Surah Ash-Shu'ara, Ayah 89

The Prayer of Ibrahim for Himself and for His Father

Here Ibrahim, upon him be peace, asks his Lord to give him Hukm. Ibn `Abbas said, "This is knowledge."

وَأَلْحِقْنِى بِالصَّـلِحِينَ

(and join me with the righteous.) means, `make me one of the righteous in this world and the Hereafter.' This is like the words the Prophet said three times when he was dying:

«اللَّهُمَّ فِي الرَّفِيقِ الْأَعْلَى»

(O Allah, with the Exalted Companion (of Paradise)).

وَاجْعَل لِّى لِسَانَ صِدْقٍ فِى الاٌّخِرِينَ

(And grant me an honorable mention in later generations.) meaning, `cause me to be remembered in a good manner after my death, so that I will be spoken of and taken as a good example.' This is like the Ayah,

يَوْمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ ﴿88﴾ إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّـهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ ﴿89﴾

The Day when neither wealth will be of any use (to any one) nor sons, [ 88] except to one who will come to Allah with a sound heart, [ 26:89]

This verse has declared that wealth and children will not be of any help to a person on the Day of Judgment. This declaration is subjected to exception in the words, "except to one who will come to Allah with sound heart". (coming with sound heart means to come to Him with true faith). Now, this exception has been interpreted in two different ways. According to one interpretation adopted by some commentators this exception is not meant to exclude the believers from the rule. It is an exception of a special type which is known in Arabic grammar as "munqati" (This type of exception does not exclude anything from the aforementioned statement. It simply says that the thing negated in the first sentence is found in someone else.) A simple example for this expression is that a person is asked about Zaid whether he has some wealth and children, and he replies, "No, his wealth and children are nothing but his sound heart." The same expression is used in this verse. The gist of the verse, according to this interpretation would be that wealth and children will not be helpful to anyone, neither to a believer nor to a disbeliever; what will be helpful, instead of wealth and children, is one's sound heart, i.e. the true faith and righteous deeds.

These verses deal with right understanding, i.e. seeing things as they really are. For a subject of God, this is the greatest blessing next to prophethood. That is why it is mentioned in a tradition which says, ‘If God wants to do something good to a man, He bestows on him the understanding of religion.’ Whatever Abraham asked for in his prayer was granted to him, but the prayer for the pardon of his father (Azar) was rejected. One can imagine from this that prayer (du‘a) is mostly a matter between God and His subject. One man’s prayer cannot obtain pardon for another man. Before Almighty God, real value attaches to a pure heart (qalb salim). This means the right kind of pure heart, i.e. a heart which is free from the tendency to ascribe partners to God, feelings of hypocrisy, jealousy and ill-will. In other words, the believer should go before God with a heart as pure as it was at the time of his birth. He should not present himself before God with any other heart.