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Study 7: Allah's Grace to Prophet
In the last lesson we looked at Allah's grace to various people
at various times. We saw that when men could not keep Allah's
law, Allah in his love and mercy made special grace arrangements
for them so that they could survive. In this study we shall be
looking at Allah's special grace arrangement for one man--,
the friend of Allah. We shall also see how the grace of
extends down even to us.
Allah promises to bless Prophet and through him
to bless all nations
We see in the that (pbuh) was born and grew up in Ur
of the Chaldees, or modern-day Iraq. His father then moved to Haran
and stayed there until his death. After the death of his father, Terah
(also known as Azhar), Allah commanded ,
The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your
people and your father's household and go to the land I will
show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless
you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will
curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
(Genesis 12:1-3)
This was indeed a beautiful promise. Allah promised to make
into a great nation. At this time had no children
so it was a very amazing promise. Allah also promised to make
his name great. Yet, this blessing was not just for .
Allah promised that through , through 's family,
Allah would bless all men. 's blessing would extend down
to all men. had faith in Allah's promise and was obedient
to him. went where Allah wanted him to go and eventually
came to the land of Canaan, which was the land Allah had promised
to him.
Prophet believes Allah's promise
(pbuh) believed Allah's promised that his descendants
would be a great nation. This required much faith because his
wife Sarah was barren. After many years had passed and they still
had no children Sarah decided it was time to do something. Sarah
took her servant Hajira (Hagar) and gave her to to be
his second wife. She soon conceived and gave birth to a baby whom they
called . However, Allah appeared again to
and repeated his previous promise to . He also added that
the promise would be fulfilled through a son to be born to Sarah.
Both and Sarah could hardly believe this because at that
time was almost 100 years old and Sarah nearly 90. Sarah
was not only barren but was now too old to bear children. Yet,
Allah assured it would happen as he said and gave as
a sign of their covenant the act of circumcision. Thus,
at 99 years of age was circumcised and had all the males of his
family circumcised. From that time on the family of has
always practiced circumcision as the sign of this covenant.
Allah fulfills the first part of his promise
Allah's promise soon came true and Sarah conceived and bore
a child. It was a baby boy whom they named . It was through
this son that Allah's promise to was to come true. Allah
also blessed and promised to make a great nation out of
him and his descendants. As it is written in the ,
Then Allah said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear
you a son, and you will call him . I will establish my covenant
with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after
him. And as for , I have heard you: I will surely bless
him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers.
He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into
a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with ,
whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year." When
he had finished speaking with , Allah went up from him.
(Genesis 17:19- 22)
However, Allah's promise to bless and to bless all
nations through him was to be fulfilled through Prophet
(pbuh). We can now look back after almost 4000 years have passed
and see how Allah's promise has come true. Prophet became
the father of Prophet who in turn became the father of
12 sons, among them Prophet (pbuh). Each of these 12
sons became the head of a tribe. By the time of the prophet
we see that these 12 tribes had increased into a huge nation.
In the remainder of the , in the and in the
we see how this large nation continued to grow and to spread
out and settle in all parts of the world.
Allah fulfills the second part of his promise
We thus see that the first part of Allah's promise to
has already been fulfilled. However, what about the second part
of the blessing? Got also said that through seed all
the nations on earth would be blessed. How are we to understand
this? As an aid to our understanding let us go back to a previous
promise Allah made that we saw in lesson 3. As you remember,
when Adam and sinned Allah's curse fell on them. Yet, Allah
did not leave them in despair. He promised that through one of
's descendants Satan and the effects of Satan's work would
be destroyed. We see that the promise to is really just
a continuation of Allah's earlier promise to . Allah had
simply narrowed down to choices at the time of from any
one of 's descendants to only one of the descendants of .
Thus, at the time of Allah promised to destroy Satan
and his works and to bless the people of all nations through
one of the descendants of .
What a wonderful promise Allah gave . In the last lesson
all the grace arrangements we saw were limited in time and extent.
However, Allah's blessing and promise of grace to was
for all men. It was for you and me. Thus, we see it is very important
that we understand how we can obtain the blessing of .
We shall examine in future lessons who it was in the line of
and who fulfilled this promise. We shall conclude
this lesson by looking at how we can become partakers in the
blessing of .
Let us see what the has to say about this. It is written,
[] believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as
righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)
This agrees perfectly with what is written in the ,
What then shall we say that , our forefather, discovered
in this matter? If, in fact, was justified by works,
he had something to boast about--but not before Allah. What does
the Scripture say? " believed Allah, and it was credited
to him as righteousness." Now when a man works, his wages
are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However,
to the man who does not work but trusts Allah who justifies the
wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
It was not through law that and his offspring received
the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the
righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law
are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because
law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace
and may be guaranteed to all 's offspring--not only to
those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith
of . He is the father of us all. As it is written: "I
have made you a father of many nations." He is our father
in the sight of Allah, in whom he believed--the Allah who gives
life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they
were. Against all hope, in hope believed and so became
the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him,
"So shall your offspring be." Without weakening in
his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since
he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also
dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise
of Allah, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to
Allah, being fully persuaded that Allah had power to do what
he had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as
righteousness." The words "it was credited to him"
were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom Allah
will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him who raised
Isa our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death
for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans
4: 1-5, 13-25)
It is clear from these passages that was justified
before Allah and received Allah's grace in exactly the same way
as did all those in the previous lesson. Allah promised to bless
and that would receive Allah's grace to an unusual
degree. 's response was identical to what we have seen
for Prophet , , and those in and ' day.
had faith in Allah and his promise. He did not doubt or reject
Allah's promise or blessings and grace. By faith he accepted.
Thus, because of his faith and willingness to accept Allah's
blessing and grace was considered righteous in Allah's
eyes and was given the name Khalilullah-- "Friend of Allah".
QUESTIONS:
1. Where was Prophet born?
2. What was the blessing Allah promised to ?
3. What was 's response to Allah?
A. By faith he obeyed and went to the land of Canaan.
B. By faith he obeyed and stayed in Ur of the Chaldees.
C. Through disbelief he disobeyed Allah.
4. Why was it difficult for Sarah to believe Allah's promise
that she would have a son?
5. When Sarah's faith grew weak what did she do?
A. She told to adopt a son
B. She told to take her servant girl Hajira
as his wife
C. She told he would never
have a son
6. How old was when his son was born?
A. 76
B. 100
C.
115
7. Who was Allah's blessing to available to?
A. All
men
B. Those of the descendants of
C.
only
8. Was circumcised before or after the promise was
given to him?
9. What similarity was there between 's response to Allah's
offer of grace and those examples we studied in lesson 6?
A. They all kept the law perfectly
B. They all in faith promised to obey in the future
C. They all in faith accepted Allah's
grace
10. How would you explain the verse in the (Genesis
15:6), where it says " believed the Lord, and he
credited to him as righteousness."?
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