Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Khaled M. Abou El Fadl, And God 

Knows the Soldiers: The Authoritative and Authoritarian 

in Islamic Discourses (Lanham, Md.: University Press of 

America, 2001); Khaled M. Abou El Fadl, Conference 

of the Books: The Search for Beauty in Islam (Lanham, 

Md.: University Press of America, 2001); Omid Safi, ed., 

Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism

(Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2003).

Abraham

 

(Arabic: Ibrahim)

 

one of the leading 

Muslim prophets, believed to be the ancestral founder 

of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

One of the most important figures in Islamic 

sacred history is Abraham, who is considered a 

patriarchal figure, a close “friend” of God, and, 

above all, a prophet and founder of the k

aaba

 in 

m

ecca

. Western scholars disagree about when 

the historic Abraham may have lived—some 

say as early as 2000 

b

.

c

.

e

., others say up to a 

thousand years later (ca. 1000 

b

.

c

.

e

.). Muslim 

understandings of Abraham drew significantly 

K  8