Author: Harris Abdullah
Today I would like to look into the matter of sacrifice. The pivotal sacrificial event the Quran recounted was the story of Abraham and his son found in Surah 37:100-107.
رَبِّ هَبْ لِي مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ
فَبَشَّرْنَاهُ بِغُلَامٍ حَلِيمٍ
فَلَمَّا بَلَغَ مَعَهُ السَّعْيَ قَالَ يَا بُنَيَّ إِنِّي أَرَى فِي الْمَنَامِ أَنِّي أَذْبَحُكَ فَانظُرْ مَاذَا تَرَى قَالَ يَا أَبَتِ افْعَلْ مَا تُؤْمَرُ سَتَجِدُنِي إِن شَاءَ اللَّهُ مِنَ الصَّابِرِينَ
فَلَمَّا أَسْلَمَا وَتَلَّهُ لِلْجَبِينِ
وَنَادَيْنَاهُ أَنْ يَا إِبْرَاهِيمُ
قَدْ صَدَّقْتَ الرُّؤْيَا إِنَّا كَذَلِكَ نَجْزِي الْمُحْسِنِينَ
إِنَّ هَذَا لَهُوَ الْبَلَاءُ الْمُبِينُ
وَفَدَيْنَاهُ بِذِبْحٍ عَظِيمٍ
“O my Lord! Grant me a righteous (son)!” So We gave him the good news of a boy ready to suffer and forbear. Then, when (the son) reached (the age of) (serious) work with him, he said: “O my son! I see in vision that I offer thee in sacrifice: Now see what is thy view!” (The son) said: “O my father! Do as thou art commanded: thou will find me, if Allah so wills one practising Patience and Constancy!” So when they had both submitted their wills (to Allah), and he had laid him prostrate on his forehead (for sacrifice), We called out to him “O Abraham! “Thou hast already fulfilled the vision!” – thus indeed do We reward those who do right. For this was obviously a trial- And We ransomed him with a momentous sacrifice:
There are so many standard commentaries regarding the question on who was the son and of course our Muslim brethren will always say that the son in question is Ishmael/Ismail and the Jews/Christians will say that it’s Isaac. So who is right? When you read further on to Surah 37:112, here we could see Isaac’s name appeared and the same word فَبَشَّرْنَاهُ “good news/glad tidings” was used in Surah 37:101. From this verse, then could we conclude that the son in question was referring to Isaac which echoes with the Hebrew bible (Torah) and the Greek bible (Injil/Gospels)? If it is so straightforward, then why the name was not mentioned earlier? Therefore, our Muslim brethren would say, if we look at which son born earlier, it should be Ismail who was born from Abraham’s maidservant Hagar. Still the question remains, “Why wasn’t Ismail’s name mentioned or any hint of giving a chronological significance”? Those who do proper exegetical work know that we can’t argue from silence.
Let’s get the questions in order: Firstly, we need to ask, “If the two characters such as Ismail or Isaac were so important in this whole event of sacrifice, why did Surah 37:100ff not mention the name of a very important character who was to be the sacrificed? Did Allah purposely ignore the person to be sacrificed like some kind of animal or a thing that is dispensable? If you think of Allah in this manner, you don’t know Allah’s/Yahweh’s character at all and most likely your concept of God is influenced by human concept of God especially from the Greek concept of gods and sure enough it would sound very cruel not to recognize that person at all. It would also be ridiculous to think that Allah /Yahweh might have forgotten the boy’s name during this narration. Then suddenly at Surah 37:112 the name of Isaac appeared. Even then, what was so revelatory about that? The Torah had already stated it. Hence, from the start of this study, we need to be very open to this revelation. On top of the above question of not mentioning the name of the person, if we try to look at the topic of sacrifice in the Quran, you would find that nothing much was mentioned, why is that? We will come to this later as the answer is very obvious and it has been stated in the Quran many times.
If you have been following these articles here, you would have known how we view the Quran and the rest of the Scriptures ie. the Torah (Hebrew Scripture) and the Injil/Gospels (the Greek Scripture). There is a very peculiar nature about these Scriptures. The main characteristic of these Scriptures, since they came from the same source, is that all revelations are hidden and revealed only to those who ask and ask wisely. If you ask the right questions, then the Scriptures will open up but if you ask the wrong questions, the Scriptures will remain hidden and what you see is what your eyes wanted to see but not what Allah /Yahweh wants you to see. Here in Surah 37:100ff is one example very characteristic of the Quran as well as other Scriptures.
Therefore, let’s look at these questions; hopefully we could come to the glorious truth:
- Why the person to be sacrificed wasn’t mentioned in Surah 37:100-107?
- Was the account in Surah 37:102 only about the complete submission of Abraham and his son to Allah’s command?
- Who was being ransomed ( وَفَدَيْنَاهُ)in Surah 37:107?
- How many people were being ransomed according to Surah 37:107?
- In this whole short account, was there any extraordinary thing that Allah /Yahweh did to show His glorious character? Was there any mention of a lamb or ram in Surah 37:107?
- Following from the 5th question, could the word ‘ عَظِيمٍ‘ ‘azim’ ‘great/momentous’ adjective to ‘ بِذِبْحٍ’ sacrifice reveal anything less than Allah’s glorious character? Otherwise it would be meaningless. What was this great/momentous sacrifice that could rightly be considered comparable with Allah’s glorious character?
If you are familiar with Sahih Muslim book 22 called Kitab Al-Adahi (Book of Sacrifices) commentaries, he just assumed that the boy was Ismail without giving much explanation about how he came to that conclusion. I find that this is very dangerous to put into Scriptures your own ideas that might not even exist especially by way of implication. He also didn’t even bother to add in Surah 37:108-113 which mentioned about Allah’s bestowing Abraham good news of a son called Isaac and the promise to bless Abraham and his son. It reflects a kind of dishonesty as though trying to delude people from the path of truth. If this kind of tafsir/exegetical work with the Quran continues among our Muslims brethren, what credibility is there for people to believe in the Quran?
From question 1, we could see that as though Allah/Yahweh was not concerned about the name of the son. If you read properly, the whole focus was more about the depth of Abraham’s response in the sacrificing of his son as depicted in the vision. This was confirmed in the statement which Allah /Yahweh said that it was a trial in Surah 37:106. Before that, Allah commended Abraham for fulfilling the vision in his dream in Surah 37:105. As for the son’s reaction and response, it was only found in Surah 37:102; what was the significance about his response? There is an important point but we have to leave that to later study as the primary focus was on Abraham as confirmed by later verses from Surah 37:104 to 107 as a conclusion of Allah’s approval of Abraham’s obedience and response.
Following on to Question 2, another common commentary regarding the message of Surah 37:100ff is to say that both Abraham and his son completely submitted to Allah’s will. Does this strike anyone to be a revelation? It is not much of a revelation because all prophets/righteous men submitted completely to the will of Allah/Yahweh. It is also stated in the Torah and in the Injil. From here we come to the answers for Questions 3 and 4, the mentioning of Abraham and his son’s submission was not the primary focus but an unfolding part of a deeper revelation after we have understood properly what Surah 37:107 was going to reveal where Allah ransomed him with a “Momentous/Great Sacrifice”. In fact, you don’t even see the ‘son’ in this statement anymore; it only stated with these very few important words, ‘And We ransomed him with a momentous/great sacrifice’, as though Allah /Yahweh is hinting to you to ask a further question, what was this ‘Momentous/Great Sacrifice’? This should be the hint to a deeper revelation. However, two significant things could be observed in Surah 37:107:
- Firstly, Allah/Yahweh only mentioned a singular person ‘ransomed him’. Who was that “him”? It’s obviously Abraham! That begs a question, “Why was the son left out?” Was he purposely left out for you to ask deeper question?
- Secondly, since only Abraham was said to be ransomed, “And He ransomed him(singular)….” and Allah /Yahweh didn’t say “And He ransomed ‘them’ (plural)….”. Why only him?
Before we could answer those two questions, we need to address one traditional interpretation for our 5th Question, “What was the act that Allah did for Abraham that reflects His glorious character?” It was simply put as this ‘بِذِبْحٍ عَظِيمٍ ’. If you examine the word, by doing a simple word study, you could find that the adjective and the noun are in singular form and not plural. If Allah wanted to stress on many sacrifices, the word ‘ بِذِبْح ‘ should be in plural. Why is this important? It is important so that we don’t read our own ideas that did not even exist into the Scriptures. Let us see if Asad’s commentary accurately reflecting this ‘great/momentous sacrifice’ or not. Here is his commentary:
And We ransomed him with a tremendous sacrifice, [The epithet azim (“tremendous” or “mighty”) renders it improbable that this sacrifice refers to nothing but the ram which Abraham subsequently found and slaughtered in Ishmael’s stead (Genesis xxii, 13). To my mind, the sacrifice spoken of here is the one repeated every year by countless believers in connection with the pilgrimage to Mecca (al-hajj), which, in itself, commemorates the experience of Abraham and Ishmael and constitutes one of the “five pillars” of Islam. (See 22:27-37, as well as 2:196-203.)]
The Quran and the Scriptures are quite specific in nature when there was an important message to be told to us especially in regard to prophecies. What Assad had commented that the sacrifice could not be referring to the ram given to Abraham, which I do agree, why? Basically there was no mention of a ram whatsoever. Secondly, if you see the flow of the account being told, you would notice interestingly the Quran did not add or continue with the account about a ram/sheep given to Abraham as the substitute for sacrifice that he actually sacrificed that animal. No, nothing! Please read carefully. Now that begs the question, “Who then actually performed the act of sacrifice/slaughter and not just a sacrifice but a momentous/great sacrifice in Surah 37:107?” The comment of Assad on the sacrifices done in the pilgrimage/Haj to Mecca has become irrelevant to Surah 37:107 let alone revelatory. Why? Because all acts of sacrifices were practised by the Israelites long before Islam came into existence. The Israelites would have even sacrificed more ram/lambs/sheep during their lifetime when they had their Priests and Temple after Abraham’s time. Hence, it could not be reflecting the sacrifices by the pilgrimage or even the sacrifices offered by the Israelites long ago. Now, the enlightenment on who performed the act of this one single sacrifice or the momentous/great sacrifice has now become very, very crucial. What we know is that the whole sentence in Surah 37:107 was in divine active. It means that this great/momentous sacrifice was done by Allah/Yahweh Himself. Why? Simply because Allah /Yahweh was the only One who could and able to provide that ransom to Abraham. Because no man could and Abraham certainly could not even redeem himself. How did Allah/Yahweh provide that ransom to Abraham? Allah/Yahweh personally with His own will/hand performed the slaughter of the great/momentous sacrifice in order to reflect His great compassion and mercy to Abraham.
In closing, how many people were being ransomed? It was only Abraham! Why was Abraham the only person being ransomed and so it seems that he was the only one given the great compassion and mercy from Allah/Yahweh and not even the son was included? Why Abraham first and foremost needed to be saved/ransomed?
It is because Abraham represents the father of all nations, the three faiths, namely the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims. Therefore, there is no longer any need for animal sacrifices because Allah/Yahweh has already provided that great mercies once and for all to Abraham and to all his descendants. Finally the crucial question that was left unanswered, intentionally, who or what was the ultimate sacrifice that Allah/Yahweh provided? Now this is being revealed to those who seek the truth and do not deny the Ayat or Signs of Allah /Yahweh.
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Note:
All Al-Quran verses are sourced from English Translation of Al-Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, with thanks.