Abraham
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[14:35]
AND [remember the time] when Abraham spoke [thus]: "O my Sustainer! Make this land secure, and preserve me and my children from ever worshipping idols

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* v.35 : The whole of this passage (verses 35-41) – from which the title of this sūrah is derived – represents a parenthetic reminder, in the form of Abraham’s prayer, of the only way to righteousness, in the deepest sense of the word, open to man: namely, a recognition of God’s existence, oneness, and uniqueness and, hence, a rejection of all belief in “other powers” supposedly co-existent with Him (cf. verse 30 above). Inasmuch as this prayer implies a realization of, and gratitude for, God’s infinite bounty, it connects directly with the preceding verse 34 and the subsequent verse 42.
* I.e., the land in which the Ka‘bah is situated (see sūrah 2, note 102) and, more specifically, Mecca.
* The term “idols” (asnām, sing. sanam) does not apply exclusively to actual, concrete representations of false “deities”: for shirk – that is, an attribution of divine powers or qualities to anyone or anything beside God – may consist also, as Rāzī points out, in a worshipful devotion to all manner of “causative agencies and outward means to an end” – an obvious allusion to wealth, power, luck, people’s favour or disfavour, and so forth – “whereas genuine faith in the oneness and uniqueness of God (at-tawhīd al-mahd) consists in divesting oneself of all inner attachment to [such] causative agencies and in being convinced that there exists no real directing power apart from God.”