Ash-Shu'araa (The Poets)

84. “And ordain for me a goodly mention among posterity;”

85. “And make me of the heirs of the garden of bliss;”

86. “And forgive my father, verily, he is of those astray.”

In some Islamic narrations, the Qur’anic phrase: /lisani sidq/, mentioned here, has been rendered into the holy Prophet of Islam (S) and Hadrat Ali (as).

After these couple of demands, Abraham (as) asks Allah another important demand where he says:

“And ordain for me a goodly mention among posterity;”

He humbly asks Allah to treat with him in a way that his remembrance may remain in minds and his line and program would continue among the later generations. He wants Him to make him such an example that others follow him, and he should be the founder of a school by which people can learn the correct way and move on His line.

Allah accepted the supplication of Abraham, too, as He says in the Qur’an about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob;

“...and say We assigned unto them a high and true renown.”1

It is not improbable that this demand contained the same thing that Abraham asked Allah after building the House of Ka‘bah when he said:

“Our Lord raise among them an Apostle of their own to recite unto them Your revelations, and to teaeh them the Book and the Wisdom, and to purify them...”2

And we know that this demand came into action when the Prophet of Islam (S) announced his call and by this way the good mention of Abraham (as) continued to be among this great nation.

Then, Abraham changes the scope of his seeing from the life of this world to the eternal life in Hereafter when he stars his fourth supplication by saying:

“And make me of the heirs of the garden of bliss;”

This garden of bliss is the Paradise wherein there are abundant material and spiritual blessings, the bounties which have neither any destruction nor any weariness and burden. They are some bounties that are not even understandable for us, the prisoners of this world.

Neither our ordinary minds could consider them, nor our eyes have seen them, nor our ears have heard them.

We have formerly said that the application of ‘heir’, concerning Paradise, is either for the sake that, according to the Islamic traditions, every person has a house in Paradise and a house in Hell. When he is sent to Hell, his house in Paradise will be given to others.

In his fifth supplication, Abraham (as) prays for his misguided uncle, and according to his saying that he had promised ’Athar to ask Allah forgiveness for him, in this holy verse he says:

“And forgive my father, verily, he is of those astray.”

Abraham had formerly promised his uncle to pray for him as the text of the Qur’an explicitly says:

“And Abraham’s seeking forgiveness for his father was only because of promise he had made to him...”3

Abraham’s aim was that by this way he could penetrate into his uncle's heart and drag him Faith.

Thus, he gave him such a promise and fulfilled this promise. As Ibn-‘Abbas in a narration says, Abraham sought forgiveness repeatedly for ’Athar, but when ’Athar died in his disbelief, and his enmity against the religion of truth was proved, Abraham ceased seeking forgiveness for him.

The abovementioned holy verse (No. 114) continues saying:

“…when it became clear to him that he was an enemy of Allah, he declared himself quit of him...”