Act as thou hast been bidden (by the Lord) and thou wilt...

Act as thou hast been bidden (by the Lord) and thou wilt, if God Willeth, find me of the patient ones.” (Holy Qur'an 37:102) Abraham told his wife, Hagar, the mother of Ishmael that he was taking his son to his friend; and equipping himself with a knife and a rope, left for an altar on a nearby mountain.

Abraham laid down his son Ishmael and tied his hands and legs lest the boy should struggle while being slain, and blindfolded himself with a piece of cloth apprehending his failure due to his paternal love, to bear the sight of his son rolling in his own blood, and in compliance with the divine directive received through the dream, Abraham offering his son to God, passed the knife across, cutting the throat under it.

Abraham declared Truthful, but the Sacrifice, postponed As soon as Abraham was sure that he had slain his son under the knife, he immediately uncovered his eyes to pray to the Lord to accept his sacrifice, but to his great surprise, he found Ishmael standing aside and instead of Ishmael a ram lay slain.

Any other father would have only rejoiced at the miraculous escape of his son, but Abraham with his wonderful love and devotion to the Lord and with his ideal submission to His Will, stood sorrowful and disappointed thinking that his offering was not accepted by the Lord, but a heavenly voice immediately consoled Abraham saying: "O’Abraham!

of course thou hast faithfully fulfilled the dream, thou art of the truthful ones, but verily it is an open test, we have substituted it with a Greater Sacrifice.

We have transferred it to later generations.” (Holy Qur'an 37:105-108) The substitute-sacrifice destined to take place instead of the one offered by Abraham, has been called by God as an Open Test and a Great Sacrifice from which one naturally infers that the one to be sacrificed would be greater than Ishmael in his position with the Lord, and such a great sacrifice could naturally be offered by the one who would be superior to Abraham in his submission to God's Will.

What Abraham was demanded to enact was only a test: To make it known to mankind the degree of Abraham's love of God, and his submission to God's Will. To make Abraham himself aware that he was still lacking in resistance to witness the blood of his son when it had to flow in the fulfilment of the Will of the Lord. To declare the ideal devotion of Abraham and his implicit submission to God, even to sacrifice his own son, when commanded by the Lord to do it.