the Gate of your Home

Assalamu alaikum. One of my favorite stories from the hadiths about the previous prophets is the story when Ibrahim Alaihi Salam goes to visit Ismail, and Ismail is not at home. And so he encounters his wife. Ibrahim asks about their situation and she complains and talks about how miserable the situation is and complains about her husband and so on. And Ibrahim says, okay.

Just convey a message to Ismail. He needs to change the gate of his house. So she tells Ismaila when he comes home and he says, oh, okay. That was my father and he told me to divorce you. Because you're no good.

This coded message that Ibrahim alaihi salam sends to his son and the son understands it. They're on the same wavelength. They understand the language of each other, the way they deliver messages to each other. And it also tells you, this is the way you deal with a woman. That's no good.

That's that's disobedient. That's unruly. We're not we don't have, you know, compulsion, coercion, force, all of that. You tell her, you know, you're not doing right. You're not being good.

And if it doesn't work, okay. This whole this whole thing between you and me is an agreement. And if you're not fulfilling your end of the agreement, then the this partnership is nullified. Ibrahim came again to see Ismail and he met his wife, another wife, and her behavior was good, her manner was good. He said, deliver this message to my son, he needs to keep his gate.

So she delivered the message, she's my illness. My illness said, oh, that was my father. And he said, basically, you're a good wife. I should keep you. You're a keeper.

I love that story.