreliable on the very face of it. Obviously it needs no elaborate arguments to prove that all the traditions cannot be discarded just because one or a few of them are unreliable. As regards the upholders of the first opinion, they have gone to the other extreme and think that a tradition can be discarded in spite of the authenticity of its reporters for cogent reasons. They do this without reference to the contents of the tradition itself. But if the text of the tradition itself clearly shows that such a thing could not have been said by the Prophet (peace be upon him), there is no reason to insist that it should be accepted as authentic merely because its reporters are authentic.

This, tradition is unreliable for other reasons also. As has already been shown, the first lie is no lie at all. As regards the second lie, “I am indisposed”; it cannot be considered as a lie unless it is proved beyond doubt that Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) was perfectly healthy at that time, and the text does not testify this. As regards the third lie, the event stated in the Bible in chapter 12 of Genesis is absurd on the face of it. When Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) went to Egypt with his wife Sarah, he was, according to the Bible itself, 75 years old and his wife was 65. Therefore the very age of Sarah is a clear proof that she could not be a fair woman to look upon to force Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) to pose that she was his sister in order to save his life. The tradition under discussion, which accuses Prophet Abraham to be guilty of telling a lie, has accordingly no basis at all and cannot be taken as reliable in spite of its authentic reporters.

61. Literally the original text means: They were turned down upon their heads. Some commentators have interpreted it to mean: They hung down their heads with shame. But this does not fit in the context and the wording of the text. The right interpretation would be: When they considered the answer of Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him), they realized that they themselves were in the wrong, because they had set up helpless idols as deities, which could not even speak a word as to who had broken them. But soon after this, they were overpowered by obduracy and ignorance which perverted their minds and they again relapsed into crookedness.

62. Though this is one of those miracles which have been clearly stated in the Quran, there are people who try to prove that there was no such miracle at all. According to this passage (Ayats 68-70), Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) was actually threatened to be burnt alive and he was accordingly thrown into the burning fire, but Allah ordered the fire to become cool and harmless for him. In the face of the clear words of the Quran, these people deny this miracle because according to them it is impossible even for Allah to go beyond the routine of the physical laws. They say that miracles cannot appeal to the rationalists of the modern age, and therefore these should be interpreted in accordance with physical laws. They forget that according to the Quran, Allah is able to do everything, and He does extraordinary and unusual things which cannot be explained by science. Therefore they should accept the Quran as it is or discard it, but they should not twist it to suit their so called rationalism.