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Abraham’s argument with his king: Can he make the sun rise from the West?

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 13 June 2025

“Have you not thought of him who disputed with Abraham about his Lord, because Allah had given him kingdom? When Abraham said, My Lord is He Who gives life and causes to die, he said: I give life and cause death. Abraham said: Surely Allah causes the sun to rise from the East, so you make it rise from the West. Thus he who disbelieved was baffled. And Allah does not guide the unjust people.” — ch. 2, Al-Baqarah, v. 258

اَلَمۡ تَرَ اِلَی الَّذِیۡ حَآجَّ اِبۡرٰہٖمَ فِیۡ رَبِّہٖۤ اَنۡ اٰتٰىہُ اللّٰہُ الۡمُلۡکَ ۘ اِذۡ قَالَ اِبۡرٰہٖمُ رَبِّیَ الَّذِیۡ یُحۡیٖ وَ یُمِیۡتُ ۙ قَالَ اَنَا اُحۡیٖ وَ اُمِیۡتُ ؕ قَالَ اِبۡرٰہٖمُ فَاِنَّ اللّٰہَ یَاۡتِیۡ بِالشَّمۡسِ مِنَ الۡمَشۡرِقِ فَاۡتِ بِہَا مِنَ الۡمَغۡرِبِ فَبُہِتَ الَّذِیۡ کَفَرَ ؕ وَ اللّٰہُ لَا یَہۡدِی الۡقَوۡمَ الظّٰلِمِیۡنَ ﴿۲۵۸﴾ۚ

In my last khutba on 30th May I mentioned that Abraham was a very rationally-minded person who reasoned things out, and he presented arguments to people. The verse that I have recited deals with the subject of life and death, and it is not necessarily the physical life and death of individual human beings, but more the system of physical life on earth and also the spiritual life and death of people. Like other prophets, Abraham arose with the message that it is guidance and revelation from God which gives human beings true life, showing them how to live and behave as human beings should, as befits human dignity. Accordingly, the Quran says to Muslims: “O you who believe, respond to Allah and His Messenger, when he calls you to that which gives you life” (8:24).

In this verse the king of the time argued with Abraham about God. The verse says that this man “disputed with Abraham about his Lord, because Allah had given him kingdom”. From the old commentaries of the Quran, and also from Jewish and Christian religious literature, it appears that this king’s name was Nimrod. It is said that he was such a brutal tyrant that his name came to typify the worst kind of tyrant (like, for example, how Hitler is mentioned today). It is also said that he wanted to turn people away from God and towards being dependent on his power. We can see that when Abraham took on this tyrant in an argument, he was showing the greatest courage. It is no easy matter to argue with a despot who can have you killed. Abraham put his standpoint first, saying:

“My Lord is He Who gives life and causes to die.”

The king replied:

“I give life and cause death.”

The only power over life and death that the worldly king knows is his power to have people killed or to let them live. I may note here that throughout history, many tyrants and dictators have come and gone who thought that people’s lives and death were in their control. Whoever they wished to kill, he was put to death, and whoever they wished to let live, he lived. Not only actual life and death, but metaphorically also, whoever they wished they promoted to important positions and gave them power and wealth, and whoever they wished they reduced from fame and greatness to obscurity. In Pakistan in the 1970s, the Prime Minister Mr Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto even thought he could control the next life for people. Whoever he wished he could declare as Muslim and destined for heaven, and whoever he wished he could declare as non-Muslim and kafir, and destined for hell.

Abraham replies by challenging the king to control the movement of the sun. He says to the king:

“Surely Allah causes the sun to rise from the East, so you make it rise from the West (if you can).”

Is the king able to reverse and overturn the law of God which governs the rising and setting of the sun? By asking this, what Abraham points out is that the system of life and death on earth depends on the sun. The king could not deny this. People in ancient times were well aware of the life-giving role of the sun. That’s why they worshipped it, and the king himself belonged to a religion of sun-worship. Abraham’s reply means that the king does not control the operation of nature which is the real cause of bringing about life and death. Just by holding some people’s lives in your hands, you don’t acquire control over the system of life and death on earth. For example, in Gaza today, the Israeli forces can kill whoever they wish and let live whoever they wish, but on the other hand climate change causing sea levels to rise could drown large coastal areas of Israel.

The light and heat of the sun are the source of all life on earth. Plant, animal and human life only exists because of the sun. It creates our weather. Ancient people knew of the importance of the sun in sowing and harvesting of crops. Around the end of December, in many ancient civilizations, celebrations were held because the day was now going to start getting longer. So Abraham is saying to the king: if you control life and death, then show us that you can control the sun and change its movement, and bring back out when it is setting in the west. The king was perplexed by Abraham’s reply and had no answer to it. The king was dumb struck. He was claiming to be able to give life and bring about death while he himself recognised that life depended on the sun, which he cannot control.

Abraham may also be saying to the king that, just as Allah makes the sun to rise in the east, it is Allah Who has made the king to rise to power. But the sun will one day set on his power. If he controls life and death, will he be able to reverse this decline, and make the sun of his kingship rise when it is setting? The king was speechless on hearing this.

However, it is important to remember that prophets not only teach that God has control of physical life on earth but in fact God sends them with the means of giving spiritual life to people. Those who do not accept them remain dead. This is how it is Allah Who gives life and causes death. So when Abraham said to the king, “My Lord is He Who gives life and causes to die”, he meant it primarily in the spiritual sense. The king, being a worldly person, when hearing this, thinks Abraham is taking about physical life and death, and replies that “I have got control over people’s life and death”. Abraham defeated him even on this material score. But really what Abraham was indicating was that just as God brings about physical life and death, He also sends His prophets to breathe spiritual life into people, otherwise there is only death.

This argument of Abraham with his king is re-played in our modern world. Western countries acquired dominance over the whole world, but this was not only in political and military terms. Through scientific discoveries, inventions and development of technology, they acquired control over the material world and over nature, to an unbelievable extent, unequalled in previous human history. They acquired the power to give life by defeating all kinds of diseases and curing the incurable, and by making food and nutrition abundant, thereby extending the human life span. They even developed techniques to allow the childless, those unable to have children by natural means, to have children. They acquired the power of death by developing weapons of all kinds which could kill millions of people.

As a result of possessing this kingdom of the world, they came to believe that life and death was now in their control. At such a time, the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, argued with this civilisation as Abraham had argued with his king. Just as Abraham didn’t rebel against the king and fight against him by any army, but argued with him, the same was done by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. He presented to the modern world the message of Islam, that real life is the spiritual life in human beings which brings about moral reform, and that spiritual life can only be awakened by revelation from God. He said the same as Abraham: “My Lord is He Who gives life and causes to die”. It cannot be done by humans by their own efforts.

But modern civilization was saying: “I give life and cause death”. The reply given to this by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the same as Abraham’s reply in this verse:

“Surely Allah causes the sun to rise from the East, so you make it rise from the West (if you can)”.

What he told the world was that the sun of spiritual guidance, revealing deep religious truths, had risen in the east. Note that the Holy Prophet Muhammad is called a light-giving sun in the Quran. And the challenge put forward by Hazrat Mirza is: Can Western materialistic philosophies and sciences, by means of human exertions and endeavour, create such spiritual knowledge and guidance that was taught by Divine revelation to the Holy Prophet? God made the sun of religious truths to rise in the east, and no humanly developed knowledge can make such a sun rise in the West. Only God can bring that light to the West. And that is the message with which Hazrat Mirza arose: that spiritual enlightenment will only come when the revelation of God brought by the religion of Islam reaches the West. He referred to a saying of the Holy Prophet Muhammad which occurs in Sahih Bukhari three times (hadith 4635, 6506 and 7121), that the end of the world will not come until the sun rises from the west, and wrote as follows:

“As regards the rising of the sun from the West, we do believe in it; but what has been shown to me in a vision is this — that the rising of the sun from the West signifies that the Western world which has been involved of old in the darkness of unbelief and error shall be made to shine with the sun of Truth, and those people shall have their share of Islam. In reality, the Western countries have, up to this time, shown very little aptitude for religious truths, as if spiritual wisdom had in its entirety been granted to Asia, and material wisdom to Europe and America … now Almighty God intends to cast on them the look of mercy.” (Izalah Auham, p. 515–516)

When a hadith is supported by the Quran, then it is undoubtedly true. Abraham’s argument to the king was that he, the king, cannot make the sun rise from the west. This implies that Allah can bring it about. Now through Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad we know in what manner the sun will rise from the west. So may Allah enable us to work hard and may He grant us success in going some way towards that — ameen.

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