Prophet Abraham (AS) And Birds
The imperative surhunna ilayka means “make them incline towards you”. Please see Lane’s Lexicon IV, page 1744. It doesn’t mean killing them or cutting them here. There is no mentioning of ‘sacrifice’ here. This has been explained by Zamakhshari, Abu Muslim, and Razi, i.e. God asked Prophet Abraham to “make the four birds incline towards you”, i.e., “teach them to obey you”. Not kill or sacrifice them. The moral of this story has been pointed out convincingly by the famous commentator Abu Muslim (as quoted by Razi): “If man is able – as he undoubtedly is – to train birds in such a way as to make them obey his call, then it is obvious that God, whose will all things obey, can call life into being by simply decreeing, .Be!”‘ See excerpt from Lane for clarification.