“And when Our decree for the destruction of the people of Lot came [to be executed], We turned them (that is, their cities) upside-down; for Gabriel raised them to heaven, and let them fall upside-down to the earth; and We rained upon them stones of baked clay, sent one after another, marked with thy Lord, each with the name of him upon whom it should be cast: and they [are] not far distant from the offenders; that is, the stones are not, or the cities of the people of Lot were not, far distant from the people of Mekkeh.” ([Sūrah xi. 84].)
“And [Abraham] said [after his escape from Nimrod], Verily I am going unto my Lord, who will direct me unto the place whither He hath commanded me to go, namely, Syria. And when he had arrived at the Holy Land, he said, O my Lord, give me a son [who shall be one] of the righteous. Whereupon We gave him the glad tidings of a mild youth. And when he had attained to the age when he could work with him (as some say, seven years; and some, thirteen), he said, O my child, verily I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice thee (and the dreams of prophets are true; and their actions, by the command of God); therefore consider what thou seest advisable for me to do. He replied, O my father, do what thou art commanded: thou shalt find me, if God please, [of the number] of the patient. And when they had resigned themselves, and he had laid him down on his temple, in [the valley of] Minā, and had drawn the knife across his throat (but it produced no effect, by reason of an obstacle interposed by the divine power), We called unto him, O Abraham, thou hast verified the vision. Verily thus do We reward the well-doers. Verily this was the manifest trial. And We ransomed him whom he had been commanded to sacrifice (and he was Ishmael or Isaac; for there are two opinions) with an excellent victim, a ram from Paradise, the same that Abel had offered: Gabriel (on whom be peace!) brought it, and the lord Abraham sacrificed it, saying, God is most great! And We left this salutation [to be bestowed] on him by the latter generations, Peace [be] on Abraham! Thus do We reward the well-doers: for he was of Our believing servants.” ([Sūrah xxxvii. 97–111].)
“Remember when Abraham said, O my Lord, show me how Thou will raise to life the dead.—He said, Hast thou not believed? He answered, Yea: but I have asked Thee that my heart may be at ease. He replied, Then take four birds and draw them towards thee, and cut them in pieces and mingle together their flesh and their feathers; then place upon each mountain of thy land a portion of them, then call them unto thee: they shall come unto thee quickly; and know thou that God is mighty [and] wise.—And he took a peacock and a vulture and a raven and a cock, and did with them as hath been described, and kept their heads with him, and called them; whereupon the portions flew about, one to another, until they became complete: then they came to their heads.” ([Sūrah ii. 262].)
“Remember, when his Lord had tried Abraham by [certain] words, commands and prohibitions, and he fulfilled them, God said unto him, I constitute thee a model of religion unto men. He replied, And of my offspring constitute models of religion. [God] said, My covenant doth not apply to the offenders, the unbelievers among them.—And when We appointed the house (that is, the Kaʿbah) to be a place for the resort of men, and a place of security (a man would meet the slayer of his father there and he would not provoke him [to revenge],) and [said], Take, O men, the station of Abraham (the stone upon which he stood at the time of building the House) as a place of prayer, that ye may perform behind it the prayers of the two rakʿahs [which are ordained to be performed after the ceremony] of the circuiting [of the Kaʿbah].—And We commanded Abraham and Ishmael, [saying], Purify my House (rid it of the idols) for those who shall compass [it], and those who shall abide there, and those who shall bow down and prostrate themselves.—And when Abraham said, O my Lord, make this place a secure territory (and God hath answered his prayer, and made it a sacred place, wherein the blood of man is not shed, nor is any one oppressed in it, nor is its game hunted [or shot], nor are its plants cut or pulled up), and supply its inhabitants with fruits (which hath been done by the transporting of at̤-T̤āʾif from Syria thither, when it [that is, the territory of Makkah] was desert, without sown land or water, such of them as shall believe in God and the last day.—He mentioned them peculiarly in the prayer agreeably with the saying of God, My covenant doth not apply to the offenders.—God replied, And I will supply him who disbelieveth: I will make him to enjoy a supply of food in this world, a little while: then I will force him, in the world to come, to the punishment of the fire; and evil shall be the transit.” ([Sūrah ii. 118–120].)
“And remember when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House (that is, building it), together with Ishmael, and they said, O our Lord, accept of us our building; for Thou art the Hearer of what is said, the Knower of what is done. O our Lord, also make us resigned unto Thee, and make from among our offspring a people resigned unto Thee, and show us our rites (the ordinances of our worship, or our pilgrimage), and be propitious towards us; for Thou art the Very Propitious, the Merciful. (They begged Him to be propitious to them, notwithstanding their honesty, from a motive of humility, and by way of instruction to their offspring.) O our Lord, also send unto them (that is, the people of the House) an apostle from among them (and God hath answered their prayer by sending Muḥammad), who shall recite unto them Thy signs (the Qurʾān), and shall teach them the book (the Qurʾān), and the knowledge that it containeth, and shall purify them from polytheism; for Thou art the Mighty, the Wise.—And who will be averse from the religion of Abraham but he who maketh his soul foolish, who is ignorant that it is God’s creation, and that the worship of Him is incumbent on it; or who lightly esteemeth it and applieth it to vile purposes; when We have chosen him in this world as an apostle and a friend, and he shall be in the world to come one of the righteous for whom are high ranks?—And remember when his Lord said unto him, Resign thyself:—he replied, I resign myself unto the Lord of the worlds.—And Abraham commanded his children to follow it (namely, the religion); and Jacob, his children; saying, O my children, verily God hath chosen for you the religion of al-Islām; therefore die not without your being Muslims.—It was a prohibition from abandoning Islām and a command to persevere therein unto death.” ([Sūrah ii. 121–126].)
“When the Jews said, Abraham was a Jew, and we are of his religion,—and the Christians said the like, [the following] was revealed:—O people of the Scripture, wherefore do ye argue respecting Abraham, asserting that he was of your religion, when the Pentateuch and the Gospel were not sent down but after him a long time? Do ye not then understand the falsity of your saying? So ye, O people, have argued respecting that of which ye have knowledge, concerning Moses and Jesus, and have asserted that ye are of their religion: then wherefore do ye argue respecting that of which ye have no knowledge, concerning Abraham? But God knoweth his case, and ye know it not. Abraham was not a Jew nor a Christian: but he was orthodox, a Muslim [or one resigned], a Unitarian, and he was not of the polytheists.” ([Sūrah iii. 58–60].)
ABSCONDING OF SLAVES. Arabic Ibāq (اباق). An absconded male or female slave is called Ābiq, but an infant slave who leaves his home is termed ẓāll, a word which is also used for an adult slave who has strayed. The apprehension of a fugitive slave is a laudable act, and the person who seizes him should bring him before the magistrate and receive a reward of forty dirhams. (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 278.)
ABSTINENCE. Arabic Taqwā (تقوىٰ). Is very frequently enjoined in the Qurʾān. The word generally applies to abstinence from idolatry in the first instance, but it is used to express a life of piety. An excessive abstinence and a life of asceticism are condemned in the Qurʾān, and the Christians are charged with the invention of the monastic life. ([Sūrah lvii. 27].) “As for the monastic life, they invented it themselves.” [[MONASTICISM], [FASTING].]
ABŪ ʿABDI ʾLLĀH (ابو عبدالله). Muḥammad ibn Ismāʾīl al-Buk͟hārī, the author of the well-known collection of traditions received by the Sunnīs. [[BUKHARI].]
ABŪ ʿABDI ʾLLĀH AḤMAD IBN ḤANBAL (ابو عبدالله احمد بن حنبل). [[HANBAL].]