Why Ibrahim Was Called the Friend of Allah

It is related that Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was asked why Allah (swt) had called him His khalīl, His friend — by what means he had come to receive such a rank, such a status, as Friend of Allah, Ibrāhīm Khalīlullāh. Adam (peace be upon him) had been named Ṣafiyyullāh, the chosen of Allah; Musa (peace be upon him), Kalīmullāh, the one Allah spoke to directly; ʿIsa (peace be upon him), Rūḥullāh, a spirit from Him; and Muhammad Muṣṭafā (peace be upon him), Ḥabībullāh, the Beloved of Allah. What, then, were Ibrahim's own attributes, that earned him his own title?

He answered, it is said, with three things, very simple answers. The first: whenever he had an option to choose between what Allah (swt) commanded him to do and what other people asked or demanded of him to do, he always preferred, always gave priority to, what Allah (swt) commanded. Suppose there is a television on, and at the same moment the call to prayer, the adhān, is heard, calling him to attend to the prayer: Ibrahim's own answer was always the prayer first, because Allah's (swt) command takes over every other command, Allah's (swt) order takes over everything else. It is no different for anyone with half an hour of work left to finish when the adhān is called: the excuse that a meeting is still continuing, that the prayer can wait until it has finished, carries no weight whatever — the adhān is a call to Allah (swt), and there are no excuses.