The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 221
PT. 1 AL-BAQARAH CH. 2 when Abraham and Ishmael وَاِذْ يَرْفَعُ إِبْرهِمُ الْقَوَاعِدَ مِنَ الْبَيْتِ And remember the time. 128 وَاِسْمُعِيلُ رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلُ مِنَّا إِنَّكَ أَنتَ raised the foundations of the السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ House, praying, ‘Our Lord, "accept this from us; for Thou art the All-Hearing, the All- Knowing 134 a14:41. submissive and careful God's Prophets are. But Abraham had now evidently become overly cautious, for this time God answered, saying, that He would grant sustenance to all men, irrespective of whether they were righteous or not, because He was the Provider for the whole universe, not for the righteous only. The wicked, however, shall be duly punished for their crimes. town might become a place of righteous only. This shows how security, affording peace to mankind. In fulfilment of this prayer, there grew up the town of Mecca which has remained a place of peace and security for thousands of years. The prayer also implied that the Baitullah, would be the means of bringing peace and security to mankind. This was destined to come about in two ways: Firstly, those who accepted and followed Islam were to become secure from all evils and to become recipients of God's blessings. Secondly, Islam was to be the means of bringing about peace and concord among the different nations of the world. While praying to God to grant sustenance to the dwellers of Mecca, Abraham restricted his prayer only to its good and righteous dwellers. The reason for this was that when Abraham had previously prayed to God to raise Reformers and Religious Leaders from his progeny, God had replied that such men would be raised from among the righteous only (2:125). So when he prayed a second time to God to grant sustenance to the people of Mecca, he was more careful and confined his prayer to the 221 Another reason why Abraham restricted his prayer to the righteous Iwas that he wished Mecca to be the abode of the righteous alone; but God knew that even that sacred town was not going to remain untarnished throughout the long centuries of history. 134. Commentary: When the unfitness of the Israelites for prophethood had been proved, the question naturally arose: What nation would then be the rightful heir to this favour of God? To answer this, reference is here made to the history of the building of the Ka'bah by Abraham and Ishmael, and it is added (vv. 128-130) that while constructing the Ka'bah, Abraham and Ishmael