Khalilullah
Definition
Khalilullah — the intimate friend of Allah — is the unique title given to Ibrahim, considered the highest form of the love relationship between Creator and creation. The word khalil comes from a root that suggests permeation: the love of God had so thoroughly penetrated every dimension of Ibrahim's being that no room remained for attachment to anything else. Ibn Kathir distinguishes khalil from habib (beloved) — a title given to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ — noting that scholars debated which was higher, but agreeing that both represent an intimacy with the divine that is inaccessible through human effort alone, given only as a divine gift to those whom God chooses for this particular nearness.
As understood in the classical tradition of Ibn Kathir and the scholars of his school.
How the scholars use Khalilullah.
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"The hadith stating, "If I were to take an intimate friend, I would have taken Abu Bakr as an intimate friend, but your companion is the intimate friend of Allah," is narrated by Muslim from the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud. Ibn al-Mubarak said, "I love the condition of one who devotes himself to Allah, the Exalted. It is narrated that a pious man once said, "As I was traveling in some parts of Syria, I came across a worshipper emerging from one of the mountains."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 16: Etiquettes of Seclusion
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"Another said, And Jesus is the spirit of Allah and his word. Another said, Adam was chosen by Allah. He approached them, greeted them, and said, I have heard your conversation and your amazement that Abraham is the intimate friend of Allah and he is. The statement when casting lots is a negation. By God they never cast lots with divining arrows. Praised be the Imam."
— Ibn Kathir, Volume 1 — From Creation to Mūsā
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"But we had already given the family of Abraham the scripture and wisdom and conferred upon them a great kingdom. This is the intimate friend of Allah, Abraham, the leader of the monotheists. He had Sarah, the most beautiful woman in the world, and loved Hagar as well. David had ninety-nine women and loved another, marrying her to complete a hundred."
— Ibn al-Qayyim, The Disease and The Cure
Appears in
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