We begin with the name of God,
we praise God and ask God to raisethe rank of our Prophet
Muhammad
Brothers and Sisters, as you
know, we are in the Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah, the month in
which millions of Muslims from around the world visit the Holy
lands of Makkah and Madinah to fulfil their Hajj. And as we
stand here today, with millions of our brothers and sisters in
Islam there now preparing to begin performing the acts of Hajj
these coming day’s, InshaAllah we will revisit the story of
Prophet Ibrahim, Lady Hajar, and their son, Ismaa^eel.
Prophet Ibraheem left Haajar and
their baby son Ismaa^eel in a place which is present-day Makkah.
When he left her and was leaving, Haajar said to him, “where are
you leaving us in this area where there are no humans, nothing,
just an empty valley?” He did not respond to her and he
continued walking forward. She went after him and asked him:
“aallaahu amaraka bi haadhaa?”, which means: “did Allah order
you to do this?” He said, “yes”. She said, “then Allah will not
let us down, we will obey”. Thus Prophet Ibraheem continued to
depart and Haajar stayed with her baby son Ismaa^eel. They had a
container of water and she drank from this and continued to
nurse her child. Until eventually the water ran out and then she
and her son Ismaa^eel felt thirsty. She then went in the search
of water, she moved to one side of the valley ascending a mount
called As-Safaa.
She climbed to the top of this
and looked around to see if there were any people around who
could help them, but she could not find anyone. So she went back
down and she went to the other side of the valley and up another
mount called Marwah. She climbed to the top of this and looked
around to see if there were any people there who could help and
she could not find anyone to do so. She then went back to the
previous area and climbed once again the mount of As-Safaa and
looked again, she went backwards and forwards like this 7 times.
This is why the pilgrims amongst their actions of hajj that they
perform, they go between these two mounts, As-Safaa and Al-Marwah
7 times.
After she did this, an angel came
and hit the ground, i.e. the soil with his wing and as a result,
water started to come out from the ground. Haajar immediately
went to that place and tried to contain the water so that the
water doesn’t spread and just sink back into the ground. So, she
started then scooping water and placing it in her container and
this water as you know is still running until today; it is the
blessed water of ZamZam. Haajar stayed there for a time,
drinking from this water and giving it to her child. Then after
some time a group from a tribe called Jurhum were passing by
this area and they asked: would you permit us to use from this
water? She said, yes, but you have no right to take control of
the water. These people then settled there for a long time.
Ismaa^eel learned the Arabic
language from them and they liked him, seeing him growing up as
a young man with good attributes that a Prophet has, they then
gave one of their women to him in marriage. During this period
Prophet Ibraheem did not just desert his family, Haajar and
Ismaa^eel, just forgetting them. Rather he used to visit them on
a daily basis. He used to come from the area of Ash-shaam of
that time to the area which is now called Makkah to visit Haajar
and his son Ismaa^eel. He would do this by riding the animal
called al-Buraaq, the same animal that Prophet Muhammad rode
during his journey known as Al-Israa and Al-Mi^raaj. Prophet
Ibraheem would leave early in the morning from Ash-Shaam and go
to Makkah and stay there until late afternoon and then go back
to his other family, Saarah and Ishaaq. Prophet Ibraheem
undertook this trip from since Ismaa^eel was a baby.
When the time came that Ismaa^eel
grew up to around the age of 13 years old, Allah tested Prophet
Ibraheem. Allah willed to show how obedient Prophet Ibraheem
was, how honourable, good and righteous he was. Allah then made
Prophet Ibraheem see in his dream that he was slaughtering his
dear son Ismaa^eel. We know one way that Prophets can receive
the revelation is by way of the dream. Thus Prophet Ibraheem
knew immediately that he was obligated to fulfil this order of
Allah.
Hence, one day he said to
Ismaa^eel: O son bring some rope and a knife and let’s go to a
particular area. Ismaa^eel like an obedient son went and got
what his father said and went with him. Prophet Ibraheem did not
tell his son Ismaa^eel what he had been ordered to do. Whilst
they were going, the devil came to Prophet Ibraheem and tried to
change his mind from carrying out the order of Allah. Prophet
Ibraheem did not waste any time listening to what the devil had
to say. Hence, Prophet Ibraheem took some pebbles from the
ground and threw them at Iblees. This is why the pilgrims during
the hajj throw pebbles at the three stations to remember the act
of Prophet Ibraheem, thus saying to the devil, if you were to
appear to us like this we would throw these pebbles at you and
follow the orders of Allah. Hence, the devil does not live at
those three stations where the people throw the pebbles.
When Iblees gave up trying to
convince Prophet Ibraheem, he then turned his attention to Ismaa^eel.
Ismaa^eel was walking behind his father and so the devil said to
him, “O boy, do you know where your father is taking you?” He
said, “Yes, he is taking us to go collect some firewood for the
family”. The devil said, “no, he is taking you to slaughter you;
he claims that his God ordered him to do that”. Ismaa^eel
responded, “If God ordered him to do that then we would obey
Allah and do it”. When the devil failed to convince Ismaa^eel he
went to his mother, Haajar who was back at home. The devil asked
her, “Do you know where Ibraheem is?” She said “he took Ismaa^eel
out”. He said, “Do you know why he went there?” She said, “Yes,
to get logs, firewood for the family”. He said, “no, he took him
to slaughter him; he claims that his God ordered him to do
that”. She said, “Well then, we will obey the order of Allah, so
let him do it”. Thus the devil failed to convince Ibraheem,
Ismaa^eel, and Haajar to leave out the order of Allah.
Prophet Ibraheem then got to a
point and he told his son, O my son, Allah has ordered me to
slaughter you. As we are told in Surat AsSaffat:
{قَالَ
يَا بُنَيَّ إِنّـِى أَرَى فِى الْمَنَامِ أَنّـِي أَذْبَحُكَ
فَانظُرْ مَاذَا تَرَى قَالَ يَا أَبَتِ افْعَلْ مَا تُؤْمَرُ
سَتَجِدُنِي إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مِنْ الصَّابِرِينَ}
It means: Ismaa^eel said, if
Allah has ordered you to slaughter me, then O father do it. You
will find me amongst those who are patient in carrying out the
orders of Allah. Ismaa^eel then said, “however, O my father make
sure that you tie me well, so that when I see the knife I will
not get scared and move a lot and when the knife cuts my neck I
will not kick out a lot such that my blood would stain your
clothes”. “So O my father tie me well and do not lay me down on
my side, for like this you will see my face and it will be
harder for you, lay me down with my face down so like this you
won’t see my face and also I won’t see the knife and get scared.
Then if you want take my clothes to my mother, so that she will
be consoled with my clothes after losing me.”
Prophet Ibraheem ^alayhis salam
then said, “how good a helper you are my son for carrying out
the orders of Allah.” Prophet Ibraheem ^alayhis salam then laid
his son down and was ready to slaughter his son Ismaa^eel, then
an angel came down and said, “O Ibraheem, you have carried out
the order of Allah, now instead of your son, slaughter this ram
as a sacrifice”. It has been mentioned that this ram had been
grazing in paradise for 40 years and then it was brought down as
a sacrifice, dhabeehah. This ram was very healthy with two horns
and Ibraheem ^alayhis salam slaughtered it in Minaa where the
pilgrims usually do their slaughtering nowadays as their `ud-hiyyah.
From this story of Prophet
Ibraheem ^alayhis salam and his family we can learn many
lessons, among them being that they were very quick to fulfil
the orders of Allah. They did not say to themselves, let’s make
a committee and decide about obeying the order of Allah, what
they said is that this is an order from Allah, it is an
obligation, we have to do it, so this is how they did it. Also
they did not allow the enemy, Shaytaan to divide the family, to
go in between the members of the family enticing them against
each other, especially against the head of the family, Ibraheem
^alayhis salam.
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InshaAllah, brothers and sisters, the Day
of Arafah will be this upcoming Monday, the 15th. It is an
emphasized Sunnah to fast this day and the one who fasts this
day will have the small sins of the previous year and the
upcoming year forgiven InshaAllah. The day after it, (Tuesday
the 16th) will be the day of Eid AlAd7a. Please join us in
celebration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZME_dneM_Y&feature=youtu.be