 My beloved brothers and sisters this is a beautiful day of Eid. This day of Eid goes back to the sunnah of Ibrahim علیہ السلام and we celebrated because it was the instruction of Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ given to محمد صلى اللہ علیہ وسلم to inform us about what happened to Ibrahim علیہ سلام and to celebrate it as a result. Had it not been for the instruction of Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ to محمد صلى اللہ علیہ وسلم to ask us to celebrate this day we would not have celebrated it. And this goes to show that everything we celebrate as Muslim as an act of worship is connected to the instruction of Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ We also know that the story of Ibrahim علیہ وسلام appears in the scriptures of the Jews as well as the Christians. But we also know that the most accurate narration of this particular story of Ibrahim علیہ وسلام happens to be in the Quran and in the sunnah of محمد صلى اللہ علیہ وسلم if we find for example details that are against what the Quran has come with or against what the sunnah of محمد صلى اللہ علیہ وسلم is we will actually discount those details because they are against what was revealed to محمد صلى اللہ علیہ وسلم for example the issue of who the person was who was sacrificed according to us and according to the Quran and the sunnah of محمد صلى اللہ علیہ وسلم it was اسمائیل علیہ وسلم and according to the previous scriptures it was the prophet ishaq علیہ وسلم we believe that there was tampering that occurred with the previous scriptures in a way that they changed it such that they said it is ishaq or Isaac may peace be upon him solely because they felt that if they said it was اسمائیل علیہ وسلم then it would not be any merit for them because Jesus and Moses or Isa علیہ وسلم and Musa علیہ وسلم were connected to ishaq علیہ وسلم and not to اسمائیل علیہ وسلم so we believe it was changed we believe the scripture and the correct narration is what appears in the Quran and the sunnah of محمد صلى اللہ علیہ وسلم historically also it is proven because اسمائیل علیہ وسلم was given birth to after a long time and he was the son who was alive at the time so to say it was ishaq when he wasn't even born is something that is definitely rejected we ask Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ to help us understand the accuracy of the narrations in the Quran and the fact that they can never ever be a contradiction or a mistake in the revelation that Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ has sent so one might ask what is the big deal regarding the story of Ibrahim علیہ وسلم I've been asked the question as well that why Ibrahim علیہ وسلم why not Adam علیہ وسلم he was the first why not Nooh علیہ وسلم the reality is yes these were all messengers of Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ they were indeed powerful people they were chosen by Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ they brought a similar message in fact when it came to worship they brought the exact message in that all the messengers of Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ called towards worshipping one Allah worship your maker your maker alone do not associate partners with Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ so all the messengers brought exactly the same message when it came to worship when it came to believe they all taught their people to believe in the angels to believe in the fact that they have been scriptures sent by Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ those that had been revealed before the particular messenger and those that were to come afterwards they all gave glad tidings of another messenger who was to come after them and Muhammadﷺ being the last messenger of Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ so in that regard they all brought exactly the same message what was different how Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ wants to be worshipped he chose that at the time of every prophet there would be differences in how I will be worshipped although I will be worshipped alone for example the salah that we just fulfilled now how we read it was as per the instruction of Muhammadﷺ the salah of the Christians is different when Jesusﷺ was sent by Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ he taught them a different way of prayer but it was also known as salah or a prayer similarly when it comes to Ibrahimﷺ the exact method of prayer would not be the same as what we have today you and I would know that the qiblah we face was an instruction to Muhammadﷺ by Allahﷺ after he arrived in Madinah مناورہ سبحانہ اللہ so before that they used to face Baitul Makdis they used to face Jerusalem and who knows perhaps before that they may have even faced somewhere else if it was the instruction of Allah and perhaps maybe it was not related to us but it was not connected to us and if it was not given to us as information we do not need to know all we know is whatever the instruction of Allah was they followed it so are we following the instruction of Allah for us and to us may Allah make it easy for us to understand these instructions and this is where we take a look at the life of Ibrahimﷺ the speciality of it as a young boy he started questioning he was questioning his father he was questioning his family members he was questioning his community members this was loved by Allahﷺ to ask questions why are you doing this why is this happening how come you are carving idols and people are worshipping these idols they are literally believing that these things can bring us goodness and they can alleviate the suffering we are going through perhaps ward off the evil or the sadness and these are just stones and pieces of wood that have been carved so they told him stop asking questions I'm sure you and I know when a little child asks too many questions we tell him keep quiet stop asking too many questions the reality is my brothers and sisters let's learn a lesson children are inquisitive if you do not answer your child they will get the wrong answer from somewhere else and by that time you might regret it will be too late so when a child asks a question answer it in an appropriate manner sometimes you need to answer it like an adult they are waiting for an answer that is convincing in the sense that you might want to word it in a manner that they understand it according to their age but the answer will never be and should never be a lie don't lie to your children don't tell them something just to get them off your back no if you don't know it tell them I'll tell you next week we will sit and talk about this thing here next week and it gives you one whole week to go and prepare the answer go and ask go and find out the problem with us sometimes we are guilty of not knowing something and as a result we just tell our children that you know what don't ask may Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ forgive us may Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ help us for example today on the globe so many things are happening there is a lot of chaos and confusion sometimes we don't know the Islamic rulings regarding certain things when the children come to ask us and we don't have an answer perhaps they will continue asking others they didn't get it from you may Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ help us may he make us from those who realize the importance of responding to the children so Ibrahim ڈلیٰﷺ began to ask his father the answer was not satisfactory they shut him up literally they kept him quiet and they told him listen stop asking you follow as he said why should I do this how can I ask an idol that does not meaning this idol is unable to ward off a fly that sits on it and you want me to say oh idol give me goodness give me this give me that and I see flies sitting I see things happening the idol cannot help itself let alone others the idol cannot ward off evil from itself how will it ward off evil from myself and all the other people so they warned him they said hey you be careful we will punish you if you begin to continue in this way or if you continue in this way and what happened is as a result he hatched a plan he decided you know what I cannot allow this thing to happen and I want to fix them up fix them up in the sense that I want to make them think they don't want to talk to me let's engage in a different type of a discussion what is the discussion they are saying these idols give goodness these idols come forth with so much of control they have a lot of control of what happens around us so let me break up all these idols and prove to them the idols didn't do anything so there was a day of celebration that they all had gone out and he told them I'm sick sick here not meaning physically ill but he was sick and tired of what they were doing he was fed up basically of what they were doing so it's not a lie in the sense that he was sick of what they were doing but physically he was well he was healthy mentally he was extremely healthy nabi of Allah chose and by Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ but this was in his young days and then he decided to stay back and when they all went away he destroyed all of the idols besides the big one intentionally he kept it and he hung the axe on the neck of the big one and as they came back and they were shocked what happened to these idols they had a system whereby the wealthy would afford bigger idols so what would happen is when you have a big problem you need to go to a rich man to say can I borrow your idol this is how they were thinking imagine how the mind was so if you have a small problem the daily issues the small little idol you might have with you here and there and they would call out to it but when you have a major problem I need to have something big and if it was a huge issue they would go to those that were semi immobile so to speak not able to move them unless with extreme difficulty so he destroyed all of them and he kept this big one they came back and they asked the question what happened and someone said oh we heard that there was a young man this young man Ibrahim he was talking about this so it must be him when they went to question him guess what happened for the first time they had a decent discussion now they had to talk to him because he thought of a plan now they came to him what happened here oh Ibrahim initially they didn't want to talk to him he said what do you mean what happened here go and ask that big one if he speaks see how he added it on he says go and ask the big one then he says if he speaks which means if there is no speech coming from him then you should know that all this is just a waste they felt so insulted because they knew within themselves that where are we going to talk to these idols so the point was made he won completely but guess what nobody accepted everyone was so fearful of society of what the forefathers used to do everyone was so scared of the norms in the community they said whether this is right or wrong we are not going to ask we will continue doing whatever has been done all along he was the only man the only man and later on after some time he was granted nubuwa by Allah he was given prophethood when he was given prophethood saara his wife accepted the message and lute alayhi salatu wasalam at the time a young boy the nephew of ibrahim alayhi salam he accepted the message the narrations make mention of just the two of them two people imagine the nabi of Allah no following just two people and that's it and he was one of the greatest of the prophets of Allah so much so that narrations make mention of the fact that after Muhammadﷺ he is the greatest of the prophets of Allah the prophet ibrahim alayhi salatu wasalam so at that particular juncture they decided to punish him penalize him in several different ways they decided to cast him into the fire and as you know the fire became cold by the instruction of Allah why that's the question you want miracles in your life i want miracles in my life something needs to happen i need to develop a link with Allah that is strong when i've recognized Allah i need to understand he will instruct me to do things that sometimes will not make sense to me but for as long as i know it was Allah who instructed me and the source of this instruction is my maker himself i must never question this is the meaning of the term Islam this is why when you hear several of the messengers they say i am the first to submit i am the first to believe which means if there is anything coming in this direction here i am i am the first one to submit so ibrahim alayhi salatu wasalam he submitted to Allah he recognized Allah do you know there are verses in the Quran where mention is made of him having looked at the stars and asking a question having looked at the moon and asking a question having looked at the sun and asking a question what was the question the question was could this be Lord the answer is no so some of the ahadith make mention of a very interesting point that ibrahim alayhi salatu wasalam never ever worshiped the stars nor did he consider worshiping them from the beginning he didn't worship them he did not consider worshiping them if you read the verse it seems like he considered to worship them because he's asking the question this is the star or these are the stars and perhaps they could be God and then he says no they disappeared my God does not disappear the truth is that incident happened in a place known as harran in harran there were people who were also worshiping the stars and worshiping deities besides Allah SWT so he raised the question not because he was considering it but for the same reason that he raised the questions with the idols to say that could this be God and then when he disappeared he said look it can't be because it disappeared that was just a way of talking to them a way of communicating to them so sometimes people feel that ibrahim alayhi salatu wasalam was considering this he was considering that the truth is his status is higher than that he did not consider worshiping the sun he did not consider worshiping the moon but he raised the question so that the people could hear the answer so that what they were doing would actually be nullified from proven points may Allah SWT guide us all so once he recognized Allah at the end of that discussion in harran the Quran says Allah SWT says that ibrahim alayhi salatu wasalam said ووجہت وجہی عللہ دی فطر Production I have turned my face to the one who created the skies or the skies and the earth and I have turned my face to him alone in a clean cut way I will worship him alone and I will not associate partners with him یہ ایک خطر ہے۔ now اللہ سبحانہ و تعالیٰ decided to test him in a bigger way. What was the bigger way? The bigger way is, oh ابراہم, we are instructing you to sacrifice your son اسمائیل علیہ السلام و صلاحیلہ وسلم and he was given to ابراہم علیہ السلام after a period of time. Guess what happened. ابراہم علیہ السلام و صلاحیلہ وسلم he knew the source of the instruction so he didn't ask a single question immediately this instruction came through a dream he spoke to his son and his son was given such a brilliant upbringing so brilliant the relationship was so strong that when ابراہم علیہ السلام و صلاحیلہ وسلم told his son that you know I had a dream now his son knows that this dream cannot be just an ordinary dream because this man is a messenger of اللہ سبحانہ و تعالیٰ my dream was that I was sacrificing you for Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ so what do you think you know the term used in the quran i have seen in my dream that I am sacrificing you so look into it what is your opinion look into it what do you see what is your view he says my father do as you are instructed he understood the dream is an instruction and also he said my father if it's coming from Allah that's it you will indeed find me from among those who are patient I will take it if it's from Allah we take it let it happen so you and I know how the how it ended سبحانہ و اللہ where the two of them went Shaytan try to deceive them try to distract them they kept on pelting the devil and continuing until they ended in a position whereby this body of the child was replaced by a ram from جنہ and this is the sunnah we are following and as a result اللہ سبحانہ و تعالیٰ gave ابراہیم علیہ السلام so many gifts a result of what a result of continuously following the instruction of Allah whether he understood it or not it is clear for everyone that you will never as a human being understand the wisdom behind a question to you or an instruction to you to sacrifice your own son you and I would refuse obviously completely and immediately because this instruction for you and I we are not prophets of Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ you know there is an incident of a man in fact اسمعیل علیہ السلام at one stage when he was in مکت المکرمہ he was married and his father ابراہیم علیہ السلام visited the home in his absence so there happened to be a discussion between the daughter in law and the father in law and the father in law was not satisfied so he asked his son to divorce this wife of his but in a way that the instruction was given to the woman herself that when my son comes back let him know that you know the door step is not right he needs to get rid of it which means you know you're the person who welcomes us at the door is لہذا وہ اپنی بھائی کے لئے جانتا ہے اور پہلے اپنی بھائی کے لئے جانتا ہے جانتا ہے کہ وہ بھائی کے لئے جانتا ہے now the difficulty is and the point i'm raising is today people sometimes out of their weakness of understanding say i'm the father and i instruct you to divorce this wife of yours so some people come and ask a question to say look is that the status of a father look at what happened to ibrahim علیہ السلام that's the evidence they use that he instructed the son and the son obliged so i'm instructing you you must oblige so we say you are not ibrahim and he is not ismail you are not a prophet of Allah and he is not the son of a prophet if you were a prophet indeed it was going to be an instruction he was going to have to take from you so don't come about saying that because i am a father and ibrahim علیہ السلام was a father my instruction is complete according to us and according to what we've been taught by Muhammad علیہ السلام when you are instructed an instruction by your own parents you need to ask yourself firstly is this correct or is it wrong if it is wrong in the eyes of Allah سبحانہ وتعالیٰ you throw it out of the window no matter who instructed you and if it is correct you will acknowledge it you will accept it you will adopt it because it for it it comes within what Allah سبحانہ وتعالیٰ has instructed so similarly we cannot say that when we have seen a dream to do something of this nature that it's an instruction for us it's not an instruction for you that's the point i'm raising it is not an instruction for you it was only in an instruction for the messenger of Allah سبحانہ وتعالیٰ for you and i we have other instructions that are far more simple i ask you a question my brothers and sisters which is a more difficult instruction want to sacrifice a son or want to get up for salatul fajr سبحانہ اللہ there is no comparison salatul fajr is minor it's something small compared to the other instruction but look at how weak we are we want the miracles of Allah we want solution to our problems but we are not prepared to dress appropriately just appropriately that's all what Allah has instructed Allah says you dress you cover this and you cover that and this is how it should be we're not prepared but we want the miracles in our life just like ابراہم علیہ الصلاة والسلام where is the logic if you want a miracle Allah says okay i've given you simple instruction follow them let's see your dedication we will give you the miracle so much so that when the miracle doesn't come we will make you so happy and content that you will be convinced that whatever Allah has done is better for me sometimes we are asking a dua to Allah سبحانہ وتعالیٰ oh Allah give me this oh Allah give me that and we don't know it's bad for us and we are crying for years on end oh Allah i want this i really want this yallah give it to me and we are good muslimin we follow the instruction of Allah trust me if we are really good muslimin we understand that if Allah has kept something away from you as desperately as you may have wanted it perhaps it was not good for you that's something you need to know may Allah سبحانہ وتعالیٰ help us this is something we learn from ibraheem علیہ الصلاة والسلام story that he constantly obeyed the instruction of Allah even though this particular instruction did not make sense to him not at all he didn't doubt because of the source سبحانہ اللہ with us instructions that make sense to us we know we see the light we've been explained everything to by muhammad صلاح اللہ سلام still sometimes we find ourselves you know dilly dally may Allah forgive us so a day of عید is a day of reconciliation a day to turn to Allah سبحانہ وتعالیٰ a day to make peace with Allah سبحانہ وتعالیٰ oh Allah my bad ways my bad habit i'm cutting them out and this is why the علمہ the فقہا the محدیفین so many of the scholars of islam they have spoken about the sacrifice the quran says اِنَّا لَلَّہَ لُحُومُوْہَ وَلَا دِمَا اُوْہَ وَلَا کِنَّا لُوْ تَقْوَا مِنْکُمْ from the sacrifice the meat is not going to get to Allah the blood is not going to get to Allah سبحانہ وتعالیٰ what reaches Allah the piety out of it the consciousness of Allah that you achieved through it today let's take a look you have a cow and everyone says wow that's beautiful i paid so much per kilo do you know that you have an animal you see the big goats ماشا اللہ or the sheep and you're so excited سبحان اللہ and people say look at that goat we're going to enjoy the meat don't stop there the enjoyment is part of the the celebration but the point is not the meat and the point is not the blood it is did you slice out or sacrifice or cut out your bad habits as you were sacrificing that animal to say oh Allah your instruction to ibrahim علیہ السلام i am fulfilling today so all your other instructions to me i need to fulfill even before this سبحان اللہ امیزی it's something logical simple straightforward so you turn to Allah what you and i should be achieving when we witness the sacrifice in the next few days is closeness to Allah سبحانہ وتعالیٰ to say oh Allah this animal has been the life of it has been taken in the most humane way and we will eat we will enjoy but the lesson from it oh Allah forgive me my sins my ways my habits my weaknesses allah strengthen me make me strong and don't think you're a strong person without calling out to Allah no matter how powerful you think you are no matter how intelligent you think you are make dua to Allah ask Allah oh Allah help me no matter how wealthy no matter whatever you have in life continue to ask Allah it is only through the mercy of Allah only through the mercy of Allah سبحانہ وتعالیٰ that you have achieved what you have and you will continue to have it and you will achieve in the future as well so a person who has good health for example they cannot think to themselves i've got good health so i don't need to make dua to Allah to say oh Allah give me good health no way if Allah wants he can take it away now he can take it away here it has happened to other people so you say oh Allah i thank you for what you have given me and i ask you not to take it away from me and i ask you increase in it سبحانہ اللہ that's a three fold dua thank Allah for what you have ask him not to take it away and ask him to give you more this is indeed something noble سبحانہ اللہ and when you are tested you need to tell yourself they were people better than me who were tested with bigger tests than this and this is the reason why look at محمد صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم ستڑی his life you will find that he has been tested in a bigger way than any one of us could ever have been tested سبحانہ اللہ this is the love of Allah سبحانہ وتعالیٰ so my beloved brothers and sisters here is the sunnah of ابراہیم علیہ الصلاة والسلام i've presented to you the reasons why اللہ سبحانہ وتعالیٰ open the doors for ابراہیم علیہ الصلاة والسلام پرامیری ریزن is he followed the instruction of Allah even the instructions that did not make sense to him the fact that he knew it came from Allah سبحانہ وتعالیٰ he immediately surrendered to it the lesson i learned and i would like to share with you is in my life no matter what when an instruction comes from Allah i need to make an effort to fulfill it as Allah wants it i need to make an effort to understand that Allah has blessed me he's tested me with easy easy tests compared to the rest or compared to others may Allah make it easy for us all similarly when it comes to ابراہیم علیہ الصلاة والسلام from his offspring you find Allah has chosen that all the prophets to follow were from his family all of them سبحان اللہ they were from his family just like نوح علیہ الصلاة والسلام he called out to his people for 950 years and he lived in their midst for even longer what did Allah give him as a gift do you want to hear Allah says in the Qur'an و جعلنا ذوریتہو we ensured that his family were the only family that actually continued in terms of giving birth the rest of them who were with him on the ark no one gave birth did you ever know this that نوح علیہ الصلاة والسلام is a common father for all of us before or closer than آدم علیہ السلام if someone says i'm related to you they're not telling you a lie they are related because we are all born from parents and the route goes back to آدم علیہ السلام but there is a closer relation than that what is it نوح علیہ السلام he's a common forefather of all of us Allah says as a gift to نوح علیہ الصلاة والسلام the rest of the people who came after were only from his family the others they passed away they did not have children سبحان اللہ this is a gift so ibrahim علیہ الصلاة والسلام as well it's amazing how he was given the gift of Allah سبحان اللہ all the messengers to follow from his family including محمد صلا اللہ علیہ وسلم from the family of ibrahim علیہ السلام through the lineage of his معیل علیہ الصلاة والسلام سمجھللی ibrahim علیہ الصلاة والسلام نے دواز at a certain point every single دواز he made was given to him he made دواز for مکہ allah make the people's hearts want to come there who from amongst us wouldn't like to go today to مکہ سبحان اللہ he says allah give them fruit give them vegetable obviously that place is desert but go and see what fruit is there that's the دواز اللہ's miracle up to today it's amazing let us understand when you show dedication to Allah Allah سبحان اللہ علیہ وسلم will grant you he will bestow upon you he will definitely give you he will open the doors for you the difficulty is we hear a powerful talk or we hear a decent reminder and we start saying okay i'm turning to Allah so today we read five salah tomorrow morning we get up for fajr and after salahatul fajr we come and say look i've called out to Allah but he still hasn't given me subhan Allah you become impatient this is what happens to man you dedicate yourself for two weeks and after two weeks everything is gone that's not how it is it is a dedication of a lifetime until you die on that condition my prayer my sacrifice whatever i've done for Allah سبحانہ واتعالح my life my death is all for the sake of Allah سبحانہ واتعالح may Allah سبحانہ واتعالح grant us goodness and may Allah سبحانہ واتعالح open our doors it is a lesson that we learn from the life of ibrahim علیہ السلام i just want to end by saying my brothers and sisters think for a minute the tests we have in our lives are nothing compared to what came to ibrahim علیہ السلام let us try our best to earn the pleasure of Allah سبحانہ واتعالح by changing ourselves in the way that we get closer to Allah adjust your life so that it suits Allah سبحانہ واتعالح or it pleases Allah سبحانہ واتعالح let's never ever make changes to our lives that distance us