Verse 42

38:46; 53:38.

Commentary:

ابراھیم (Abraham) means the father of nations. Originally Abraham’s name was ابرام (Abram) which may have been derived from ابرم. They say ابرمه i.e. he twisted it (the rope) well. He made it firm, strong, solid (Lane). Abraham might have been so called because he was endowed to an unusual degree with conversational ability of a high mark. He was an irresistible debater. His talk was very effective and his arguments strong. A reference to this quality of Abraham is to be found in 2:259 and 6:76-81. Or Abram may have come to be called Abraham after God had made His covenant with him and had promised to multiply him exceedingly. God said: "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for father of many nations have I made thee" (Gen. 17:4-5). In the Quran also Abraham has been called امة which means, "a nation", "a people", "a race" (16:121).

Abraham was a native of Ur of the Chaldees in Iraq. His people worshipped the sun and the stars. Their chief god was Merodach or (Madruk). It was also called Bel, i.e. Lord (Enc. Bib.).

Abraham was a great iconoclast. He preached the Unity and Oneness of God and strongly denounced and condemned idol-worship. By his iconoclastic activities he incurred the enmity of his father and so with his wife and his nephew Lot, he had to leave his native place for Canaan the land which God had promised to give to his seed (Gen 12:7). When Canaan suffered from a severe famine Abraham left it for Egypt where he married Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. For a detailed account of Abraham see 6:75.

الکتاب (the Book) in this verse means the Quran. The Holy Prophet is here directed to relate the story of Abraham as it is given in the Quran and not as it is related in the Bible. While the Quran depicts Abraham as a truthful man the Bible accuses him of telling lies (Gen. 20:13).

صدیق (a truthful man) is the intensified form of صادق which is active participle from صدقwhich means, he spoke the truth (Lane). صادق means one who speaks the truth. صدیق being the intensive form of صادق has four meanings; (a) one who very generally and often speaks the truth; (b) one who never tells a lie; (c) one who is so habituated to speaking truth that it becomes impossible for him to tell a lie; and (d) one who is truthful in his talk and substantiates the truth of his talk and beliefs by his actions and deeds. The speaking of truth becomes, as it were, a part of his being, a second nature with him (Lane). This is the highest stage of صدیقیت (the quality or condition of being truthful).

The word صدیق possesses a double connotation. While on the one hand it means one who is highly truthful, on the other it denotes a spiritual rank next only to the rank of prophethood. In fact, every quality possesses two connotations and two uses. It is used as an attribute and it also expresses a rank. In the present verse صدیق has been used to express only the attribute and quality of truthfulness and not the rank of صدیق which is included in the rank of نبی (a Prophet) which has also been mentioned in regard to Abraham in this verse. The verse means that Abraham was a Prophet of God and one of his most prominent and distinctive qualities was that he was truthful par excellence.

The Quran has laid great stress on the truthfulness of Abraham perhaps because in some future time lies were to be attributed to him by some commentators of the Quran.

It seems appropriate and pertinent to write here a few words about the order and arrangement of the verses of the present Surah because some Christian writers have found fault with the chronological order of the incidents mentioned in it. In fact the central theme of this Surah is to disprove and demolish the Christian dogma of godhead of Jesus Christ. The Surah opens with a brief mention of Zachariah, the father of Yahya who was a forerunner of Jesus. Zachariah’s mention is followed by a concise description of the birth of Yahya. Then a somewhat detailed description is given of the birth of Jesus who was the harbinger of the Holy Prophet and light is shed on the falsity of Christian beliefs and doctrines about him and his mother. This description of Jesus is followed by a narration of some important incidents in the life of Abraham. This seems to be a historical anachronism but in reality it is not. The Quran is not a book of history. It sometimes deliberately departs from the chronological order of events. The account of Abraham given in the present and the following verses is a case in point. The account of Jesus is followed by that of Abraham in order to drive home the point that when Abraham, the great progenitor of Moses who was the Founder of the Mosaic Dispensation of which Christianity is only an offshoot, was a firm believer in the Unity of God, how could Jesus depart from the Faith of his forefather, and claim to be God or son of God? Secondly, God had made a promise with Abraham that He would multiply him exceedingly through his two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. God’s promise with Abraham was fulfilled first through Isaac, and then when Isaac’s progeny disobeyed and defied Divine commandments and consistently rejected Divine Prophets and went so far as to kill John and crucify Jesus, God’s covenant with Abraham became transferred to Ishmael and was finally and fully fulfilled through the latter’s progeny. This is the real reason why the account of Jesus is followed by that of Abraham. After this a brief mention is made of Moses who was a descendant of Jacob and in whom God’s covenant with Abraham through Isaac found its highest fulfilment. After dealing with God’s covenant with Abraham through Isaac, the Surah proceeds to make a mention of the Divine promise with Abraham through Ishmael. This is why after Moses, mention has been made of Ishmael and this is the significance of the order which the Quran has kept in view while giving an account of the life of some Prophets and making only a brief mention of others and this is the right and natural order which should have been observed while dealing with the subject under discussion. The taunt of some Christian critics of Islam that the seeming historical anachronism was due to the Holy Prophet’s lack of the knowledge of history is absurd because elsewhere (chapter Hud) the Quran has given the accounts of some Prophets of very remote past in their proper chronological order which fact has been admitted by fair-minded Christian writers themselves.