Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 60 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:60

قَالُوا۟ سَمِعْنَا فَتًى يَذْكُرُهُمْ يُقَالُ لَهُۥٓ إِبْرَٰهِيمُ

“They said, "We heard a young man mention them who is called Abraham."”

Saheeh International

Essence

They dismissed him as 'some youth called Ibrahim', not knowing that the name they tossed aside would be blessed in every prayer for ever.

A reflection

"Some youth called Ibrahim"

Yuqālu lahu Ibrāhīm: who is called Ibrahim. The phrasing is dismissive. One commentator notes that, grammatically, it is the name itself that is meant, not the person. Another agrees: a youth to whom this word is applied. It is the way people speak of someone who barely registers. Some lad, goes by the name of Ibrahim.

Now follow that name forward. The Quran calls him an imam for mankind (2:124), and a whole community in himself (16:120). In Sahih al-Bukhari, the Companions asked the Prophet ﷺ how they should send blessings on him. He taught them a prayer that ends: as You sent blessings on Ibrahim and on the family of Ibrahim. Muslims recite it in every prayer, every day, across the world.

The name they muttered as a curiosity is spoken by more mouths every day than the names of every king of that city put together. Nobody now remembers what the crowd at the temple were called.

Picture a parish choir rehearsing on a winter evening. The youngest singer, fourteen, is called "the kid" by everyone, not unkindly. At the Christmas concert the old organ fails mid-carol and the church falls silent. The kid keeps singing, alone and steady, until the others find the note and join him. After that the nickname stays, but nobody says it in the same tone again.

History, and the Quran, have a way of reversing these dismissals. The people who matter in the record of heaven are often the ones the crowd called "some youth". If you are being written off as "whatshisname" for holding to the truth, you are in very good company.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.