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The
Struggles of Prophet Ibrahim
A Story by Jamil Momand
One of the greatest prophets of all time was
Ibrahim. Ibrahim went through
many struggles in his long life to convince the people of world that they should
worship Allah. When Ibrahim was a young man he realized that there was
only one God despite what the people of his village said. His father and
all the rest of the village worshipped many gods that were made from stone and
wood. When they noticed that Ibrahim refused to pray to these idols they
said, "Ibrahim, you must worship these gods because these are the gods our
ancestors worshipped." To Prophet Ibrahim this was not logical.
To accept these pieces of wood and stone as gods just because other people
thought they were gods did not make sense. "These people need to wake
up," Ibrahim said to himself. So Ibrahim came up with a plan to show
how silly these people were.
One night
he got a big club and crept to the place where all the idols were stored.
He lifted the club and smashed a stone idol. Ibrahim did not stop until he
destroyed every idol except for one--the biggest one. Ibrahim carefully
placed his club beside the gigantic god and made off for home.
The next
day Ibrahim was awakened by a man running through the streets. "The
gods have been murdered, the gods have been murdered," cried the barefooted
man racing past Ibrahim's window. Ibrahim looked outside and smiled.
He was not afraid. He knew that people would come for him so he decided to
go the scene of the crime. When he arrived he saw all the important people
of the village there. Some were crying and weeping while others were
filled with anger and rage. "Who would do something like this,"
asked the mob shaking their clenched fists. All faces turned toward young
Ibrahim. Everyone knew that only Ibrahim was bold enough to do such a
daring act. Ibrahim had thought this would happen and had a reply ready.
Ibrahim said, "Well it looks to me that only one of your gods is still
alive and the weapon is sitting right by him. Why don't you ask him who
did it?" That only infuriated the people more. They grew from
angry to mad. Everyone standing there that morning knew that the largest
god could never do this. They knew that the largest god could not even
speak. But they never stopped to ask themselves why they prayed to a god
that was so helpless.
The people
decided to make Ibrahim pay for his heinous crime. They bound him hand and
foot with rope that was thick and coarse. Then they tied him to a large
wooden stake that was stuck in the ground. Ibrahim prayed to Allah to help
him as the people piled the wood under Ibrahim's feet. Finally, after all
the wood was in placed, one of the elders lit the fire. Ibrahim kept his
eyes closed and constantly prayed to Allah as the wood smoked and began to catch
fire. Soon no one could see Ibrahim behind the leaping flames
They stretched their necks to hear the suffering of the prophet but they heard
nothing. After the fire subsided and only a few smoldering embers were
left the people looked but could not believe what they were seeing.
Ibrahim was moving and still breathing! Allah had saved Ibrahim from being
burned. The village people realized that the God of Ibrahim was the right
one to follow yet they could not accept this. Instead, they banished
Prophet Ibrahim from their village and continued to practice their idol worship.
When
Ibrahim became older he settled in the fertile land of Canaan. He had a
wife whose name was Sarah and they lived there for many years. Because
Sarah had become very old they thought they could never have any children so she
told Ibrahim that he should take a second wife in order that he may one day have
children. Sarah offered him Hagar, her handmaid, to be his second wife.
Hagar wanted a child very much and often prayed to Allah to have a child.
Allah answered her prayer and Hagar gave birth to a boy who Ibrahim named Ismael--which
means "Allah shall hear."
One day
Allah revealed to Ibrahim that Sarah was also going to have a child. Sarah
was ninety years old and thought she could never have any children. But
Allah's word is always true and sure enough Sarah had a boy who they named
Isaac. One day Hagar and Ismael travelled south with a caravan. When
the caravan came to the valley of Becca Hagar decided to stay there. This
was a barren valley where the sun became fiercely hot in the daytime.
Hagar became very thirsty and began to search for help. She left Ismael to
play near a rock and climbed a hill to look over the valley for someone to help
her. She saw no one. Then she climbed another hill to look for
someone to help her. Again she saw no one. She ran back and forth
between these two hills seven times and finally gave up. She thought there
was no hope and that gradually she and her son would die in that barren place.
When she returned to Ismael she saw water pouring out of the rock that was next
to him. Again Allah answered her prayers.
Today the
valley of Becca is the city of of Mecca. The two hills that Hagar ran
between searching for help are called Safa and Marwa. The place where the
water came out of the rock near Ismael is now called the well of Zamzam.
Later Ibrahim came to visit Hagar and Ismael. By Allah's command Ibrahim
and Ismael built a house that was to be used for those who wanted to worship
Allah. The house was built in the shape of a cube and given the name of
Ka'ba. Each of the corners of the Ka'ba faces one part of the
compass-north, south, east and west. When the house was completed Allah
told Ibrahim to instruct the people to perform the Hajj every year to pay
tribute to Allah, the One True God.
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