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wa-bashsharnāhu bi-ʾisḥāqa nabiyyan mina ṣ-ṣāliḥīna
And We gave him the good news of [the birth of] Isaac, a prophet, one of the righteous.
— Ali Quli Qarai
37Aṣ-ṢāffātالصافاتVerse 112 of 182
Those who set the Ranks37. Aṣ-Ṣāffātالصافات
al-Ṣaffāt
The Ranged Ones
MeccanVerse 112 of 182
Surah As-Saffat – Verses 107-113
107. “And We ransomed him with a great sacrifice.”
108. “And We left (praise) for him among generations (to come) in later times.”
109. “Peace be on Abraham.”
110. “Thus do We recompense the doers of good,”
111. “Verily he was (one) of Our believing servants.”
112. “And We gave him the glad tidings of Isaac, a prophet among the righteous ones.”
113. “And We bestowed Our blessings on him and on Isaac, and of their offspring are the doers of good, and (also) those who are clearly unjust to their own selves.”
The act of sacrifice is one of Abraham’s way of treatment. A sincere action turns to be a great current in the history, and every year hundreds of thousand sheep, cows, and camels are sacrificed in the altar of Ishmael in his remembrance. This holy verse indicates that in order that Abraham would complete the program of his sacrifice at the presence of Allah and attain his wish, Allah sent a big sheep for him to sacrifice it instead of the child and that could be a manner left from Abraham for the coming generations in the rites of Hajj and the land of Muna, as the Qur’an says:
There are different ideas among the Islamic commentators concerning the greatness of this sacrifice and that from which point of view it was great: from the bodily and appearance point, or from this point that it became the ransom of Abraham’s child, or from the point that it was for the sake of Allah and in the path of Allah, or from this point that this sacrifice was sent for Abraham from the side of Allah? But it does not matter that all these aspects can be found in the ‘great sacrifice’, and that it has greatness from different points of view.
One of the signs of the greatness of this sacrifice is that by the past of time every year its scope increases, and now more than one million sacrifices are ransomed each year, and its remembrance is kept alive. The Arabic phrase /fadaynah/ is derived from /fada/ which originally means: ‘appointing something as alms and designed to avert evil from a person or something else. That is why the sum which is paid for manumission of a captive is called /fidyah/ (ransom). And also the atonement which some sick people pay instead of fasting is called by this name.
Upon the idea that how was this big sheep given to Abraham, many commentators believed that Gabriel brought it? Some believe that it came down from the sides of the hills of Muna, but whatever it was, it was done by the command of Allah and by His will. The next holy verse implies that not only Allah praised the victory of Abraham in this great trial on that day, but also He made its remembrance eternal. The verse says:
Abraham (as) became an example for all the coming generations and as a paradigm for all the lovers of Allah, and Allah made his program eternal as a rite of Hajj during the future centuries until the end of the world. He was the father of the great prophets, the father of the Ummah of Islam, and the father of the Prophet of Islam. Then, in the third and fourth verses, the Qur’an says:
It is a recompense as great as the world; a recompense eternal throughout the time; a recompense fit for the peace of Allah, the Almighty! It is interesting that the sentence:
one time has been mentioned here and another time in former verses. This repetition certainly contains a proper point. Its reason may be in this that in the first stage Allah verifies Abraham’s victory in his great trial, and He approves his success. This is a great reward and recompense, and this was the most important glad tidings that Allah gave Abraham. Then there is the subject of ‘the great sacrifice’ and that it and his name remained as ever lasting. And the greeting of Allah to him which is another great merit and Allah introduces it as the recompense of the righteous.
By the way, there are many authentic narrations stated in the commentary books such as Majma‘-ul-Bayan and Nur-uth-Thaqalayn recorded under these verses which you can refer to. The fifth verse says:
This sentence, in fact, is a witness upon what was said, and also stated this reality that if Abraham sincerely gave his entire entity and his dear son in a lump and sacrificed them in the path of his Lord, it was because of his deep faith and his promise. Yes, all of these have a wonderful manifestation. However, this meaning expands and generalizes the act of Abraham, and separates it from a personal and private form, and shows that wherever there is faith, you can find donation, love self-sacrifice, and remittal.
Abraham liked whatever Allah liked, and he wanted the thing that Allah wanted; and every believer can be like that. The sixth verse refers to another merit of Allah bestowed on Abraham. It says:
Regarding to the holy verse saying:
which has been mentioned at the beginning of this event13, it is made clear that these two glad tidings relate to two children. If the recent glad tidings according to the explicit mentioning of the verse under discussion relates to Isaac, then the Qur’anic holy phrase ‘forbearing boy’, the patient adolescence, surely refers to ’Isma‘il, and those who urge to consider Isaac as ‘the sacrificed one’ have taken both verses referring to one thing, with this difference that they think of the first verses as the statement of the main glad tidings and the second verse as a glad tiding to the prophethood; but this meaning is very improbable, and the abovementioned verses clearly say that these two glad tidings relate to two offspring.
Moreover, the glad tiding of prophethood shows that Isaac should remain alive and perform the duties of prophethood, and this does not adopt to the subject of sacrifice. It is interesting that here again we confront the greatness of the rank of the righteous, and for the qualification of Isaac it implies that he must become a prophet and become one of the righteous and how excellent is the rank of the righteous with Allah, the Almighty! And in the seventh verse the words are about the blessing that Allah bestowed on Abraham and his sin, Isaac.
It says:
But there is not any explanation saying in which thing the blessing was given, and We know that when a verb is usually said absolutely and there is not any condition in it, has a general sense. Therefore, it concludes blessing in every thing: in lifetime and in living, in the coming generations, in history and school of thought, and in all things. Here, it is clear that the verse under discussion points to prophethood, and all Divine blessings unto Abraham and Isaac (and their family). One of the blessings that Allah granted to Abraham and Isaac was this that all the Divine prophets of the Children of Israel came into being from the progeny of Isaac, while the great Prophet of Islam (S) was from the progeny of ’Isma‘il.
But in order that there does not come forth an imagination that the existence of this blessing in the family of Abraham has the aspect of genealogy and race, but it is in relation with religion, school of thought, and faith, at the end of the verse it adds:
The Arabic term /muhsin/ here means: a believer and the one who is obedient to Allah (s.w.t.); and what a kindness and goodness can be considered better than this! The term /zalim/ is in the sense of disbeliever and sinful, and the application of /linafsihi/ points to this fact that disbelief and sin are at the first degree of being unjust to oneself, a clear injustice. And thus, the above verse answers to a group of the Jews and the Christians who boasted that they were from the progeny of the prophets, that only the relative relation is not an honour unless it comes under the shelter of mental and religious relation.
The reference of this statement is the tradition narrated from the holy Prophet (S) who, addressing Bani Hashim, said:
“O Bani Hashim! Let it not be that on the Day of Hereafter people come to me with their deeds and you come with your relations and relatives, in a manner that they may have religious relation and you may have bodily relation.” 14
Footnotes