Like the Heart of Sayyidina Ibrāhīm

Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm

[…] We read the ḥadīth of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam [in Khutbah]:

“لا يزال أربعون رجلا من أمتي قلوبهم على قلب إبراهيم يدفع الله بهم عن أهل الأرض ، يقال لهم الأبدال”

“There will always be forty men from my nation whose hearts are like the heart of Ibrāhim, Allāh ﷻ removes affliction from the people of earth through them. They are called al-Abdal.”

Forty people, sincere people, their hearts incline to Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla, their hearts are like the heart of Sayyidina Ibrāhīm ‘alayhi s-salām. Sayyidina Ibrāhīm ‘alayhi s-salām is one of the great prophets. There are seven prophets who are Uli l-‘Azm, the mighty prophets.

Many things happened to him, many things since he was a youngster. And Allāh ﷻ showed him. Without any guidance, Allāh ﷻ guided him to be a prophet. He grew up in a place where there was Nimrod. Nimrod was a tyrant. He was controlling all this area, the area of the Mediterranean, the middle east; a very big area.

He was controlling this area and making people worship him. He ordered people to make a statue of him. So to have a statue or something like this is not good. He had one. Not the father of Sayyidina Ibrāhīm but his stepfather, Azar, was building his statue and getting benefit from this one, Nimrod. But when Ibrāhīm ‘alayhi s-salām was a boy, he was wondering why were they doing this.

And after that, he saw that people were worshipping this statue, and not taking anything from them. When he became older than a teenager, he was thinking, “These people are worshipping this; this is not my god. It cannot be god, they have no benefit for them. Only some people benefit from this thing but the others are paying them.” And Allāh ﷻ gave him an inspiration to look for God.

It is also mentioned in Qur’ān, at night-time he saw one star, he was happy with it. He said, “This is my god. It is very high, very shiny; it’s nice. This must be god.” This star was maybe a planet or something. After a little bit it disappeared. He said, “I don’t like god to disappear. Once coming, once not coming. This is not for me.”

After that, he saw a moon. He said, “This moon is shining more than this planet, this star. It must be god.” But after a little bit, also the moon disappeared. He said, “Oh, this is also not god. I don’t like that. Maybe I will be lost. I must look for another thing.” After that was coming the daytime, the sun was shining. Every thing appeared and it was big, so he said, “This is bigger. It must be god.”

After this, of course, the sun also set. He is said, “It’s also not.” He said, “I cannot accept this. I am not from those who put [associate] something with God. I only have one God.” Allāh ﷻ opened the understanding for him and he started telling people, “What are you doing! This is not good. Don’t do this.”

Some people were happy but some of them not. There were some complaining. But nothing happened until one day came that was specially for celebrating something. And on that day, they were all out of the city so he went into the temple where they were worshipping these idols. He took an axe and broke them all. Then, he put the axe in the hand of the biggest one.

When these people came back, they were looking at this temple; they were surprised at what happened there. Nimrod also heard about this. He said, “Who did this?!” They said, “We heard that one boy was saying, “What you’re doing is not good. There is no benefit from this.” Maybe he did this. We are sure he did this.”

They brought Sayyidina Ibrāhīm and asked him, “Who did this?” He said, “You see the axe is in his hand [the biggest idol], he did this.” Nimrod said, “Are you crazy! How can he do this? He can’t do anything. He just stands there. He is from stone.” That time, he gave a proof that this is not a god, only a stone; nothing else. All people agreed with him.

And because all people won’t be worshipping this Nimrod idol anymore, Nimrod became very angry. So he caught him and made a big fire. Maybe for 40 days, or maybe for months, he collected wood that it became like a mountain of wood. He burnt this wood causing a huge fire. But they couldn’t go near the fire because it was burning everything maybe from a kilometer far away. They wondered how they can reach there. So they made a catapult.

In old times they used to throw stones using a catapult. So they made Sayyidina Ibrāhīm sit there and threw him into the fire. Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla says, everything is in the Hand of Allāh ﷻ. He ﷻ said to the fire, “O fire,” ‘يَا نَارُ كُونِي بَرْدًا وَسَلَامًا عَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ’, ‘Yā Nāru Kūnī Bardāan Wa Salāmāan `Alá ‘Ibrāhīm’, ‘O fire, be coolness and safety upon Ibrahim.’ (Qur’ān 21:69).

“Be cool, and let there be greenery and water for Ibrāhīm ‘alayhi s-salām.” It was a very strong fire, they couldn’t do anything to Sayyidina Ibrāhīm. Allāh ﷻ made this a miracle for people to follow Sayyidina Ibrāhīm ‘alayhi s-salām.

Still, because of Nimrod’s proudness he didn’t accept what happened. He didn’t accept to follow Ibrāhīm ‘alayhi s-salām. He was preparing a big army to go against Sayyidina Ibrāhīm ‘alayhi s-salām. Allāh ﷻ also made a miracle with a very small, very weak insect. He sent them a mosquito. The mosquitoes were coming like clouds upon them. There was an army, an army wearing iron. This mosquito entered through them.

Allāh ﷻ gave these mosquitoes a power different from the ones in our time. They attacked them leaving skeletons. They ate everything. Some of them were running away. And Nimrod also ran away and locked himself up in his castle. But Allāh ﷻ sent him the weakest of mosquitoes. It was even disabled. It entered from his nose reaching his brain, and began to eat.

Every time it ate, he was aching so much that he was hitting his head and it stopped for a little bit. Slowly slowing this mosquito – this was also a miracle of Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla – it was becoming bigger and bigger. So they must hit his head even harder. This is because Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla wants to torture him in dunyā before ākhirah, for him to accept but he didn’t.

This is the characteristic of human beings. Some people when they have something, they don’t [accept] – the worst attribute of human beings is proudness. To see some people lower than them. For this, he was seeing everyone lower than him. So, he didn’t accept at all.

They were still doing this for a long time. In the end, he was shouting from pain. They heard him and hit his head very strongly, it broke. He died because his head opened but this mosquito was still alive and became as the size of a bird; that big.

Of course, there are many miracles of prophet Sayyidina Ibrāhīm ‘alayhi s-salām. He is also the father of prophets, many, hundreds of prophets. His lineage was divided into two, one descending from Sayyidina Is’hāk and one from Sayyidina Ismail. From Sayyidina Is’hāk was coming Sayyidina Musa and others, banī Isrāil. All these were descendants of Sayyidina Is’hāk ‘alayhi s-salām.

And Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam descended from Sayyidina Ismail. So he is the grand father of Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. For this, he ﷺ was also saying in ḥadīth, his heart was full of belief, īmān. For this, every time in salah, prayer, we say, “wa ‘ala āli Sayyidina Ibrāhīm.” We mention Sayyidina Ibrāhīm also in every prayer.

Sayyidina Ibrāhīm ‘alayhi s-salām had also done many things. One of them, the biggest one – one of the pillars of Islām; which we must perform: Ḥajj. He built the Ka’bah. He and Sayyidina Ismail built the Ka’bah. And it is of course big, maybe 10 to 12 meters long. They were taking and building. And this is also one miracle and it’s still there. It’s a miracle how he’s built the Ka’bah.

In front of the Ka’bah is maqām Ibrāhīm. Some people destroyed Ka’bah many times but they couldn’t destroy this. Because this was the [ladder] to build the Ka’bah. He was standing on this stone and the stone was going up, coming down, like this. When he wanted to put a one up, he would stand on this stone. Because it was only he and his son Ismail ‘alayhi s-salām. There wasn’t anybody to help them.

AlhamduliLlah when he finished, Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla told him, “Call people to come to ḥajj to make pilgrimage.” But there was nobody around this area; only both of them. But he didn’t say anything. He was just calling people to come for pilgrimage; like the adhan. But there wasn’t anybody there.

Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam says, this adhan means that anyone who’s been or will be to ḥajj has heard this adhan. So millions and billions of people had heard this, and after centuries, after thousands of years, they came to this invitation. This is the invitation of Allāh ﷻ through Sayyidina Ibrāhīm ‘alayhi s-salām.

May Allāh ﷻ make our heart like his, as Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam said. “الصَّابِرِينَ وَالصَّادِقِينَ وَالْقَانِتِينَ وَالْمُنفِقِينَ وَالْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ بِالْأَسْحَارِ”, “Aş-Şābirīna Wa Aş-Şādiqīna WaAl-Qānitīna Wa Al-Munfiqīna WaAl-Mustaghfirīna Bil-‘Asĥāri”, “The patient, the truthful, the obedient, those who spend [in the way of Allah ], and those who seek forgiveness before dawn.” (Qur’ān 03:17), says Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

To be asking for forgiveness, to pray in night and day and to ask for forgiveness from Allāh ﷻ. May Allāh ﷻ bless you all, in shā’a Llāh, in this way, to have like the heart of Sayyidina Ibrāhīm ‘alayhi s-salām. May Allāh ﷻ bless you.

Wa min Allah at-Tawfiq.

Al-Fatiha.

•⁠ ⁠Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbaniق

24 October 2025/ 2 Jumada Al- Awwal 1447

San Esteban Dergah – Córdoba, Argentina

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