The Command to purify the House

Al-Hasan Al-Basri said that,

وَعَهِدْنَآ إِلَى إِبْرَهِيمَ وَإِسْمَـعِيلَ

Verse 128 reports that he further prayed to Allah "to make" him and his son obedient to His commandments and to His Will. This prayer too proceeds from the same sense of fear and awe, and from the same knowledge. He has, all his life, been performing exemplary deeds of obedience, and yet he prays to "be made" obedient. It is so, because the more one grows in one's knowledge of Divine Majesty, the more one comes to realize that one is not being faithful and obedient as is due.

It is significant. that Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) included his descendants too in his prayer. This shows that the "men of Allah" who never hesitate in sacrificing themselves and their children in the way of Allah, yet love them deeply. All the same, they know what the proper requirements of parental love are, and how they should be fulfilled. This is something beyond the reach of average men, who suppose the well-being of their children to reside in physical health and comfort alone, and spend all their love and care on providing just this to their family. But those who have received the favour of Allah show a much greater solicitude for the spiritual well-being of their children than for the physical, being more anxious as to what happens to them in the other world than in this. So, the great prophet prayed to Allah to make a group from among his descendants fully obedient to Him. This prayer aims at another advantage as well. Experience tells us that if those who enjoy a respectable position in their community, and their descendants keep to the right path, they are naturally held in esteem, and their conduct inspires others to reform themselves. (AI-Bahr al-Muhit) Allah heard this prayer too, and among the descendants of Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) there has always been a group of people obedient to Allah and firm in the Straight Path. Even in the Age of Ignorance (Jahiliyyah جاھلیہ ) when the whole world, and Arabia in particular, was lost in the darkness of idol-worship and Shirk شرک ، there still remained some men from among his descendants who had faith in the One God, who believed in the other world, and were obedient to Allah - for example, Zayd ibn ` Amr bin Nufayl, and Quss ibn Sa` idah. It has also been reported that ` Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim, the grand-father of the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، shunned idol-worship and Shirk شرک (Al-Bahr al-Muhit)