Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:127
And [mention] when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House and [with him] Ishmael, [saying], "Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed You are the Hearing, the Knowing.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
## Surah Al-Baqarah (2:127)
وَإِذْ يَرْفَعُ إِبْرَاهِيمُ الْقَوَاعِدَ مِنَ الْبَيْتِ وَإِسْمَاعِيلُ (And when Ibrāhīm was raising the foundations of the House, and Ismāʿīl)
**The explanation of the words of the Exalted: وَإِذْ يَرْفَع إبْرَاهِيم الْقَوَاعِد مِنْ الْبَيْت وَإِسْمَاعِيل **
The Exalted, whose remembrance is sublime, means by His words: And when Ibrāhīm was raising the foundations of the House : remember the moment when Ibrāhīm raised the foundations of the House.
And *al-qawāʿid* (the foundations) is the plural of *qāʿida*. One calls a single one of the foundations of the House a *qāʿida*, whereas one calls a single one of the elderly women who no longer menstruate a *qāʿid* — dropping the *hāʾ* of the feminine gender, because it is the active participle form of the expression of one who says: "I have ceased to menstruate" (*qaʿadtu ʿan al-ḥayḍ*), and in which the masculine has no share. Just as one also says: "a pure woman" (*ṭāhir*) and "a menstruating woman" (*ṭāmith*), because in this the masculine has no share. And if one had meant thereby the sitting that is the opposite of standing, then one would have said *qāʿida*, and then dropping the *hāʾ* of the feminine gender would not have been permissible.
And the foundations of the House (*qawāʿid al-bayt*): that is its base.
Then the exegetes differed concerning the foundations that Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl raised of the House: did the two of them themselves bring these into being, or were they foundations that already existed for the House before them?
A group said: they were the foundations of a House that Ādam, the father of mankind, had built upon Allah's command to do so; afterwards its place was effaced and its trace was lost after him, until Allah pointed out to Ibrāhīm — peace and blessings be upon him — its place, and he built it.
**Mention of who said that:**
1677 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Ibn Jurayj informed us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, who said: Ādam said: "O Lord, I no longer hear the voices of the angels!" He said: "That is because of your sin; but descend to the earth and build for Me a House, and circle around it as you have seen the angels go around My House that is in heaven." And the people claim that he built it from five mountains: from Ḥirāʾ, Ṭūr Zaytā, Ṭūr Sīnā, Mount Lebanon, and al-Jūdī, and its base was from Ḥirāʾ. This was the building of Ādam, until Ibrāhīm built it afterwards.
1678 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Ayyūb, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: And when Ibrāhīm was raising the foundations of the House , he said: they were the foundations that were already, before that, the foundations of the House.
And others said: they were rather the foundations of a House that Allah had sent down from heaven to the earth for Ādam, so that he might go around it as he used to go around His Throne in heaven; then He raised it up to heaven in the days of the Flood, and Ibrāhīm raised the foundations of that House.
**Mention of who said that:**
1679 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb related to us, saying: Ayyūb related to us, on the authority of Abū Qilāba, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: When Allah sent Ādam down from Paradise, He said: "I am sending down with you — or: causing to descend with you — a House around which it shall be circumambulated as it is circumambulated around My Throne, and at which it shall be prayed as it is prayed at My Throne." And when the time of the Flood came, it was raised up, and the prophets used to perform pilgrimage to it without knowing its place, until Allah pointed out to Ibrāhīm its place and made known to him the spot, and he built it from five mountains: from Ḥirāʾ, Thabīr, Lebanon, Mount Ṭūr, and Mount al-Khamr.
* Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayya related to us, saying: Ayyūb related to us, on the authority of Abū Qilāba, who said: When Ādam was sent down — and then he mentioned something similar.
1680 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Hishām ibn Ḥassān informed us, on the authority of Sawwār, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, who said: When Allah sent Ādam down from Paradise, his feet were on the earth and his head was in heaven; he heard the words of the inhabitants of heaven and their prayers, and found comfort with them. Then the angels feared him, until they complained to Allah in their supplication and in their prayer, and He lowered him to the earth. But when he missed that which he used to hear from them, he felt lonely, until he complained about that to Allah in his supplication and in his prayer; thereupon he was directed towards Mecca. Every place where his foot came down became a village, and his strides became wastelands, until he reached Mecca. And Allah sent down a ruby from the rubies of Paradise, which came to stand at the place of the House as it is now, and he kept going around it ceaselessly until Allah sent down the Flood, whereupon that ruby was raised up, until Allah sent Ibrāhīm and he built it. And those are the words of Allah: And when We pointed out to Ibrāhīm the place of the House (22:26).
1681 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: Allah placed the House together with Ādam when Allah sent Ādam down to the earth. His place of descent was in the land of India, and his head was in heaven and his feet on the earth, and the angels feared him, whereupon he was reduced to sixty cubits. And Ādam grieved when he missed the voices of the angels and their glorification, and he complained about that to Allah, the Exalted. Then Allah said: "O Ādam, I have bestowed upon you a House around which you shall go as it is gone around My Throne, and at which you shall pray as it is prayed at My Throne." Thereupon Ādam went towards it and set out, and his strides were lengthened for him, so that between every two strides lay a wasteland; and those wastelands have remained ever since. Thus Ādam came to the House and went around it, and after him the prophets.
1682 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Abān: that the House was sent down as a single ruby or a single pearl, until, when Allah caused the people of Nūḥ to drown, He raised it up, while its base remained in existence; then Allah pointed out to Ibrāhīm its place, and he built it afterwards.
And others said: the place of the House was rather a red hill in the shape of a dome. And that was because Allah, when He willed to create the earth, made the water be covered with a red or white foam, and that was at the place of the Sacred House. Then He spread out the earth from beneath it, and it remained so until Allah pointed out to Ibrāhīm its place, and he built it upon its base. And they said: upon four pillars in the seventh earth.
**Mention of who said that:**
1683 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim said: Ḥumayd ibn Qays related to me, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: The place of the House was upon the water, before Allah created the heavens and the earth, like the white foam, and from beneath it the earth was spread out.
1684 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Ibn Jurayj informed us, saying: ʿAṭāʾ and ʿAmr ibn Dīnār said: Allah sent winds that made the water beat, and at the place of the House something was laid bare, like a rock as a dome, and this House is from that; and that is why she is the Mother of the towns (*umm al-qurā*). Ibn Jurayj said: ʿAṭāʾ said: Then He anchored her with the mountains so that she would not capsize through swaying, and the first mountain was Abū Qubays.
1685 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaʿqūb al-Qummī related to us, on the authority of Ḥafṣ ibn Ḥumayd, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The House was placed upon the pillars of the water, upon four pillars, two thousand years before the world was created; then the earth was spread out from beneath the House.
1686 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaʿqūb related to us, on the authority of Hārūn ibn ʿAntara, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, who said: There was found at Mecca a stone upon which was written: "Verily, I am Allah, the Lord of Bakka; I built it on the day that I made the sun and the moon, and I surrounded it with seven angels, encircling."
1687 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, who said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Yaḥyā related to me, on the authority of Mujāhid and others of the people of knowledge: that Allah, when He pointed out to Ibrāhīm the place of the House, he set out from Syria (al-Shām), and he took Ismāʿīl and his mother Hājar with him, while Ismāʿīl was a small, still-nursing child. And they were carried — according to what has been related to me — upon the Burāq, and with him was Jibrīl who pointed out to him the place of the House and the boundary markers of the Sanctuary (*al-ḥaram*). So he set out, and Jibrīl set out with him, and he said: Every time he passed by a village, he said: "Is it here, that I was commanded, O Jibrīl?" Whereupon Jibrīl said: "Go on!" Until he brought him to Mecca, which in that time had thorn-bushes of the *silm* and *samur* kind, tended by people who were called the Amālīq, outside Mecca and in its surroundings; and the House on that day was a red hill of clay. Then Ibrāhīm said to Jibrīl: "Is it here that I was commanded to leave the two of them behind?" He said: "Yes!" Thereupon he betook himself with the two of them to the place of the Stone and made them alight there, and he commanded Hājar, the mother of Ismāʿīl, to make a shelter there. And he said: Our Lord, I have settled some of my offspring in a valley without cultivation, by Your Sacred House (14:37) up to His words: that they may be grateful (14:37).
Ibn Ḥumayd said: Salama said: Ibn Isḥāq said: And they claim — and Allah knows best — that an angel of the angels came to Hājar, the mother of Ismāʿīl, when Ibrāhīm had left the two of them at Mecca, before Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl raised the foundations of the House, and he pointed out to the two of them the House, which was a red hill of clay, and said to them: "This is the first House that was placed on the earth, and it is the ancient House of Allah (*al-bayt al-ʿatīq*). Know that it is Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl who shall raise it up." And Allah knows best.
1688 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Hishām ibn Ḥassān informed us, saying: Ḥumayd informed me, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: Allah created the place of this House two thousand years before He created anything of the earth, and its pillars reach down into the seventh earth.
1689 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna informed us, saying: Bishr ibn ʿĀṣim informed me, on the authority of Ibn al-Musayyib, who said: Kaʿb related to us that the House lay as flotsam upon the water forty years before Allah created the earth, and from it the earth was spread out. He said: And he related to us on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib that Ibrāhīm arrived from Armenia, and the *sakīna* (the divine tranquillity) was with him, which pointed out to him the place of the House as the spider points out its web. He said: And she raised stones that thirty men could — or could not — lift. He said: I said: "O Abū Muḥammad, but Allah says: And when Ibrāhīm was raising the foundations of the House ." He said: That was afterwards.
The correct view concerning this, in our opinion, is to say: that Allah, whose remembrance is sublime, gave report concerning His intimate friend Ibrāhīm, that he and his son Ismāʿīl raised the foundations of the Sacred House. And it is possible that those were the foundations of a House that He had sent down with Ādam, and that He had made the place of the Sacred House at Mecca. And it is possible that that was the dome that ʿAṭāʾ mentioned, of that which Allah caused to arise from the foam of the water. And it is possible that it was a ruby or pearl that was sent down from heaven. And it is possible that Ādam had built it and that it afterwards collapsed, until Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl raised its foundations. And we have no knowledge as to which of these it was; for the truth of that can only be known through a report from Allah and from His Messenger — may Allah bless him and grant him peace — by way of widespread transmission, and there is no report by which the proof is established such that submission to it would be obligatory; nor does it, since there is no report about it as we have described, belong to that which can be referred to by inference and analogy such that it would be modeled upon something else and the knowledge of it derived through exertion (*ijtihād*). Therefore there is no statement concerning this that has more claim to correctness than what we have said. And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.
## رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا (Our Lord, accept it from us)
**The explanation of the words of the Exalted: رَبّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا **
The Exalted, whose remembrance is sublime, means thereby: And when Ibrāhīm was raising the foundations of the House, and Ismāʿīl , while the two of them said: Our Lord, accept it from us . And it has been mentioned that it stands so in the reading of Ibn Masʿūd, and it is the statement of a group of the exegetes.
**Mention of who said that:**
1690 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, who said: The two of them built, while uttering the words with which his Lord tried Ibrāhīm; he said: Our Lord, accept it from us, verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. Our Lord, and make us both submitters to You (*muslimayn*), and make from our offspring a community submissive to You Our Lord, and send among them a Messenger from their midst .
1691 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: Ibn Kathīr informed me, saying: Saʿīd ibn Jubayr related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: And when Ibrāhīm was raising the foundations of the House, and Ismāʿīl , he said: the two of them raised the foundations of the House, and said: Our Lord, accept it from us, verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing . He said: And Ismāʿīl carried the stones on his neck, while the old man built.
The explanation of the verse according to this view is therefore: And when Ibrāhīm was raising the foundations of the House, and Ismāʿīl, while the two of them said: Our Lord, accept it from us.
And others said: the one who said that was rather Ismāʿīl. The explanation of the verse according to this view is therefore: And when Ibrāhīm was raising the foundations of the House, and when Ismāʿīl said: Our Lord, accept it from us. Then Ismāʿīl at that point is grammatically in the nominative (*marfūʿ*) through the clause that follows it, and "he says" (*yaqūl*) is then the predicate concerning him and not concerning Ibrāhīm.
Then the exegetes differed concerning who raised the foundations, after they agreed that Ibrāhīm was among those who raised them. Some of them said: Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl raised them both together.
**Mention of who said that:**
1692 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: And We charged Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl: purify My House for those who circumambulate , he said: Then Ibrāhīm set out until he came to Mecca, and he and Ismāʿīl arose and took the picks, not knowing where the House was. Then Allah sent a wind which is called *rīḥ al-khujūj*, with two wings and a head in the shape of a serpent. She swept away for the two of them that which lay around the Kaʿba, down to the base of the first House, and the two of them followed her with the picks, digging, until they laid bare the base. And that is the moment of which He says: And when We pointed out to Ibrāhīm the place of the House (22:36). And when they had built the foundations and reached the place of the Corner (*al-rukn*), Ibrāhīm said to Ismāʿīl: "O my son, seek for me a beautiful stone that I may place here!" He said: "O my father, I am weary and exhausted!" He said: "Do it for me nonetheless!" Thereupon he set out and sought for him a stone, and brought him a stone, but he was not satisfied with it, and he said: "Bring me a more beautiful stone than this!" Then he set out and sought for him a stone; and Jibrīl brought him the Black Stone from India, which was white, a white ruby like the *thigāma* plant, and Ādam had brought it with him from Paradise, whereupon it turned black through the sins of mankind. Then Ismāʿīl came with a stone and found it at the Corner, and he said: "O my father, who brought this?" He said: "One who is more industrious than you." And they built it.
1693 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtba, on the authority of ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr al-Laythī, who said: It has reached me that Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl were the two who raised the foundations of the House.
And others said: the foundations of the House were rather raised by Ibrāhīm, while Ismāʿīl handed him the stones.
**Mention of who said that:**
1694 — Aḥmad ibn Thābit al-Rāzī related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Ayyūb and Kathīr ibn Kathīr ibn al-Muṭṭalib ibn Abī Wadāʿa — one of them relating more than the other — on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Ibrāhīm came, while Ismāʿīl was cutting arrows in the vicinity of Zamzam. When he saw him, he rose up towards him, and they did as a father does with his son and a son with his father. Then he said: "O Ismāʿīl, verily, Allah has commanded me something." He said: "Then do what your Lord has commanded you!" He said: "And will you help me?" He said: "Yes, I will help you." He said: "Verily, Allah has commanded me to build a House here!" — and he pointed to the Kaʿba, and the Kaʿba was raised above what lay around it. He said: At that point the two of them raised the foundations of the House. He said: And Ismāʿīl went about bringing the stones and Ibrāhīm built, until, when the building rose high, he brought that [well-known] stone and laid it down before him, whereupon he stood upon it while he built, and Ismāʿīl handed him the stones, and the two of them said: Our Lord, accept it from us, verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing , until he had gone around the House.
1695 — Ibn Bashshār al-Qazzāz related to us, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Majīd Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥanafī related to us, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn Nāfiʿ related to us, saying: I heard Kathīr ibn Kathīr relating on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: He came — that is to say Ibrāhīm — and found Ismāʿīl repairing arrows behind Zamzam. Ibrāhīm said: "O Ismāʿīl, verily, Allah, your Lord, has commanded me to build for Him a House!" Then Ismāʿīl said to him: "Then obey your Lord in that which He has commanded you!" Then Ibrāhīm said to him: "He has commanded you to help me with it." He said: "Then I will do it." He said: Thereupon he arose with him, and Ibrāhīm went about building while Ismāʿīl handed him the stones, and the two of them said: Our Lord, accept it from us, verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing . And when the building rose high and the old man became too weak to lift the stones, he stood upon a stone — and that is the Station of Ibrāhīm (*maqām Ibrāhīm*) — and he went about handing them to him, and the two of them said: Our Lord, accept it from us, verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing .
And others said: the one who raised the foundations of the House was rather Ibrāhīm alone, and Ismāʿīl on that day was a small child.
**Mention of who said that:**
1696 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār and Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, both of them saying: Muʾammal related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of Ḥāritha ibn Muṣarrif, on the authority of ʿAlī, who said: When Ibrāhīm was commanded to build the House, Ismāʿīl and Hājar set out with him. He said: When he arrived at Mecca, he saw above himself, at the place of the House, something like a cloud in which there was something like a head, and it spoke to him and said: "O Ibrāhīm, build to my shadow — or: to my measure — and add nothing and take nothing away!" And when he had built, [he departed] and left Ismāʿīl and Hājar behind, and Hājar said: "O Ibrāhīm, to whom do you leave us?" He said: "To Allah." She said: "Then go, for verily, He will not let us perish." He said: Then Ismāʿīl was seized with severe thirst. He said: Thereupon Hājar climbed al-Ṣafā and looked, but saw nothing; then she came to al-Marwa and looked, but saw nothing; then she returned to al-Ṣafā and looked, but saw nothing, until she had done that seven times. Then she said: "O Ismāʿīl, die then where I cannot see you!" And she came to him while he was scraping the [ground] with his foot from thirst. Then Jibrīl called to her and said to her: "Who are you?" She said: "I am Hājar, the mother of the child of Ibrāhīm." He said: "To whom did he leave the two of you?" She said: "He left us to Allah." He said: "He left the two of you to One who is Sufficient." He said: Then he scraped with his finger in the earth, whereupon Zamzam welled up, and she went about holding back the water. Then he said: "Leave it, for it is a quenching spring."
1697 — ʿUbāda related to us, saying: Abū al-Aḥwaṣ related to us, on the authority of Simāk, on the authority of Khālid ibn ʿUrʿura: that a man stood up to ʿAlī and said: "Will you not inform me about the House? Is it the first House that was placed on the earth?" He said: "No, but it is the first House that was placed in blessing, the Station of Ibrāhīm; and whoever enters it is secure. And if you wish, I will tell you how it was built: verily, Allah revealed to Ibrāhīm: build for Me a House on the earth. He said: Then it became oppressive for Ibrāhīm, and Allah sent the *sakīna*, and that is a wind, *khujūj*, with two heads; the one followed the other until it reached Mecca and folded itself around the place of the House as a shield folds itself. And Ibrāhīm was commanded to build where the *sakīna* came to rest. Then Ibrāhīm built, and one stone remained over, and the boy went to seek something, but Ibrāhīm said: "No, seek a stone as I command you!" He said: Then the boy went to seek a stone for him, and he came back and found him having already set the Black Stone in its place, and he said: "O my father, who brought you this stone?" He said: "He brought it to me who does not rely on your [slow] work; Jibrīl brought it from heaven." And the two of them completed it.
* Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Simāk: I heard Khālid ibn ʿUrʿura relating on the authority of ʿAlī, something similar.
* Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Abū Dāwūd related to us, saying: Shuʿba, Ḥammād ibn Salama, and Abū al-Aḥwaṣ related to us, all on the authority of Simāk, on the authority of Khālid ibn ʿUrʿura, on the authority of ʿAlī, something similar.
Now whoever says: "Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl raised the foundations", or says: "Ibrāhīm raised them while Ismāʿīl handed him the stones" — the correct view in his opinion is that the implicit speech is attributed to Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl, and the text is then: And when Ibrāhīm was raising the foundations of the House, and Ismāʿīl , while the two of them say: Our Lord, accept it from us . And it would, according to this explanation, have been possible that the implicit speech be attributed exclusively to Ismāʿīl and not to Ibrāhīm, or exclusively to Ibrāhīm and not to Ismāʿīl, were it not for that upon which the majority of the exegetes stand, namely that the implicit speech is attributed to Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl together. As for the explanation transmitted from ʿAlī, that Ibrāhīm is the one who raised the foundations and not Ismāʿīl, then in that case it is not permissible that the implicit speech be attributed to anyone other than Ismāʿīl exclusively.
And the correct view concerning this, in our opinion, is that the implicit speech is attributed to Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl, and that Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl raised the foundations of the House together. For if Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl both built and raised them, then it is as we have said; and if Ibrāhīm took upon himself the building of it alone while Ismāʿīl handed to him, then the two of them raised them equally, because the raising of them occurred through the two of them: from the one the building, from the other the bringing of the stones thither and the helping in placing the stones in their spot. And the Arabs do not refuse to attribute the building to one through whose action and help the building occurred.
And we have said what we have said about that only because of the agreement of all the exegetes that Ismāʿīl is intended in the report that Allah gave concerning him and his father, namely that the two of them said it, and that is their statement: Our Lord, accept it from us, verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing . For it is known that Ismāʿīl would not have said that unless he were either a grown man, or a boy who already understood the places of harm and benefit and upon whom the duties and ordinances of Allah already rested. And when he was — at the time of his father's building of that which Allah had commanded him to build and the foundations of which He had commanded him to raise — thus, then it is known that he did not omit the help to his father, whether in the building or in the bringing of the stones. And whichever of those two issued from him, he thereby falls within the meaning of those who raised the foundations of the House, and it is established that the implicit speech is a report concerning him and concerning his father Ibrāhīm — peace and blessings be upon him.
The explanation of the text is therefore: And when Ibrāhīm was raising the foundations of the House, and Ismāʿīl , while the two of them said: Our Lord, accept from us our work, our obedience to You and our worship of You in our fulfilling of Your command that You gave us concerning the building of Your House that You commanded us to build; verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.
And in Allah's report, whose remembrance is sublime, that the two of them raised the foundations of the House while they said: Our Lord, accept it from us, verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing , there lies a clear proof that their building of it was not a dwelling-place in which the two of them would dwell, nor an abode in which the two of them would settle, but rather it is a proof that the two of them built it and raised its foundations for everyone who wished to worship Allah, as a means of drawing the two of them near to Allah thereby; and that is why they said: Our Lord, accept it from us . And if the two of them had built it as a dwelling-place for themselves, then their statement: accept it from us would have had no intelligible meaning, for if the matter were so, then they would be requesting that there be accepted from them something in which there is no drawing-near to Him, and it does not befit them to ask Allah for the acceptance of something in which there is no drawing-near to Him.
## إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ (Verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing)
**The explanation of the words of the Exalted: إنَّك أَنْت السَّمِيع الْعَلِيم **
And the explanation of His words: Verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing is: verily, You are the All-Hearing of our supplication and our request to You for the acceptance of that of which we asked You to accept from us, namely our obedience to You in the building of Your House that You commanded us to build; the All-Knowing of that which is concealed in the innermost of our souls of submission to You in obedience and of turning towards that in which lies for You good pleasure and love, and of that which we reveal and conceal of our deeds. As:
1698 — Al-Qāsim related to me, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: Abū Kathīr informed me, saying: Saʿīd ibn Jubayr related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: accept it from us, verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing , he says: accept it from us, verily, You are the All-Hearing of the supplication.
