(… and followeth the tradition of Abraham, the upright? Allah (Himself) chose Abraham for friend) [4:125]. There is a difference of opinion regarding the reason for which Allah chose Abraham for friend. Abu Sa'id al-Nasruyiyy informed me> Abu'l-Hasan Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Sarraj> Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Hadrami> Musa ibn Ibrahim al-Marwazi> Ibn Lahi'ah> Abu Qabil> 'Abd Allah> 'Umar who said: “The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, asked Gabriel: 'Why did Allah chose Abraham as a friend?' He said: 'O Muhammad, it was because of his feeding of others' ”. Said 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abza: “One day Abraham went to his house all of a sudden and found there the angel of death in the form of a young man whom he did not know. Abraham said to him: 'Who gave you the permission to enter?' He said: 'The Lord of the house did!' At that point Abraham, peace be upon him, recognized him. The angel of death then said to him: 'Your Lord has chosen one person from among His servants as a friend'. Abraham asked: 'And who could that be?' 'Why, what will you do?' asked the angel. Abraham said: 'I will be his servant until I die'. The angel said: 'In that case, it is you!' ” Said Ibn 'Abbas, according to the report of al-Kalbi from Abu Salih: “One year, people suffered immensely because of the drought which had hit them. They gathered at the door of Abraham, peace be upon him, requesting food. Usually, he received once a year supplies from a friend of his in Egypt. He therefore sent his servants with camels to his friend in Egypt, requesting the supplies. His friend said: 'If Abraham wanted the supplies for himself, we would have borne the burden and gave them to him, since we too have been hit by the same hardship that people are suffering from'. And so Abraham's emissaries returned empty handed. When they crossed a certain open country, they said: 'Let us load our camels from this open country so that people could see that we have brought the supplies with us, for we feel embarrassed to pass by them with unloaded camels'. And so they filled their containers with sand. They went to Abraham, peace be upon him, while Sarah was asleep and informed him.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou
