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In tidings, when Abraham broke the idols and after throwing him
into the fire and getting out of it with no harm, he (Nimrod) ordered
for Abraham to be exiled out of the lands, and avoid him from taking
his money and cattle, so then Abraham asked for judgement to be made
according to their own laws and regulations. In general he argued with
them by saying: if you want to take my money, then you should give me
an exchange for my life that I spent in your lands, so then they went
to the judge of Nimrod to make a judgement about this matter, and the
judge decided that Abraham was right, so they released him and released
his cattles and all of his money, so then Abraham and Lot got out in
the direction of the land of Shem (Syria and the surroundings)
approaching the position of the holy shrine in Jerusalem before it had
been built by many following centuries, and he made a bed for his wife
Sarah and closed it roughly for he was so jealous, and she was the
daughter of his uncle Pethuel the brother of Terah ben Nahor, and she
was the first to believe in him, and other things rather than this had
been said as in Muruj Al-Ðahab for Al-Mas`udi, but it also
mentioned as we said before that she is Abraham's maternal cousin and
she was the sister of Lot ben Haran.
So he went along far away from his home to some where else like a
stranger, he did not know anyone and no one invited him to his land, so
he travelled until he was out of Nimrod's kingdom until he got into the
kingdom of a coptic man called `Urârah [maybe the author used
"coptic" here as a general name for egyptians, the coming story is
similar to the one mentioned in the chapter of Genesis in Torah, but
the name of the Pharaoh is not mentioned in Torah], then he passed by a
tithe-gatherer that takes tithes from people passing by his lands, so
he blocked the way of Abraham to take the tithes of his money and
cattles, so the officer that was appointed from `Urârah said:
open the tomb (or the palaquin which had his wife Sarah in it) to take
the tithes of it, so then Abraham said: say whatever you think it is
there and ask for whatever you want of gold and silver to give you the
tithes of it and don't open it. But the tithe-gatherer denied that and
insisted on opening the palaquin and he did, and Abraham became so
angry because he was so jealous and afraid for his wife Sarah, and when
the tithe-gatherer looked at Sarah, and she was pretty, he said: who is
she? and what is her relation to you? So then Abraham said: she is my
wife and my cousin. Then the officer said: I won't let you go until I
tell the king about you and her. Then he sent a messenger to the king
and told him everything happened, and when the tidings reached the king
he ordered the palaquin to be brought to him with what it had, and so
they took the palaquin and Abraham went with them and never left the
palaquin, and when they reached the king, the king said: open the
palaquin, then Abraham answered: my wife and my cousin is inside and I
am ready to give everything I have for not opening it, but the king was
not satisfied until they opened it. When they opened it and he looked
into Sarah he couldn't hold himself and extended his hand trying to
touch her, and Abraham then turned his face away for his jealousy and
said: O God keep his hand away from my wife and my cousin, and so his
hand didn't reach her and didn't get back to him (it is understood from
this line that his hand was paralysed) Then said the king: your God did
that to me? So said Abraham: yes, then he said: pray to him to get it
back to me, and if it was back to me I will leave you alone. So then
Abraham prayed to God and so his hand got back to him, but the king
looked at her again and extended his hand to reach her and Abraham
turned his face away and said: O God keep his hand away, and so his
hand was paralysed and couldn't reach her, so then the king said to
Abraham: your God is jealous and you are jealous as well so call your
God to let my hand back to me, and if it was so I will not do it again.
Then said Abraham: O God if he wastruthful let it back to him, and so
it was, and when the king saw that Abraham grew so great for him and
made him his guest and then said to him: go to wherever you want but I
have a request, and that is to allow me to give her (Sarah) a pretty
coptic maid that I have and she is intelligent and I want her to be as
a servant for your wife, and so Abraham allowed that, and so the king
gave her to Sarah, and she was Hagar the mother of Ishmael (PUH).
Then Abraham got out with all what he had and the king went out with
him and walked behind Abraham for his greatness but Abraham refused
this and didn't accept that the king would walk behind him and so he
made him in the front and Abraham walked behind him and he said: my God
ordered me to walk behind you and respect you for your highness and so
then the coptic king said: I swear that your God is Clement and
Generous, and you make your religion beloved by me, and then the king
said farewells to him, and then Abraham went along until he reached the
upper parts of Shem's lands and left Lot in the lower parts of them,
and God did say about this: And We rescued him
and Lot (and brought them) to the land which We have blessed for (all)
peoples(Al-Anbiyâ':71) and it is the lands of Shem and Palestine
because God had destined them to be the homelands for prophets and the
lands of their tombs after Abraham (PUH), and then when Abraham
recognized that he did not have any children from Sarah, he said to
her: if you like, you can let me have Hagar as a wife, maybe God will
give me a son from her and he would be as a son for us as well, so he
paid the dowry for Sarah and took Hagar as a wife and she gave birth to
Ishmael (PUH), and more to come about that later on.
Next: The Books of Abraham (PUH) and Some of What Was Revealed By God
to Him