(… 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. Abraham, peace be upon him, was worried for the people. Sleep then overcame him. When Sarah woke up, she proceeded to those containers and, upon opening them, she found white ground wheat of the best quality. She ordered the bakers to bake bread and people were fed. When Abraham, peace be upon him, woke up, he smelt the odour of food, and he asked: 'O Sarah, where did you get this food?' She said: 'It is from your Egyptian friend'. He said: 'No, it is rather from my friend Allah'. On that day Allah chose Abraham as friend”.
Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Muzakki informed us> Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Yazid al-Jawzi> Ibrahim ibn Sharik> Ahmad ibn Yunus> Abu Bakr ibn 'Ayyash> Abu'l-Muhallab al-Kinani> 'Ubayd Allah ibn Zahr> 'Ali ibn Yazid> al-Qasim ibn Umamah who reported that the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, said: “Allah has chosen me as a friend just as He had chosen Abraham as a friend. And there is no prophet except that he has a friend and my friend is Abu Bakr”.
The descendent of the Prophet, Abu Isma'il ibn al-Hasan al-Naqib informed me> Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Hammad> Abu Isma'il Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Tirmidhi> Sa'id ibn Abi Maryam> Salamah> Zayd ibn Waqid> al-Qasim ibn Mukhaymarah> Abu Hurayrah who reported that the Messenger of Allah, bless him and give him peace, said: “Allah had chosen Abraham as a friend, Moses as His interlocutor and He has chosen me as His beloved; and then Allah said: 'By My might and majesty, I shall prefer My beloved over My friend and My interlocutor' ”.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou