The khalīl said: “And keep me and my children away from worshipping idols” (Ibrāhīm 14:35).
Allah said to the Beloved: “Allah only intends to remove from you, People of the Household, every impurity and to purify you completely” (Al-Aḥzāb 33).
The khalīl said: “And make me among the inheritors of the Garden of Bliss” (Al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:85).
Allah said to Muḥammad: “Indeed We have granted you al-Kawthar” (Al-Kawthar 108:1).
He mentioned other comparisons as well.
The ḥadīth that will be reported in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, on the authority of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, states that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“I shall stand at a station on the Day of Resurrection to which all created beings will turn in hope—even their father Abraham, the Intimate Friend.”
This shows that he is superior to Abraham, for in that station Abraham himself will be in need of him; it also shows that Abraham is the best of creation after him, for had anyone else been superior to Abraham after him, he would have been mentioned.
Abū Nuʿaym then said: If it is said, “Abraham (upon him be peace) was screened from Nimrod by three veils,” the answer is: that did happen, yet Muḥammad ﷺ was shielded from those who sought him by five veils. Allah the Exalted said: “And We placed before them a barrier and behind them a barrier, and We covered them so they cannot see” (Yā-Sīn 9)—that is three. He then said: “When you recite the Qur’an We place between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter a concealed veil” (Al-Isrāʾ 45). Then He said: “We have put shackles on their necks up to the chins, so that their heads are forced back” (Yā-Sīn 8). That makes five veils.
The jurist Abū Muḥammad ibn Ḥāmid has transmitted the very same statement, and I do not know which of them took it from the other—Allah knows best.
What he has said is unusual. As for the veils he assigned to Abraham (upon him be peace), I do not know what they are—especially since he was actually thrown into the fire, from which Allah delivered him! As for the veils he deduced from these verses, it has been said that they are all intangible rather than sensory: meaning that those people are diverted from the truth; it cannot reach them nor find a way into their hearts, just as Allah Most High has said: “They said: Our hearts are in coverings from that to which you call us, our ears are heavy, and between us and you is a barrier” (Fuṣṣilat 5).
We have explained this in detail in the Tafsīr. We have also mentioned in the Sīrah and the Tafsīr that Umm Jamīl, the wife of Abū Lahab—after the sūrah condemning her and her husband, their entry into the Fire, and their ruin was revealed—came carrying a fīhr (1), a long rectangular stone, to stone the Prophet ﷺ. She came upon Abū Bakr, who was sitting beside the Prophet ﷺ, yet she did not see the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. She said to Abū Bakr, “Where is your companion?” He replied, “And what of him?” She said, “He has lampooned me.” He asked, “What did he say against you?” She answered, “By Allah, if I see him I will strike him with this fīhr (2).” She then turned away saying:
“We came to the vilified one;
His religion we despise.”
Likewise, he was screened and protected from Abū Jahl when the latter intended to crush the Prophet’s ﷺ head with his foot while he was prostrating. Abū Jahl saw before him a pit of fire, a dreadful sight, and the wings of angels shielding him. He retreated on his heels, warding off with his hands, so Quraysh said to him…