A Very Hot Hajj And A Very Hard Challenge For Prophet Abraham – OpEd
More than five hundred Muslims died during this year’s five super hot days of Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced intense high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom. Temperatures on Tuesday reached 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) in Mecca and the sacred sites in and around the city.
Many Muslim pilgrims used the early morning hours to perform the days of the symbolic stoning of the devil, hoping to escape the noontime summer heat that caused heatstroke and sunburns among thousands of Muslims wrapping up the Hajj pilgrimage. When hajj pilgrims perform the last major ritual of the hajj, the “stoning of the devil” Muslims worldwide celebrated the Eid al-Adha holiday.
Beginning at dawn, the 1.8 million Muslims (more than 1.6 million pilgrims from 22 countries, and about 222,000 Saudi citizens taking the pilgrimage this year) threw seven stones at each of three concrete walls symbolizing the devil in the Mina valley located near Islam’s holiest city of Mecca. The rites have taken place under soaring summer heat, which reached 118 degrees Fahrenheit in Mecca.
The ritual commemorates Prophet Abraham’s stoning of the devil at three spots when Satan tried to dissuade him from obeying God’s order to sacrifice his son. Very few of us are tested as severely and frequently as Prophet Abraham.
All humans face various tests in our lifetime, as the Qur’an states: “We shall certainly test you with fear and hunger, and loss of property, lives, and crops. But [Prophet], give good news to those who are steadfast, those who say, when afflicted with a calamity, ‘We belong to God and to Him we shall return.’ These will be given blessings and mercy from their Lord, and it is they who are rightly guided.” (2:155-157)
Unlike Hercules, whose trials were physical, Abraham’s trials were primarily emotional and spiritual. An ancient Jewish oral Torah tradition, first written down in Hebrew in the Book of Jubilees about 135-105 BCE. and later mentioned in a second century CE rabbinic text, states: “Abraham was tried by 10 trials; and withstood them all. This teaches how beloved Abraham was by God.” (Mishnah Avot 5:3) These many challenges in Prophet Abraham’s life were important for the spiritual development of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
There are several different lists of which, of the many challenges Abraham overcame, made up his ten trials; but all of them end with the greatest trial of them all: the binding of Issac in the Jewish tradition; and the willingness to offer Ishmael in the Islamic tradition.
Indeed, to this very day the narrative of Issac’s binding is read annually in synagogues throughout the world on the Jewish New Year of Rosh Ha-Shanah; and the sacrificial offering of Ishmael is commemorated annually throughout the world on the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.
According to Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (1135-1205), a great legal scholar of Jewish Fiq, as well as the personal physician of Sultan Saladin of Egypt, Abraham shared his trials equally with Sarah or Isaac on one hand; as well as with Hagar or Ishmael on the other hand.
Rabbi Moses ben Maimon states that Sarah shared the first three trials with Abraham. The fourth trial of warfare was for Abraham alone. The fifth and eighth trial Abraham shared with Hagar/Hajar. The sixth trial Abraham shared with his son Ishmael who was 13 years old when he was circumcised. (Genesis 17:24) The seventh trial Abraham shared with Sarah and the ninth trial Abraham shared with Hajar and Ishmael.
Thus, Prophet Abraham shared four trials with Sarah, two and 1/2 trials with Hajar, and one and 1/2 with Ishmael. The tenth and final trial was two fold: once with Ismael the eldest son of Hajar; and once with Issac the eldest son of Sarah, Abraham’s first wife. This equal sharing of trials is why Abraham’s final test involved both of his sons; Ishmael and Isaac.
The Qur’an states: “Indeed, Abraham was a [model] leader, devoutly obedient to Allah, inclining toward truth; he was not of those who associate others with Allah. [He was] grateful for His favors. Allah chose him and guided him to a straight path. We gave him good in this world, and indeed, in the Hereafter he will be among the righteous. Then We revealed to you [Muhammad], to follow the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth; he [Abraham] was not of those who associate [anyone] with Allah.” (Qur’an 16:120-123)
According to Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, the first trial for Abraham was becoming an immigrant, when God said to him “Get yourself out of your land etc.” (Genesis 12:1-5) Even for a married man, breaking with one’s father and one’s own birthplace to leave for a distant land is always a difficult process.
The Qur’an relates Prophet Abraham’s first trial; as being when he challenged his father by breaking an idol that Abraham’s father had made. (Qur’an 21:51-71) The Jewish tradition also relates this narrative, but in the Oral Torah of Midrash Agadah.
The second trial was the ‘famine in the land’ of Canaan once they arrived there. (Genesis 12:10) This was the place in which God’s promise would be fulfilled “I will make you a great nation” (12:2) but that would not happen in a land of starvation. That is the sense of the challenge of “There was a famine in the land.”
The third trial was when Sarah was seized and taken into the Pharaoh’s harem. (Genesis 12:14-15) Because of Sarah’s great virtue and her lofty prophetic abilities she was freed; but Abraham was deeply pained all the time Sarah was in Pharaoh’s clutches.
The fourth trial was Abraham’s battle with the four kings (Genesis 14:5-15) Even a successful war is traumatic for a good kind hearted religious soul.
The fifth trial was taking Hagar the Egyptian as a wife after he despaired of ever having a child with Sarah. (Genesis 16:1-4).
The sixth trial was the circumcision God commanded him to do at a very advanced age. “Abraham was 99 years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin and his son Ishmael was 13 years old when he was circumcised”. (Genesis 17:24) Abraham felt the pain that Ishmael suffered even more than he did his own pain from the circumcision, because Ishmael had shown his submission to God’s will with great devotion.
Prophet Abraham also suffered later because his son Prophet Ishmael, was severely persecuted by the very tribe who had adopted him; the Jurhum, who according to al-Tabarsi tore off the skin of his face and scalp. Yet Prophet Ishmael patiently entrusted the matter of his people’s fate to Allah.
The seventh trial was the violence of the King of Gerar against Abraham and Sarah by taking Sarah away (Genesis 20:2). The second trauma of separation from a beloved wife is even more painful than the first.
The eighth trial was the banishment of Hagar, Abraham’s Egyptian wife, who had given Abraham his first child. (Genesis 21:9-21)
The ninth trial was experiencing distance from his son Ishmael. God may have said to him, “Do not be distressed over the boy” (Genesis 21:12), but Scripture had already informed us how hard it was for him to do this: “This matter distressed Abraham greatly” (21:11). Nevertheless, Abraham kept God’s command and banished Hajar and Ishmael.
Hajar and her son Ishmael traveled south from Israel and settled in an arid place near the ruins of an ancient temple. The Qur’an states that Abraham prayed for them, “I have settled some of my family in a barren valley near your Sacred House…” (Qur’an 14:37)
This resulted in a blessing for the descendants of Ishmael who, in later years, helped his father reconstruct the ruins of this ancient temple of God, the Kaaba, in Makka. (Qur’an 2:125-127, 14:35-37, 22:26)
A Hadith in Bukhari (Volume 4, Book 55, Number 583) describes it thus: “Abraham brought Ishmael’s mother and her son Ishmael while she was suckling him, to a place near the Kaaba under a tree on the spot of Zam-zam, at the highest place in the mosque.
“During those days there was nobody in Makka, nor was there any water. So he made them sit over there and placed near them a leather bag containing some dates, and a small water-skin containing some water, and set out homeward. Ishmael’s mother followed him saying, “O Abraham! Where are you going, leaving us in this valley where there is no person whose company we may enjoy, nor is there anything (to enjoy)?” She repeated that to him many times, but he did not look back at her.
“Then she asked him, “Has God ordered you to do so?” He said, “Yes.” She said, “Then God will not neglect us,” and returned while Abraham proceeded onwards. On reaching Thaniya where they could not see him, Abraham faced the Kaaba, and raising both hands, invoked God with the following prayer”:
“O our Lord! I have made some of my offspring dwell in a valley without cultivation, by Your Sacred House (Kaba at Mecca) in order, O our Lord, that they may offer prayer perfectly. Fill the hearts of people with love towards them, and provide them with fruits, so that they may give thanks” (Qur’an 14:37).
The tenth and final trial was the double test of the almost sacrifice Ishmael, and the binding of Isaac. The Qur’an relates: “My Lord, grant me [a child] from among the righteous.” So We gave him good tidings of a forbearing boy. And when he reached [the age of] exertion, he said, “O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I [must] sacrifice you, so see what you think.” He said, “O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast.
“And when they had both submitted and he put him down upon his forehead, We called to him, “O Abraham, you have fulfilled the vision.” Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good. Indeed, this was the clear trial. And We ransomed him with a great sacrifice, And We left for him [favorable mention] among later generations: “Peace upon Abraham.”
“Indeed, thus We reward the doers of good. Indeed, he was of Our believing servants. And We gave him good tidings of Isaac, a prophet from among the righteous. And We blessed him and Isaac. But among their descendants is [both] the doer of good and the clearly unjust to himself. (Qur’an 37:101-113)
The Qur’an does not tell us the name of the child to be offered to God by his father Abraham. But we must realize that with only the one exception of warfare, Abraham shared nine of the ten trials with another member of his own family.
Thus, because Abraham shared equally four trials with the Sarah/Isaac lineage, and four with the Hajar/Ishmael lineage [two and 1/2 trials with Hajar, one and 1/2 with Ishmael], God’s final, and most powerful trial for Prophet Abraham was two fold: once with Ismael the first born son of Hajar; and once again with Issac the first born son of Sarah, Abraham’s first wife.
People who defame the Qur’an because it does not name Prophet Abraham’s offering; and people who defame the Bible because it does name Isaac as Abraham’s offering, are themselves totally wrong, because the final trial for Prophet Abraham was two fold.
The Qur’an names neither son because it is God’s test for mankind: to see which religious people are open-minded and inclusive; and which religious people are closed-minded and exclusive.
