Nabi Ibrahim a.s.

Today is 3 October 2011, which is also Yom Kippur for the Jews.

I thought to continue my online notes on Nabi Ibrahim a.s. who is also known as Prophet Abraham a.s. or Khalilullah (Arabic for friend of Allah). This is to add on to my lecture in Bioethics and Social Health Block, on History of Medicine - aspects of Ancient Civilizations and to look at various practices at their times.

There are many lessons we can learn from Nabi Ibrahim a.s. - circumcision, fertility, longevity, sacrifice etc. 

On circumcision, I mentioned a bit in my lecture. Dr Tahir has written in detail on circumcision at another blog. Click here to go to his write-ups on Circumcision at Lifelong Learning About Islam.

On fertility, we recall Sarah, wife of Nabi Ibrahim a.s., who was barren (mandul) and could not have any children. However, even though she was very old and barren, she did conceive in the end and gave birth to a son, Nabi Ishak a.s.  This will teach us about the science of fertility.

On longevity, Nabi Ibrahim a.s. lived very long, probably 145 years old. How did he manage to live very long? What food did he eat? What daily practices did he do? What exercise did he do? We all know he travelled very far from Hebron to Makkah where he left his wife, Siti Hajar, and their baby son, Nabi Ismail a.s. You can determine the distance from Hebron to Makkah in Google Map. We also know he built the Ka'bah with his young son. We can also see an imprint of his foot at Makam Nabi Ibrahim a.s. near Ka'bah. From his footprint we know he was a big man. There must be forensic programs today that can at least give a person's height from his footprint?

This season is the Hajj season (musim haji). While many may go on the hajj pilgrimage to Makkah, those who are not performing the hajj will celebrate Aidiladha in their home countries. Aidiladha falls on the third day of the pilgrimage when the pilgrims stone the jamrahs (melontar jamrah). For us at home, we perform animal sacrifice and follow the strict rules for such sacrifice. The animal is slaughtered in the name of Allah SWT and the animal carcass is divided into 7 equal parts. The meat is distributed or given away to the poor and deserving. In Malaysia and elsewhere, there are packaging companies that pack the halal sacrificial beef and send them to poor countries where many people are starving and food must be picked from among the bare dust. As such, the sacrificial beef is much sought after by the world's poor and starved. This is the most efficient and effective way of helping the bottom billion countries and feed the world's poor. I would therefore like all my students to learn about how proper animal sacrifice is done in Islam, and how the meat is packaged and delivered to the world's poor and starved.

I would like to add that in Kelantan, much beef is turned into serunding (spicy, dried beef strings) which needs no refrigeration. This could be a good way of distributing beef where recipients do not have basic cooking facilities. I will try and get a recipe for serunding daging at my cooking blog for you so you know how to make serunding daging for the poor and starved.

Prof Faridah

Here are some historical links for background info on Nabi Ibrahim a.s.:
Caves of the Patriarchs
Inside the Caves of Machpela