EXTERNAL DESCRIPTION OF EBRAHIM; THE PLACE OF HIS BIRTH; THE MEANING OF HIS NAME; MENTION OF HIS TITLE AND SURNAME; HIS TRADE, AND THE LENGTH OF HIS MISSION.

His august complexion was white and red; he was full grown; his eyes were dark gray, and his breast was broad. Some say his birthplace was in the district of Sûs, which is in the region of Ahvâr; others say it was within the limits of Sakar; and, again, others aver that he was born in the country of Haran; but the most correct opinion is that he was born in the kingdom of Babel, in a place named Kûli. It is related that at his lordship’s birth twenty-seven years of Azar’s life had elapsed. It is also said that when his birth approached, his mother went away from that region, and gave birth to her infant in the bed of a large river which had become exsiccated, and having wrapped Ebrahim in swaddling-clothes, she left him there. When she returned from that place she informed his father of what had happened; whereon he went to the spot, and having arranged a subterraneous apartment near the river and closed it with a stone for fear of wild beasts, then, leaving an aperture for air, he deposited his son in it and went away. The mother of the child constantly visited the cave until the boy grew up. Vaqidi states that when Azar became aware of the pregnancy of Ebrahim’s mother he conveyed her to a place between Kufah and Bosrah called Varka, where they stayed, and Ebrahim was born, and did not return to his country until he was grown up. Accord­ing to another tradition, his noble birth took place in a cavern. The most correct account is that which has been recorded above; but Allah is most wise!

The etymological meaning of the word ‘Ebrahim’ is con­tained in the words Ab râhum—‘compassionate father’; his surname is ‘the Friend of the Merciful’ and ‘the Friend of Allah’; his title is ‘the father of guests’ and ‘the father of prophets’; he is also called ‘the father of Muhammad.’

The Lord Muhammad the elect—u. w. b., etc.—says: Ebrahim was circumcised with a hatchet when he was eighty years old; the following tradition is, however, the reverse of the above opinion, which has been taken from various historians; but possibly they were not acquainted therewith: it is said by some that his lordship was even older at the time of his circumcision. Several scholars assert that Qadûm is the name of a place in Syria, others, again, say that Qadûm means a hatchet wherewith his lordship, the asylum of friendship, circumcised himself in his eightieth year, and this ordinance of that exalted prophet will subsist till the end of the world. Another of the customs which his lordship introduced is the wearing of trousers, since the revelation was addressed to him by the Almighty, w. n. b. e.: ‘Thou art the one of My people whom I love most; it is not fit that the ground should see thy hidden parts whilst thou art praying;’ accordingly Ebrahim made himself trousers. It is also generally known that the laws of hospitality have been invented by him, and he always ate his dinner and supper in the company of guests. In the blessed locality of his sepulture the con­vivial ordinances will subsist till the day of the resurrection, and the tongues of all bless and praise him, because in those primeval days he directed persons who wandered thirsty in the desert of exclusion to the fountain-head of knowledge. In the prime of his youth and in the strength of his manhood he determined to establish the worship of the Creator in the world, convinced disputants, and over­came conquerers. The Almighty—w. n. b. e.—absolves him in the blessed Qurân from the pretensions of the Jews and of the Christians, testifying to his sincerity and to his resignation to the will of Allah.* At the age of thirty or of twenty-seven years, he invited Nimrud and his followers to the orthodox religion, and was thrown into the fire. He was the first who chose flight for the sake of the religion of the Lord and Benefactor, and is the first individual who will in paradise be invested with ornaments. He is the Emâm of mankind according to the word of God, w. n. b. e.: ‘I have appointed thee to be an Emâm [i.e. leader] of men.’* Ebrahim established the custom of fighting with swords, of dividing booty, of cutting the hair of the lip, picking the teeth, gargling the throat, pulling out the hair of the armpits, shaving the hair of the pudenda, cutting nails, purification by water, inviting guests, feeding the poor, finding and obtaining inherited property, etc. The chief of created beings [i.e. Muhammad]—upon whom be the most excellent blessings—has, notwithstanding his perfect nobleness of mind and high dignity, been commanded to follow him, in the verse: ‘Follow then the orthodox religion of Ebrahim.’* The perfections of his lordship the Friend of the Merciful were numerous, and his customs and habits many; but to this day each of his good acts has become an ordinance practised and believed by those who profess the religion of Muhammad, u. w. b., etc., and the musk-dropping reed, having been unable to enumerate all his laudable qualities, here closes their abridged recital.

Having always been engaged in agriculture, his occupa­tion may be said to have been farming. He also made strenuous efforts to build towns, and to colonize districts, many of which attained a flourishing condition during the lifetime of his lordship and of his pure descendants. The learned say that the duration of his blessed life was one hundred and seventy-five years. Qitby says he lived two hundred years, but Masu’di states, in his ‘Akhbâr-uz-zamân,’ that his life amounted to one hundred and ninety-five years. Muhammad Bin Fahr-ud-din Banagiti gives him one hundred and twenty-three, and others one hundred and twenty-nine years, but the most current tradition is that of Emâm Masu’di. It is recorded in the ‘Rauzat-ullâhbâb’ that he expired suddenly. It is stated in the ‘Jâmi’ Aa’zim’ that he departed from this painful and contemptible abode to the blessed mansions of paradise on a Friday, the 9th of Muharram, after having kept to his bed twenty days. May the benediction of Allah be upon him, as well as upon all the prophets and messengers of divine tidings.