Al-Mumtahanah · Madani · ayah 4 of 13

Al-Mumtahanah 60:4

قَدْ كَانَتْ لَكُمْ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ فِىٓ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ وَٱلَّذِينَ مَعَهُۥٓ إِذْ قَالُوا۟ لِقَوْمِهِمْ إِنَّا بُرَءَٰٓؤُا۟ مِنكُمْ وَمِمَّا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ كَفَرْنَا بِكُمْ وَبَدَا بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمُ ٱلْعَدَٰوَةُ وَٱلْبَغْضَآءُ أَبَدًا حَتَّىٰ تُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ وَحْدَهُۥٓ إِلَّا قَوْلَ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ لِأَبِيهِ لَأَسْتَغْفِرَنَّ لَكَ وَمَآ أَمْلِكُ لَكَ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ مِن شَىْءٍ ۖ رَّبَّنَا عَلَيْكَ تَوَكَّلْنَا وَإِلَيْكَ أَنَبْنَا وَإِلَيْكَ ٱلْمَصِيرُ

“There has already been for you an excellent pattern[1673] in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people, "Indeed, we are disassociated from you and from whatever you worship other than Allāh. We have denied you, and there has appeared between us and you animosity and hatred forever until you believe in Allāh alone" - except for the saying of Abraham to his father, "I will surely ask forgiveness for you, but I have not [power to do] for you anything against Allāh. Our Lord, upon You we have relied, and to You we have returned, and to You is the destination.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Ibrahim drew a clear line against everything false his people worshipped, and still asked Allah, not his own pride, to carry what came after.

A reflection

A pattern, not just a person

The word used here, uswa, shares a root with the Arabic word for a physician tending a wound: the same letters hold both the grief of loss and the example that treats it. Calling Ibrahim and his companions an uswa ḥasana, a good pattern, is not simply praise. It is an offer of something to be applied, the way a remedy is applied, to whatever situation the reader is actually in.

What the ayah holds up is not a vague admiration for Ibrahim's courage in the abstract. It is a specific, repeatable shape: stating a position clearly, in his own people's hearing, at real personal cost, rather than managing the discomfort of disagreement by staying quiet about it. Ibrahim did not wait for a safer moment. He told his own community exactly where he stood, and did it in front of them, not behind their backs.

Most people today rarely face anything as dramatic as Ibrahim's confrontation with his people, but almost everyone faces a smaller version of the same test: the team meeting where going along with a decision they privately think is wrong would be far easier than saying so, or the family gathering where staying silent about a serious disagreement would keep the peace at the cost of honesty. The pattern Ibrahim models is not confrontation for its own sake. It is simply refusing to let comfort decide what gets said.

A pattern worth calling good, the word implies, is one worth actually using, not one worth admiring from a safe distance and then quietly setting aside when it becomes inconvenient.

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.