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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books An Enlightening Commentary into the Light of the Holy Qur'an vol. 8 The Highly Adventurous Life of ‘Ibrahim, the Iconoclastic Prophet This Surah is the only one which is named after ‘Ibrahim. However, the biography of ‘Ibrahim is not covered only in this Surah.

On the other hand, as there are mentions of this great Divine prophet on various occasions in other Suras, we considered it appropriate to discuss the highly-esteemed biography of this champion of monotheism in a concise manner at the end of this Surah so that we shall be able to interpret and comment on the various verses which we come across in the future, as they require command of this prophet’s life.

We hope that this short discussion provides sufficient awareness for our dear readers and we shall be able to provide them with useful references. One can distinguish the life of ‘Ibrahim into three distinct periods: 1- The Era prior to his prophetic Mission; 2- The Era of his prophetic Mission and his Campaign against the worshippers of idols in Babylon; 3- The Exodus Era from Babylon and his struggles and efforts in the Lands of Egypt, Palestine, and Mecca.

The Birthplace and Childhood of ‘Ibrahim ‘Ibrahim was born in the lard of Babylon which was an amazing land of the world and which had a powerful and, at the same time, an oppressive and a tyrannical government which was in full control of it. (Some historians have regarded his birthplace in ‘’Ur’, a city in the land of Babylon. The Highly Adventurous Life of ‘Ibrahim (a.

s.) ‘Ibrahim was born at the time when, Nimrod-ibn-Kan‘an, that oppressive and cruel king, was ruling Babylon and he used to present himself as the great god of Babylon. Certainly, the people of Babylon did not possess only this sole idol to worship, but, in the meantime, they had fabricated idols out of the various materials and used to worship them.

The dominant government of that land used to encourage vigorously the worshipping of idols as it considered the job as an effective means for stupefying and inciting hallucinations in people and regarded any kind of insult to the idols as a great crime and an unforgivable one.

Historians have recounted an amazing story about the birth of ‘Ibrahim, a summary of which is as follows: Astrologers had predicted and had foretold that a person could be born who would stand up to the undivided and invincible power and authority of Nimrod.