ۚ ۖ
Who turns away from Abraham’s way except someone who has acted foolishly toward himself? We certainly chose him in this world, and in the Hereafter he will surely be among the righteous.
After all that has been said about Abraham, the House, surrender, his descendants, and his prayer for the future, the Qur’an places a searching question before the reader:
“Who turns away from Abraham’s way?”
The Arabic expression raghiba ʿan means more than simply not choosing a path; it means turning away from it and withdrawing one’s attachment to it. Nor is the person whose way is at issue here a stranger to us. For several verses, the Qur’an has been showing us Abraham: he was tested and fulfilled what was entrusted to him, was made a leader for the people, built the House for God’s service, asked for surrender for himself and his descendants, and asked God to show them their rites. After all this, he still said: “And turn toward us.”
Now it asks: who turns away from such a path?
The answer is forceful and explicit:
“Except someone who has acted foolishly toward himself.”
Foolishness here is not merely a lack of knowledge. It describes someone who fails to weigh their own good and harm properly and treats their own self recklessly. By turning away from Abraham’s way, such a person deprives themselves before doing any harm to God or the truth. They abandon a path that the Qur’an connects with devotion to God alone, surrender, and the straight path, preferring something whose worth urgently needs to be examined.
Here the verse confronts inherited traditions at their foundations. Any religious community may regard what it has inherited from its ancestors and leaders as the very embodiment of reason and guidance, and call anyone who departs from it ignorant, misguided, or foolish. But the Qur’an reverses that measure. A few verses later, it answers those who say:
“Become Jews or Christians, and you will be guided.”
Its answer is:
“Rather, Abraham’s way, devoted to God alone.”
Al-Baqarah 2:135
Foolishness, then, does not necessarily lie in breaking with an inherited tradition. If that tradition has itself drawn people away from Abraham’s way, the question must be turned around: which is foolish—leaving an inheritance that has become incompatible with truth, or clinging to it simply because it came from one’s ancestors and community?
This question is not directed only at Jews and Christians of the past. Muslims today cannot remain detached from it either. If the words of a denomination, jurist, hadith scholar, family, or community are exempted from scrutiny against the Qur’an simply because of their age or affiliation, the same danger returns. Abraham’s way cannot be turned into the name of yet another sect.
The issue is not whether someone discards one religious label and adopts another. It is whether they are willing to measure their own inheritance against Abraham’s way of undivided devotion to God.
The Qur’an does not leave this way undefined. In Al-An‘am 6:161, it says:
“Say: My Lord has guided me to a straight path, an upright way of life, Abraham’s way, devoted to God alone.”
Abraham’s way is therefore not an ethnic relic preserved in history. The Qur’an itself connects it with the straight path and an upright way of life. Nor is Muhammad commanded to establish a path separate from Abraham’s. He is told:
“Then We revealed to you: Follow Abraham’s way, devoted to God alone.”
An-Nahl 16:123
This is the standing that gives the next statement its meaning:
“And We certainly chose him in this world.”
This is the same Abraham who, after being tested, was made a leader for the people. His way is not recommended merely out of historical respect for a prophet; God Himself chose him.
But the verse does not stop with his being chosen in this world:
“And in the Hereafter he will surely be among the righteous.”
For this world, the verse speaks of his being chosen (iṣṭifāʾ); for the Hereafter, of his righteousness (ṣalāḥ). Being chosen in worldly life and the final judgment are expressed in two different terms. The same Abraham who became a leader for the people, built the House, and was chosen did not rest on his standing. He still said:
“Make us both surrendered to You.”
And:
“And turn toward us.”
He did not allow being chosen to take the place of surrender, repentance, and self-examination. Now God Himself testifies that in the Hereafter, too, he will be among the righteous.
This may be one of the most beautiful answers to religious pride. Rank, ancestry, fame, and even being chosen in this world do not take the place of righteousness. Abraham’s way does not derive its authority from his name alone; the Qur’an itself testifies that the person who followed this way was chosen in this world and will be among the righteous in the Hereafter.
The Arabic word ṣāliḥ, “righteous” or “sound in oneself,” is not identical to muṣliḥ, “one who puts things right.” A righteous person may also work to reform others, but the first term describes that person’s own rightness and integrity. Here the verse speaks of Abraham’s final standing among the righteous.
The next verse will express the heart of this way in the briefest terms:
“I have surrendered to the Lord of all worlds.”
The question of this verse therefore remains alive for everyone who has inherited a religion:
Are we faithful to Abraham’s way, or only to the names we later built around it?
Abraham’s standing is explored further in Imamah in the Qur’an: Abraham’s Example and the Question of Leadership; the connection of his way with the House and pilgrimage in Hajj in the Qur’an; and the distinctions between millah, dīn, islām, and sharīʿah in Dīn, Islām, and Sharīʿah in the Qur’an.