As Muslims celebrate Aidiladha, the festival of the Korban, the life and story of Father Abraham is once again retold.
When we imagine the life of Abraham, how often we imagine it to be one of stoic obedience to the Almighty. It was as if Abraham one day suddenly stood up among the pagan tents of his father Terah in Ur of the Chaldeans and decided to move his family and his possession out of the city, fingers snap, just like that.
It was as if Abraham one day told his son to pack up and both of them walked to the mountains steadily for the father to perform human sacrifice on the son, presumably on divine injunction, fingers snap, just like that.
We forget that Abraham, the Father of Faith that he is, was also a human being, like any of us. And like us, making life decisions was not easy, it involved struggles. The story of Prophet Muhammad receiving the revelation from the angel Gabriel is an excellent illustration of such a struggle. Even if we hear the voice of angels, many times, we would cringe and may even try to run away.
Spiritual giants among men do not just respond stoically to God’s instruction, fingers snap, just like that, as some of our religious teachers would like us to believe. These teachers refused to allow the space for doubt, for questioning, for the existential struggle which many prophets themselves experienced, some even repeatedly throughout their career.
Our religion then becomes sterile and self-presumptuous, often forcing us to be robots rather than pilgrims. And the unfortunate consequence is of course, we make God into a cruel tyrant who seems to demand only blind subservience.
The Jewish tradition has a very interesting story about Abraham.
Sodom and Gomorrah
When God saw the evils of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, some said it was homosexual practices, others suggested cruel and promiscuous lifestyle, He wanted to destroy the two ancient cities.
When the angel of God warned Abraham to flee the coming annihilation, Abraham, instead of quietly obeying God and telling his relatives and friends to escape from the place, decided to question God’s decision to unleash the weapon of mass destruction on thousands of people in the two cities.
“Should the innocent perish together with the guilty? Surely there are some good people, even in Sodom and Gomorrah. What if there are fifty - will You, the Judge of all the earth destroy them too? What if there are forty-five? Or forty? Or thirty?” And so on and so forth until Abraham came to plead for just ten good men to stay God’s wrath.
What is going on here?
Abraham negotiated with God
Abraham negotiated with his God, and in doing so, he appealed to the Almighty’s own standard of moral and justice - “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
A rabbinic midrash (commentary) even recorded Abraham reminding God of His own oath - “You swore that You would not bring a flood upon the world again... A flood of water You won’t bring, but a deluge of fire You would bring? Would You with subtlety evade Your oath?”
Did God immediately strike Abraham to death, irritated and perhaps furious by his presumptuousness? Who are you to argue with God? Who are you to bargain with the Almighty? Who are you to question the words of the Creator? And, heaven forbid, who are you to challenge God’s authority?
Of course, some may say Abraham did not go as far as challenging God’s authority. He was merely pleading, like a lowly servant to a King. But the narrative is clear, Abraham could not accept the logic of God’s decision and tried to rationalise with Him.
If God is like some of our pastors, or preachers, or priests, or ulamas, or religious teachers, or even rulers, then perhaps Abraham would have been struck dead way before the storms of fire came down on Sodom and Gomorrah. And then perhaps there will be no conflict in the Middle East today between the two children of Abraham.
But that would also mean, there will be no Father of Faiths (notice the plural - he is after all the Father of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths). And more significantly, there will be no ancient record of this amazing dialogue between Abraham and his God who gave allowance to his believers for disbelief, doubt, hesitation, and scepticism.
In other words, the story beautifully painted Abraham’s God as a god who allows humans to be humans, with all our idiosyncrasies, our fear, our uncertainty, our sometimes misguided sense of self-righteousness and truth, our feeble-mindedness, and our fickle-mindedness. We are after all human beings who struggle with decision making all the time, not some mindless, robotic minions with blind obedience.
Similar narratives of Abraham pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah were found in the Christian and Islamic traditions. In the Quran, Abraham pleaded for the people of the prophet Lot, his nephew who lived in the fertile plain of Jordan, near the city of Sodom.
One of the most precious conversations in human history
We all know the story, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed in the end. Abraham’s pleading failed, but not after a few attempts to change God’s mind. Abraham knew his God well - if God was a tyrant, Abraham would not have even tried to negotiate. And Abraham was right, God dealt patiently with his questions and many times even agreed to his request - “Okay, I will spare Sodom if I can find fifty - then forty, then thirty, then finally ten - good men in the city”.
Finally Abraham conceded. God the Just is also the Knower of man's heart. He does not punish arbitrarily: Lesson learnt, but not before one of the most precious conversations in human history took place, Abraham negotiated with God.
Recently, here in Malaysia, we witnessed how some self-proclaimed heirs of Abraham spewed venomous hatred towards Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, Young Syefura (Rara) and Jamila Rahim (Melati) just because they decided to take the less-trodden road and join DAP. So much so that these young, intelligent and principled women were labelled “prostitutes”.
Perhaps these self-proclaimed heirs of Abraham have forgotten the above episode of his life. If God himself was patient with humanity, not only allowing the exercise of the human rationale to debate with Him, but also empathising with our continual struggle to trust him completely, why did some of our religious and political leaders, who claimed to represent God no less, act exactly the opposite of how He had graciously and magnanimously dealt with Abraham?
More so against those like the three young women who did no wrong by joining a legitimate political party of their choice.
Or perhaps these leaders are re-creating God in their own tyrannical image?
May this Aidiladha refresh our minds and spirits to remember that beautiful ancient dialogue between Abraham and his God. Then, may it bring us to repentance for our bullying and tyranny against fellow human beings, for reducing others from pilgrims into robots we seek to control and manipulate.
Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha.
STEVEN SIM is the MP for Bukit Mertajam.
