Al-Shu'ara: (83 - 89) My Lord, grant me...

It is known that after Allah Almighty recounted the praise of Abraham (peace be upon him) to Allah Almighty, He then mentioned his supplication and request. This serves as an indication that presenting praise before supplication is of paramount importance.

The deeper meaning is that these human souls are of the same genus as the angels. The more intensely they are occupied with knowing and loving Allah Almighty and being drawn toward the spiritual realm, the more complete their resemblance to the angels becomes. Consequently, they gain greater power to act upon the bodies in this world. Conversely, the more intensely they are occupied with the pleasures of this world and immersed in the darkness of their physicality, the more their resemblance to beasts increases, leading to greater helplessness, weakness, and less influence in this world.

Therefore, whoever intends to engage in supplication must first offer praise to Allah, mentioning His greatness and majesty. Through this remembrance, the supplicant becomes immersed in the knowledge and love of Allah, achieving a close resemblance to the angels. This resemblance grants him a divine, celestial power, making him the origin point for the occurrence of the thing requested in the supplication. This reveals the essence of supplication and clarifies that presenting praise before supplication is obligatory. This also confirms the truth of the saying narrated from Allah Almighty: "Whoever is preoccupied with My remembrance from asking Me, I will give him something better than what I give to those who ask."

If someone asks: Why did Abraham (peace be upon him) not limit himself to praise, especially since it is narrated that he also said, "The knowledge of my state is sufficient for me regarding my request"?

The answer is that he mentioned this when he was engaged in calling creation to the Truth. Do you not see that he said: {For they are enemies to me, except the Lord of the Worlds} (Al-Shu'ara: 77), then mentioned the praise, and then mentioned the supplication? This is because the Lawgiver must teach the Law. However, when he was alone, and his purpose was not teaching the Law, he would suffice with saying: "The knowledge of my state is sufficient for me regarding my request."

The Second Inquiry: Concerning the Matters Requested in the Supplication

These are the required requests:

Allah Almighty answered him by saying: {And indeed, in the Hereafter, he will be among the righteous} (Al-Baqarah: 130).

This contains several points:

1. It is not permissible to interpret wisdom (Hukm) as prophethood. Prophethood was already attained by him. If he were asking for prophethood, the requested prophethood would either be the existing one (which is impossible, as attaining the attained is impossible) or another one (which is impossible, as one person cannot be a prophet twice). Rather, wisdom refers to the perfection of the theoretical faculty (the power of intellect), which is achieved through perceiving the Truth.
2. His saying {and join me with the righteous} refers to the perfection of the practical faculty, which is acting upon good. The perfection of a human being is to know the Truth for its own sake and the Good for the sake of acting upon it.
3. He prioritized {grant me wisdom} over {and join me with the righteous} because the theoretical faculty precedes the practical faculty in nobility and by nature. Furthermore, one can know the Truth even without knowing the Good, but the reverse is not possible. Also, knowledge is a quality of the spirit, while action is a quality of the body. Since the spirit is nobler than the body, knowledge is superior to action.
4. We interpret the knowledge of things as wisdom because a person only knows the realities of things when he brings the forms of their essences to mind, and then relates some to others through negation or affirmation. This relation is judgment (Hukm). If these mental relations conform to the external relations, these mental relations become unchangeable and strong. Such perception is called wisdom (Hikmah). This is what is meant by the saying: "Show us things as they truly are."
5. Righteousness (Salah) is the rational faculty being balanced between the two vices of excess (Ifrat) and deficiency (Tafrit). Excess in one aspect is deficiency in the other, and vice versa. True righteousness is only achieved through moderation. Since true moderation is a single, indivisible thing, and human intellects in this world are incapable of fully grasping such things, humans inevitably deviate from that limit, even slightly. The deviation of the near ones is so slight it is imperceptible, while the deviation of sinners is very pronounced. This clarifies the saying: "The good deeds of the righteous are the sins of the near ones," and shows why Abraham (peace be upon him) needed to say: {and join me with the righteous}.

Since wisdom is established as knowledge, it is established that he asked Allah to grant him knowledge of Allah and His Attributes. This indicates that the knowledge of Allah does not enter a servant's heart except through the creation of Allah. His saying {and join me with the righteous} indicates that a servant's righteousness is also only through the creation of Allah. Attributing these matters to divine favors (Lutf) is far-fetched, because, according to the opponent, Allah has already bestowed all possible favors. If we attribute the request to that, it would be a request to obtain what is already obtained, which is false.

The wisdom requested in the supplication is either knowledge of Allah or knowledge of something else. The latter is false because when a person is focused on knowing one thing, he cannot simultaneously be focused on knowing something else. If the requested knowledge were of something other than Allah, and that knowledge distracted him from immersion in the knowledge of Allah, then this request would be asking for something that distracts him from the highest state of immersion—which is impossible, as there is no perfection beyond that immersion. Therefore, the requested knowledge is the knowledge of Allah.

Furthermore, this knowledge of Allah is either the knowledge necessary for the validity of faith (which must be present in all believers, so why would it be absent in Abraham?) or something more. If it were the former, its request would be impossible if already present. Thus, what is requested is degrees of knowledge of Allah that exceed the knowledge of His existence, His being non-corporeal, not residing in a body, and His being All-Knowing, All-Powerful, and Living. This must be attaining the stations of Majesty, or grasping the reality of the Essence, or the manifestation of the light of that knowledge in the heart. Beyond this, there are states that cannot be expressed by speech or imagined by fancy. Whoever wishes to reach them should be among those who arrive at the reality, not merely those who hear the reports.

This has three interpretations:

The First Interpretation: He began by requesting the inherent perfection for a human in this world and the Hereafter, which is the request for wisdom (knowledge). Then, he requested the perfections of this world, and after that, the perfections of the Hereafter.

The perfections of this world are partly internal and partly external.

• Internal perfections relate to outward character (Khalq Zahir) and inward character (Khalq Batin). Outward character is more physical, and inward character is more spiritual. Abraham (peace be upon him) abandoned the physical aspect (outward character) and requested the spiritual aspect (inward character), which is meant by {and join me with the righteous}.
• External perfections are wealth and status. Wealth is more physical, and status is more spiritual. Abraham (peace be upon him) abandoned the physical aspect (wealth) and requested the spiritual aspect (status and the beautiful, lasting reputation among later generations), which is meant by {And grant me a truthful tongue among later generations}. Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said that this was granted to him by the saying: {And We left behind for him among later generations} (Al-Shu'ara: 84).

If it is asked: What is his purpose in having people praise and commend him? The answer has two aspects:

1. From the perspective of wisdom: We explained that human souls have an effect, though some may be weak individually. When a group gathers, their combined force might achieve what individuals could not—this is observable in physical effects. If one person is praised, commended, and revered by a great multitude, the convergence of their focus upon him might cause an increase in his perfection.
2. From the perspective of perfection: When someone becomes praised among people due to the virtues he possesses, that praise and fame become a call for others to acquire similar virtues.

The Second Interpretation: He asked his Lord to place among his descendants in the latter time someone who would call to Allah, and that person is Muhammad (peace be upon him). Thus, the meaning of {And grant me a truthful tongue among later generations} is the sending of Muhammad (peace be upon him).

The Third Interpretation: Some said the meaning is that the adherents of all religions agree in loving him. Allah granted him this, as you see that the followers of every religion hold Abraham (peace be upon him) dear. Some criticized this, saying that desiring the praise of a disbeliever is not appropriate. The response is that the intent is not to praise the disbeliever as a disbeliever, but that he should be praised by every human and loved by every heart.

When he requested the happiness of this world, he then requested the happiness of the Hereafter, which is the Garden of Bliss. He likened it to something inherited because what is gained in this world is often a spoil (Ghanimah). Thus, the spoil of the Hereafter is likened to the spoil of this world.

After finishing his requests for worldly and otherworldly happiness for himself, he requested it for the person most closely attached to him, which was his father, saying: {And forgive my father}. This has several interpretations:

1. Forgiveness is conditional upon Islam. Requesting the conditional implies requesting the condition itself. Thus, the essence of {And forgive my father} is a supplication for his father to embrace Islam.
2. His father had promised him Islam, as Allah Almighty says: {And Abraham's prayer for his father was only because of a promise he had made to him} (At-Tawbah: 114). He supplicated for him based on this condition. Supplicating for a disbeliever under this condition is permissible, until it became clear to him that he was an enemy of Allah, whereupon he disassociated himself from him. This view is weak because supplication under this condition is permissible for a disbeliever; if it were conditional, Allah would not have prevented him from it.
3. His father had told him that he was inwardly following the true religion but outwardly following Nimrod's religion out of Taqiyyah (dissimulation) and fear. Abraham supplicated for him based on this belief. When the opposite became clear to him, he disassociated himself from him, which is why he said in his supplication: {for indeed he was of those who went astray}. If he had not believed that his father was not astray at that moment, he would not have said that.

The author of Al-Kashshaf said that Ikhza' (disgrace) comes from Khizy (humiliation) or Khizayah (shame/modesty). There are several points here:

1. His saying {And do not disgrace me} indicates that nothing is obligatory upon Allah, as we explained concerning His saying: {And who I hope will forgive my sin on the Day of Recompense} (Al-Shu'ara: 82).
2. Someone might ask: Since he first said {And make me one of the inheritors of the Garden of Bliss}, and once Paradise is attained, disgrace is impossible, why did he then say {And do not disgrace me on the Day they are resurrected}? Furthermore, Allah Almighty says: {Indeed, disgrace today and evil are for the disbelievers} (An-Nahl: 27). Why would the infallible one fear what is only the lot of the disbelievers? The answer is: Just as the good deeds of the righteous are sins for the near ones, so too are the degrees of the righteous the lower ranks for the near ones. Each person will experience disgrace appropriate to his station.
3. Al-Kashshaf states that the pronoun in {they are resurrected} refers to mankind generally (as it is known) or to the astray ones.

Regarding His saying: {Except for one who comes to Allah with a sound heart} (Al-Shu'ara: 89).

Allah Almighty honored him with this description by saying: {Indeed, among His party was Abraham, when he came to his Lord with a sound heart} (As-Saffat: 83-84).

There are several interpretations of this exception:

1. If you are asked: Does Zayd have wealth and sons? You might reply: His wealth and sons are the soundness of his heart, meaning you negate wealth and sons for him and affirm the soundness of his heart instead. The same applies here.
2. We interpret the statement contextually, equating wealth and sons with richness (Ghinā). It is as if the verse means: On that Day, no wealth profits except the wealth of one who comes to Allah with a sound heart, because a man's richness in his religion is in the soundness of his heart, just as his richness in this world is in his wealth and sons.
3. We interpret man (Man) as the object, meaning: Wealth and sons do not profit anyone except a man whose heart is sound, whose wealth he spent in obedience to Allah, and whose sons he guided to the religion. Alternatively, {Except for one who comes to Allah with a sound heart} means a heart sound from the temptation of wealth and sons.

As for sound (Salīm), there are three views:

1. The most correct view: It means the heart is sound from ignorance and blameworthy characteristics. Just as bodily health is the presence of the proper temperament, composition, and connection, and sickness is the loss of one of these, so too is the soundness of the heart the presence of what is proper for it—knowledge and virtuous character—and sickness is the loss of one of them. Therefore, {Except for one who comes to Allah with a sound heart} means being free from corrupt beliefs and inclination toward worldly desires and pleasures. If it is asked: The apparent meaning of this verse implies that whoever has a sound heart is saved, and there is no need for the soundness of the tongue and hand. The answer is that the heart is the influencer, and the tongue and limbs are followers. If the heart were sound, they would inevitably be sound. Since they are not sound, the unsoundness of the heart is proven.
2. Salīm means one who is stung (overwhelmed) by the fear of Allah.
3. Salīm means one who was sound, submitted (Aslama), lived in peace (Sālama), and surrendered (Istaslama). And Allah knows best.

7 < {And Paradise will be brought near for the righteous, and Hellfire will be displayed for the misguided. And it will be said to them, "Where are those you used to worship besides Allah? Can they help you or avenge themselves?" Then they will be thrown into it—they and the misguided, and the soldiers of Iblees, all together. They will say, while arguing therein, "By Allah, we were certainly in clear error, when we equated you with the Lord of the Worlds. And none led us astray except the criminals. So now we have no intercessors, nor any close friend. If only we could have a second chance, we would be among the believers." Indeed, in that is a sign, but most of them were not to believe. And indeed, your Lord—He is the Exalted in Might, the Merciful.} > 7 !