Living The Quran
From Issue: 1061 [Read full issue]
Abraham's Sacrifice
Al-Saffat (The Ranks) Sura 37: Verse 102
"And when he had reached the age of running with him, he said, 'My son, I see in a dream that I shall sacrifice thee; consider, what thinkest thou?' He said, 'My father, do as thou art bidden; thou shalt find me, God willing, one of the steadfast.'"
The Quran tells of the most extraordinary sacrifice that never was in minimalist and enigmatic terms. The Qur'anic account is as remarkable for what it does not say as for what it does. For instance, it does not say that God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, or how much time elapses between his dream and the proposed sacrifice, where it is to take place, if Abraham ties his son, or if he ends up sacrificing a ram in his place in the end.
The Quranic Abraham may not know God's intent in testing him, but he does not face an ethical dilemma as does his Biblical counterpart because, while the Quran links the sacred and sacrifice, it does not link either one to secrecy. In the Quran, not only does Abraham tell his son of his dream but the son also has a role in interpreting it. Thus both father and son witness their absolute faith in front of one another. From a Quranic standpoint, had the father set out to kill an unsuspecting son, it would have robbed the son of all moral agency and made him into a victim of his father's tyranny while also making the father a murderer.
At a time when the law of the father sanctioned infanticide, it would not have been very extraordinary for God to have commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, as in the Hebrew Bible. But, we know that God does not do this in the Quran and, instead, Abraham has a dream that he tells his son about. The dominant Muslim view is that this disclosure allows for a display of Abraham's authority as a father. I read the son's part in his sacrifice as doing just the opposite, that is, as illustrating the different ways in which the Quran challenges the legitimacy of patriarchal norms.
It does this, for instance, by not upholding paternal authority just because it is paternal authority; in fact, the Quran advocates disobeying parents if they 'strive/ To make thee join/ In worship with Me/ Things of which thou hast/ No knowledge' (3:14-15). It is true that Abraham was not pressing his son to worship anyone other than God, but my point is simply that the Quran's concept of moral personality is not premised on the notion of blind obedience to parents, particularly, to fathers. There is therefore no a priori reason to assume a son's investment in consenting to his father's authority.
It is not even the case that Abraham asks for his son's consent or obedience; rather, he asks his son what he makes of his dream. To this open ended question, the son replies that his father should do as he is bidden (by God). This shows both that the son takes the dream literally and that he believes he is obeying God's will; that is, he is submitting to the God of his father, not to his father. Indeed, it allows the son to profess his faith by assuming his own death. It is only by assuming his own death that the son can make his sacrifice a morally purposive and self-determining act rather than one of treachery or betrayal on his father's part.
The son's voice is important because it serves to curtail Abraham's rights as a father. By this I mean that not only does Abraham not have the right to commit infanticide, but whatever rights he does have in this instance are made subject to his son's moral choices. But, if Abraham's authority is not absolute in the matter of his son's sacrifice, can we view him as a patriarch and the sacrifice as an act of patriarchal violence, or as upholding the patriarchal status quo?
In the Quran God is not father and Muslims are forbidden from referring to God as such and even from using 'similitude' for God (16:74). As the Quran repeatedly says, God is uncreated (thus beyond sex/gender) and God is also incomparable and unrepresentable. The Quran's refusal to patriarchalize God means that Muslim fathers cannot rely on a model of divine fatherhood to legitimize their own authority. Not only that, but the Quran also roundly condemns people who ignored God's messages because they wanted to follow 'the ways of their fathers' (2:170), a phrase one can take to mean patriarchy proper or, more broadly, patriarchal tradition.
Abraham in the Quran did not possess a secret as a sign of his 'alliance' with God, nor is he a murderer, and nor does he try to impose his will on his son. All these should matter because they do matter. Like Abraham and his son, we are free to speak about the unspeakable since there is no burden of secrecy here, just the limitations of our own knowledge.
Compiled From:
"Abraham's Sacrifice in the Quran" - Asma Barlas