Surah Adh-Dhariyat, Ayah 28

The Guests of the Prophet Ibrahim

We mentioned this story before in Surah Hud and Al-Hijr. Allah said,

هَلْ أَتَاكَ حَدِيثُ ضَيْفِ إِبْرَهِيمَ الْمُكْرَمِينَ

(Has the story reached you, of the honored guests of Ibrahim), whom Ibrahim honored and who,

قَالُواْ سَلَـماً قَالَ سَلَـمٌ

(they said: "Salaman!" He answered: "Salamun.")

وَإِذَا حُيِّيتُم بِتَحِيَّةٍ فَحَيُّواْ بِأَحْسَنَ مِنْهَآ أَوْ رُدُّوهَآ

(When you are greeted with a greeting, greet in return with what is better than it, or return it equally.)(4:86) So the Friend of Allah chose a better reply in return for their greeting, implementing Allah's command: Reciprocating the greeting with the term Salamun is stronger than the greeting using the term Salaman. The three angels; Jibril, Mika'il and Israfil came to Ibrahim in the image of handsome young wonderfully graceful men. This is why Ibrahim said,

فَأَوْجَسَ مِنْهُمْ خِيفَةً (So he felt some fear in his heart...51:28). When the guests did not eat the food, the Holy Prophet Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) conceived fear of them. In those days it was the custom of the noble people to entertain the guests who were expected to accept the hospitality of the host. If they did not, the host would become apprehensive that there is some danger afoot - probably they are enemies who came to cause some kind of trouble for them. In those days, even the rogues and wrongdoers had the noble quality that they would not cause any harm to anyone whose food they had eaten. Hence refusing to eat was a sign of hostility or danger.

Literally ‘It is certain like your talking’. It implies that when one’s voice can be reproduced, it should be possible to reproduce one’s existence. Perfect reproduction of a part of a man’s existence may be experienced in this world. It can be imagined from this that reproduction of the whole existence of man is possible.