_Remember_ when Abraham said, O my Lord, show me how Thou will raise to life the dead.[215]—He said, Hast thou not believed? He answered, Yea: but _I have asked Thee_ that my heart may be at ease. He replied, Then take four birds and draw them towards thee, _and cut them in pieces and mingle together their flesh and their feathers_; then place upon each mountain _of thy land_ a portion of them, then call them _unto thee_: they shall come unto thee quickly: and know thou that God is mighty [and] wise.—_And he took a peacock and a vulture and a raven and a cock, and did with them as hath been described, and kept their heads with him, and called them; whereupon the portions flew about, one to another, until they became complete: then they came to their heads._
_Remember_ when his Lord had tried Abraham by [certain] words, _commands and prohibitions_, and he fulfilled them, _God_ said _unto him_, I constitute thee a model of religion unto men.[216] He replied, And of my offspring _constitute models of religion_. [God] said, My covenant doth not apply to the offenders, _the unbelievers among them_.—And when We appointed the house (_that is, the Kaạbeh_) to be a place for the resort of men, and a place of security (_a man would meet the slayer of his father there and he would not provoke him_ [to revenge],) and [said], Take, _O men_, the station of Abraham (_the stone upon which he stood at the time of building the House_) as a place of prayer, _that ye may perform behind it the prayers of the two rek´ahs_[217] [which are ordained to be performed after the ceremony] _of the circuiting_ [of the Kaạbeh].—And We commanded Abraham and Ishmael, [saying], Purify my House (_rid it of the idols_) for those who shall compass [it], and those who shall abide _there_, and those who shall bow down and prostrate themselves.—And when Abraham said, O my Lord, make this _place_ a secure territory (_and God hath answered his prayer, and made it a sacred place, wherein the blood of man is not shed, nor is any one oppressed in it, nor is its game hunted_ [or shot], _nor are its plants cut or pulled up_), and supply its inhabitants with fruits _which hath been done by the transporting of Eṭ-Ṭáïf from Syria thither, when it_ [that is, the territory of Mekkeh] _was desert, without sown land or water_,[218] such of them as shall believe in God and the last day.—_He mentioned them peculiarly in the prayer agreeably with the saying of God, My covenant doth not apply to the offenders._—_God_ replied, And _I will supply_ him who disbelieveth: I will make him to enjoy _a supply of food in this world_, a little _while_: then I will force him, _in the world to come_, to the punishment of the fire; and evil shall be the transit.