As-Saaffaat (Those drawn up in Ranks)

88. “Then he glanced, casting glance at the stars,”

89. “Then he said: ‘Verily I am sick (and I cannot participate in your festival).”

90. “So they went away from him, turning back.”

91. “Then he turned unto their gods secretly and (mockingly) said: ‘Why do you not eat?’”

92. “What is the matter with you that you do not speak?”

The logic of Divine prophets is negation of idolatry, and it is very clear, natural, and rational.

History and commentary books indicate that every year the idolaters of Babylon had some special festival ceremonies when they used to cook and prepare some food, in idol temple, and put them there imagining that the foods would become blessed.

Then they went out from the city and returned back in the evening when they went into their idol temple in order to worship and to eat food.

That day, the city became empty of people, and it was a good opportunity for Abraham to break idols. It was an opportunity for which Abraham was waiting for a long time and he did not like to lose it easily.

So, at night, when he was invited to participate in their ceremonies, the verse says:

“Then he glanced, casting glance at the stars,” “Then he said: ‘Verily I am sick (and I cannot participate in your festival).”

And in this way, Abraham (as) excused himself, and the verse says:

“So they went away from him, turning back.”

Here, there come forth two questions:

The first: Why did Abraham look at stars? What was his aim of this glance?

The second is that whether he was really sick when he said:

‘Verily I am sick’?

And What ailment did he have?

The answer to the first question: Regarding to the beliefs of the people of Babylon, and their customs, its answer is clear, because they had some studies in astronomy, and even it is said that their idols were in the shape of stars, and they respected them because they were the symbols of stars.

Beside their astrologic information, of course, there were also many superstitions in this field current among them, including that they believed stars were effective in their fates, and asked goodness and blessing from them. They reasoned their situation for the future events.

In order to make them convenient, according to their custom, Abraham (as) cast a glance to the stars in the sky in order that they thought he had foresighted his sickness by studying the situations of the stars, and they might be convinced, some of the great commentators have also offered this probability that he wanted to find out exactly the time of his sickness from the movement of the stars; because there was a kind of sickness, like fever, which came to him between some particular points of time.

But, regarding to the condition of the thoughts of the people of Babylon, the first probable is more fitting.

Some other commentators have also said that perhaps his glance to the sky was, in fact, a glance of study in the secrets of the creation, though they considered his glance as the glance of an astronomer who wanted to foresight the future events by the situations of the stars.

Concerning the second question, there have been delivered numerous answers, including that he was really sick, although if he had been safe either, he would not have participated in the ceremonies of the festival of idols.

But his sickness was a good excuse for his absence in that festival and utilizing the golden opportunity for breaking the idols, and there is no evidence for us to say he equivocated, because equivocation is not suitable for prophets.

Some others have said that Abraham had not really a bodily ailment, but as the result of the wrong actions of those people and their infidelity, polytheism, injustice, and corruption, his soul was sick. Thus, he stated a fact though they thought differently and considered him bodily sick.

So, in the fourth holy verse the Qur’an implies that only Abraham remained in the city and the idolaters, leaving the city empty, went outside of it.

Abraham cast a glance around him, there appeared a light of happiness in his eyes, because the moments, he had been waiting for from a long time ago, had come. He thought he should begin fighting against idols lonely and strike a hard blow on their bodies, a strike that might shake the minds of the idolaters and awaken them from their sleep.

The Qur’an says:

“Then he turned unto their gods secretly and (mockingly) said: ‘Why do you not eat?’”

Abraham implicitly said to the idols that their worshippers had prepared those sweet, various, delicious and colourful foods:

“Why do you not eat?”

Then, in the next verse he, addressing the idols, tells them why they do not speak, as if they were dumb.

The above verse says:

“What is the matter with you that you do not speak?”

In this way, Abraham mocked all their superstitious beliefs. No doubt he knew well that the idols did neither speak nor eat food and they were not anything but some inanimate beings. He wanted, in fact, to give the reason of his breaking idols in this beautiful and tender form.