True Muslims/Submitters: Abraham & Ishmael

"My Lord! Vouchsafe me of the righteous,
So We gave him tidings of a gentle son,
And when (his son) was old enough to walk with him, (Abraham) said: O my dear son, I have seen in a dream that I must sacrifice thee. So look, what thinkest thou? He said: O my father! Do that which thou art commanded. Allah willing, thou shalt find me of the steadfast,
Then, when they had both surrendered (to Allah), and he had flung him down upon his face,
We called unto him: O Abraham!
Thou hast already fulfilled the vision. Lo! thus do We reward the good,
Lo! that verily was a clear test,
Then We ransomed him with a tremendous victim." Quraan 37:100-107

رَبِّ هَبْ لِي مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ

فَبَشَّرْنَاهُ بِغُلامٍ 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 شَاء اللَّهُ مِنَ الصَّابِرِينَ

فَلَمَّا أَسْلَمَا وَتَلَّهُ لِلْجَبِينِ

وَنَادَيْنَاهُ أَنْ يَا إِبْرَاهِيمُ

قَدْ صَدَّقْتَ الرُّؤْيَا إِنَّا كَذَلِكَ نَجْزِي الْمُحْسِنِينَ

إِنَّ هَذَا لَهُوَ الْبَلاء الْمُبِينُ

وَفَدَيْنَاهُ بِذِبْحٍ عَظِيمٍ

الصافات : الآيات ١٠٠-١٠٧

Abraham/Ibrahim is a messenger that is well known as the Patriarch of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He was getting old and yet had no offspring as his first wife Sarah was infertile, thus she offered him to marry her servant Hagar so he can have children. He married Hagar and had his firstborn son Ishmael through her, few years later God informed him that he will have another son through Sarah, he did and called him Isaac.

The verses above is talking about Abraham and how he almost sacrificed his son. Briefly, Abraham was long waiting to have children, finally the Almighty fulfilled his supplication and Abraham became a father of one or two sons. Some years later, he had a vision that he must sacrifice his son, as a messenger he must implement the vision. Thus, he informed his son about the vision and the son gave him the permission to do so. He was just about to slaughter his son, God substituted the son with a sheep!

The man was long waiting to have that son, finally he had him then he was about to slaughter him by his own hands?! How insane was that?! That's totally sane for him because he knew surely that he was a Messenger of the Creator, he knew surely that the vision was a request for him from the Creator so he tried to fulfill it without even arguing or doubting with himself!

However, what's even more inspiring was Ishmael's reaction, Abraham was a prophet at the time, he was the one who had the vision, he was the one who used to communicate with the angels and receive the instruction from God, so his reaction was not too much surprising given the fact he was a prophet, but apparently Ishmael was not a prophet at the time yet he believed in the Messenger of his time who also happened to be his father, so the Messenger (Abraham) informed the follower (Ishmael) about the vision and the follower submitted to it even though it would cost him his life! That's what I call a pure submission/surrender.

Theoretically, at that incident the submission of the follower (Ishmael) who also happened to be the son was greater than the submission of the Messenger (Abraham) who also happened to be the father.



Abraham is considered a Muslim in Quraan but not as a follower of Prophet Mohammad but as a true submitter who submitted and surrendered his will to God/Allah which what Islam (Submission) is all about.

"Abraham was not a Jew, nor yet a Christian; but he was an upright man who had surrendered (to Allah), and he was not of the idolaters. " Quraan 3:67

مَا كَانَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ يَهُودِيًّا وَلاَ نَصْرَانِيًّا وَلَكِن كَانَ حَنِيفًا مُّسْلِمًا وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ
آل عمران : الآية ٦٧

"who had surrendered (to Allah)" in the original verse is equivalent to "Muslim" in Arabic.


"And who forsaketh the religion of Abraham save him who befooleth himself? Verily We chose him in the world, and lo! in the Hereafter he is among the righteous,
When his Lord said unto him: Surrender! he said: I have surrendered to the Lord of the Worlds" Quraan 2:130-131

وَمَن يَرْغَبُ عَن مِّلَّةِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِلاَّ مَن سَفِهَ نَفْسَهُ وَلَقَدِ اصْطَفَيْنَاهُ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَإِنَّهُ فِي الآخِرَةِ لَمِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ

إِذْ قَالَ لَهُ رَبُّهُ أَسْلِمْ قَالَ أَسْلَمْتُ لِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
البقرة : الآيات ١٣٠-١٣١

Was the son Ishmael or Isaac?
Our brothers in Christianity and Judaism believe he was Isaac, we (Muslims) believe he was probably Ishmael even though there are some sources that also indicate he was Isaac. This is unimportant though, the moral of the story is to show what real 'submission' is all about.