Ibrahim AS

Ibrahim AS was a prophet of Allah and the Khalil, the close friend of Allah, a title the Prophet ﷺ said Allah gave only to Ibrahim and himself. Originally from Ur in Iraq, he was the forefather of the Arabs through Ismail AS and of the Children of Israel through Ishaq AS. He left the infant Ismail and his mother Hajar in the valley of Makkah, and with Ismail built the Ka'bah and established rites the Arabs kept for thousands of years, until idolatry was introduced; the Makkans still remembered him as a hanif, a pure monotheist.

His prayer for a messenger to be raised among the Arabs [2:129] was answered, the Prophet ﷺ said, in himself. On the Night Journey the Prophet ﷺ found him in the seventh heaven against al-Bayt al-Ma'mur, and said that he himself most resembled Ibrahim. At the Conquest of Makkah the Prophet ﷺ had an image of Ibrahim with divining arrows removed from the Ka'bah, reciting that Ibrahim was neither Jew nor Christian but a pure monotheist [3:67].