Ibrāhīm and the Axe

The sūrah then continues, with much discussion of tawḥīd, of nubuwwah, of the resurrection and the return to life, of the reckoning, and the rest. All of that is given.

And then — why is it called Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ? From verse 51 the second half of this sūrah is wholly about the prophets.

It begins with the story of Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him), where he begins as a young boy and cannot reconcile himself to how one may worship idols that do nothing for one. So what he does is to say: I shall wait, and I shall do something about this. He waits until the people have all gone out for some festival or whatever it was, and he goes and breaks the idols, and leaves the great one, and puts the axe, or whatever tool he used, into the hands of the great one.

When they all come back they are alarmed: what has happened to our gods? Someone mentions that there is a fellow called Ibrāhīm who is always speaking of them. Bring him along. Did you do this to our idols?

He said: bal faʿalahu kabīruhum hādhā fa-sʾalūhum in kānū yanṭiqūn. This great one here did it. Ask him. This was his way of making them think.

So they were brought to it: fa-rajaʿū ilā anfusihim fa-qālū innakum antumu al-ẓālimūn. Ask them, if they can speak. They had of course to look down at them; for they know they do not speak, and that is when it dawned upon them. But then they said: we shall punish you for this.

So they made that great fire and threw him into it. But Allah says yā nāru kūnī bardan wa salāman ʿalā Ibrāhīm: become cool. Become cool, and become a place of safety and security and good for Ibrāhīm. And he said that those were among the best days of his life, when he was in there. SubḥānAllāh.