1 - Endless Bliss - Hüseyin Hilmi Işık

our Prophet used to call an Arabian villager and his uncle Abû
Tâlib and also Abû Lahab and Abbâs, father. It has been a
custom in every nation, in every language, in every age to use
the word ‘father’ for uncle, for step-father, for father-in-law, and
also for any protecting or helping a person. Besides, Âzar was
both the uncle and step-father of Hadrat Ibrâhîm. Also
Fîrûzâbâdî confirms this fact in Qâmûs by saying, “Âzar is the
name of Hadrat Ibrâhîm’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ uncle. His father’s
name is Târuh.” The statement, “The unanimity that Âzar is the
uncle is unsound. According to the sound unanimity, Âzar is his
father,” is an unsound and worthless claim against such a clear
declaration in religious books. It results from misunderstanding
the subtlety in the words of savants.
It cannot be a document for the interpretation by Baydâwî to
give the seventy-fourth âyat in Sûrat-ul-An’âm its plain meaning
instead of interpreting it, [and that this âyat-i karîma and the
hundred and fifteenth âyat of Sûrat-ut-Tawba were explained
away with an improper ta’wîl in the commentary Rûh al-bayân.]
Nor can it abrogate the unanimity among the savants of
interpretation, the savants of hadîth, the savants of kelâm, and
the Sôfiyya-i aliyya. For it is only Muhammad (alayhissalâm)
who has given the Qur’ân al-kerîm its correct meaning and
who has intrepreted it correctly through his hadîth-i-sherîfs.
None of the Ashâb-i kirâm or Tâbi’în-i ’Izâm thought of Âzar as
the father when they heard this âyat-i-kerîma, nor did any of
them say so. They understood that he was his uncle. This is the
belief of the Ahl-i sunnat.
It is written at the end of Fatâwâ-i Khayriyya, “It is written in
Qâmûs that Âzar is the name of Hadrat Ibrâhîm’s uncle. His
father’s name is Târuh. It is written as Ibrâhîm bin Târûh in
Târîh-i Hanbalî. It says that Âzar is the nickname of Târûh. In
The Interpretation of Jalâlayn it is written that the name Âzar
in the âyat is Târûh’s last name. Ibni Hâjar writes in his revision
of Hamziyya: ‘Âzar was a disbeliever. It is declared in the
Qur’ân that he was Hadrat Ibrâhîm’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ father. The
ummats with holy books say that Âzar was not Hadrat Ibrâhîm’s
‘alaihis-salâm’ own father, but he was his uncle, for the Arabs
call the uncle father. So the uncle has been called father in the
Qur’ân. It has been declared, ‘The creator [Allah] of your
father Ibrâhîm and Ismâ’il’ about Hadrat Ya’qûb. Nonetheless,
Hadrat Ismâ’îl was Hadrat Ya’qûb’s uncle, not his father. When
- 253 -