Abraham, known as Ibrahim (Arabic: إِبْرَاهِيْمُ, romanized: ʾIbrāhīm pronounced in Arabic, is recognized as a prophet and messenger of God in Islam. Abraham plays a prominent role as an example of faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Muslim belief, Abraham fulfilled all the commandments and trials wherein God nurtured him throughout his lifetime. As a result of his unwavering faith in God, Ibrahim was promised by God to be a leader to all the nations of the world.
The Quran extols Ibrahim as a model, an exemplar, obedient and not an idolater.In this sense, Abraham has been described as representing "primordial man in universal surrender to the Divine Reality before its fragmentation into religions separated from each other by differences in form".The Islamic holy day 'Eid al-Adha is celebrated in memory of the sacrifice of Abraham, and each able bodied Muslim is supposed to perform the pilgrimage to pay homage at the Kaaba in the Hejazi city of Mecca, which was built by Abraham and his son Ishmael as the first house of worship on earth.
Promises to Abraham:
God also gave promises to Abraham “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 12:2-3).
He promised that Abraham would become the father of a great nation. But at that time, Abraham was already 75 years old and still had no children. He had to wait another 25 years till the promised baby came, when he was 100 years old and his wife Sarah 90. The book of Hebrews explains that Sarah could have a baby because of her faith in a faithful God: “And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise” (Hebrews 11:11). This example shows that God sometimes decides to wait to keep his promise, but He never forgets about it.
Promises to the people of Israel
God promised the people of Israel that He would bring them into the Promised Land. The promise was first made to Abraham "On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”(Genesis 15:18-21) and later repeated to Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 28:13). God was true to his promise, because years later He delivered the offspring of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob from the Egyptians and led them into the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 1:8).
There are many verses in the Psalms and other Bible books that testify to God’s faithfulness (Psalm 98:3, 108:4, 145:13 and many others). For example, Psalm 108:4: “For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.”
Promises for today
God has promises for the people of today as well. He promises that every person who believes in Jesus, will be saved from hell: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). This is a wonderful promise and we can trust God fully that He will keep this promise! This well-known verse in John also shows us how we should respond to God’s promise: we need to believe, to put our trust in God’s promises.
Warning against unbelief
In the book of Hebrews, a warning is issued against unbelief (Hebrews 3:7,8). A whole generation of Israelites could not enter the Promised Land because they did not trust God to give it to them. They had to wander in the desert till they died and the Land was given to their children (Hebrews 3:16-19). God promises eternal rest in Jesus Christ; let us respond in faith and put our trust in him (Hebrews 3:14)!
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