Sūrah 14 · Āyāt 35–41

Synthesis: Sūrat Ibrāhīm 35-41 -- Abraham's Supplication

The Shīʿī tradition treats these seven verses as the final and most complete supplication of Abraham (ʿalayhi al-salām) preserved in the Qurʾān, uttered (per al-Tabataba'i and the al-Burhan narrations) in his old age, after Ismāʿīl and Hagar were settled at Mecca, Jurhum had neighbored them, and the Sacred House had been built.

The city and its security. All four exegetes gloss al-balad as Mecca and its sanctuary (al-haram); al-Tusi defines al-amn as the soul's repose at the removal of harm. al-Tabataba'i sharpens it: the security sought was legislative (tashri'i), not creational -- a Divine ruling of inviolability fixed in human hearts for four millennia, ranked among God's greatest favors. The Enlightening Commentary confirms this: Mecca has in fact been invaded and bloodied repeatedly (the Prophet and his companions tortured there; Imam Husayn abandoned the Hajj for lack of security) -- the verse establishes a law of security, not a guarantee of fact.

'Keep me and my sons from idols.' al-Tabarsi and al-Tusi read this as a request for lutf (Divine kindness enabling abstention), noting that prophets' prayers are always answered, so it applies specifically to those God foreknew would believe. al-Tabataba'i builds his signature reading: shunning idolatry is realized through God's safeguarding (a tawfiq affirmed in the reports of the Ahl al-Bayt), yet without compulsion -- every good is ascribed first to God, evil to the servant first. He refutes at length the exegetes who stumbled over how an infallible prophet could ask immunity from shirk (answer: prayer flows from need, not lack).

'Whoever follows me is of me.' This clause carries the passage's deepest Shīʿī weight. al-Tabataba'i argues that 'following' means treading Abraham's path, not mere monotheistic belief -- lineage redefined by allegiance, not birth (cf. Noah's son, 'he is not of your family'); his narration section cites al-Sadiq (ʿalayhi al-salām): 'Whoever loves us, the Ahl al-Bayt, is of us... this is the word of Abraham.' al-Burhan preserves the striking (web-verified) tradition of Saʿd al-Khayr, an Umayyad who wept at descending from 'the accursed tree'; Imam al-Baqir consoled him: 'You are an Umayyad of us, the Ahl al-Bayt -- have you not heard: whoever follows me is of me?' The Enlightening Commentary echoes this with 'ʿAli and I are the fathers of this Umma' and ʿAli's dictum that Muhammad's true friend is whoever obeys God, however distant by blood.

'Some of my offspring in a barren valley.' al-Qummi, al-Tabarsi, and al-Burhan (via Hannan and others from al-Baqir) all transmit the celebrated gloss: 'By God, we are the remnant of that progeny ('itra)' -- the Imams reading themselves as the offspring for whom Abraham prayed. al-Tabataba'i explains the barrenness as deliberate: Abraham chose an unsown valley so his descendants would devote themselves purely to worship, undistracted; the Enlightening Commentary adds ʿAli's sermon of al-Ghashiya -- had the Kaʿba been set in a fertile place, people would not make pilgrimage for God's sake alone.

'Make hearts incline toward them.' The al-Burhan narrations apply afʾida tahwī ilayhim squarely to the Shīʿa and the Family of Muhammad: 'He did not mean all people -- you are those, your likeness among people is as the white hair on a black bull'; pilgrims circumambulate the stones, then must 'repair to us, declare their wilaya, and present their support.' al-Tabarsi preserves the counterpoints (Saʿid b. Jubayr, Mujahid: 'of people' excludes Jews, Christians, Magians). The al-Ta'if etymology narrations (al-Rida, al-Kazim: a piece of Jordan circled the House, named for its tawaf -- root ṭ-w-f web-verified) appear in al-Burhan; al-Tabataba'i records but judges them weak/mursal and ill-suited to the favor-conferring context.

The parents (wa-li-walidayya). al-Tabarsi, al-Tusi, and the Enlightening Commentary uphold the Imami position that Abraham's parents were believers (Āzar being his uncle or maternal grandfather), since he seeks their forgiveness in old age after disowning Āzar -- a point al-Tabataba'i anchors in al-Tawba 114. al-Qummi and al-Burhan add distinctive variant narrations: the verse was 'revealed as wa-li-waladi (my two children), Ismāʿīl and Ishāq,' with al-Baqir adding 'al-Hasan and al-Husayn, by God, are the two sons of the Messenger'; one report even reads walidayya as 'Adam and Eve.' al-Tabataba'i notes these readings but deems the supporting reports weak.