It is mentioned that after giving the glad tidings for the God's friend that he will become a viceroy and a messenger and a prophet, he wished that this would be also in his descendants and asked that from God, so The Wise said to him: My covenant includeth not wrong-doers(Al-Baqarah:124). As reported from Al-Sâdiq (PUH): God took Abraham as a slave before He takes him as a prophet, and took him as a prophet before He takes him as a messenger, and then took him as a messenger before He takes him as a Friend, and He took him as a friend before He makes him a leader, so He gathered for him all of that He said unto him: Lo! I have appointed thee a leader for mankind(Al-Baqarah:124). Then he said (PUH): and because it was so great as seen by Abraham (PUH) he said "And of my offspring"(Al-Baqarah:124), so then God answered him back by saying: My covenant includeth not wrong-doers(Al-Baqarah:124), and the complete holy phrase from the chapter of Al-Baqarah, God said: And (remember) when his Lord tried Abraham with (His) commands, and he fulfilled them, He said: Lo! I have appointed thee a leader for mankind. (Abraham) said: And of my offspring (will there be leaders) ? He said: My covenant includeth not wrong-doers(Al-Baqarah:124) and this holy phrase assures that giving the commandments of God is done only for the infallible and the purified  faithful people, and although this holy phrase points out that the wrong-doer and the disbeliever do not take such a high place (to take the covenant) even though if it was just a period of his life, but it is also understood from it that he and his ancestors must be purified and infallible as well, so whoever becomes and enemy for God for some time in his life can not be a prophet or a viceroy of a prophet, and from this we move to the point of saying that his fathers and ancestors are infallible and purified and faithful, and we don't say that a prophet or a messenger or someone that takes their place that he is born from a pagan ancestor or father or being born of a sin, or he would be cursed for this and would be mocked of that because it is a bad character, and God, the Exalted, does not allow bad characters for His messengers to His creation, or it would be said that a son of a pagan or a son of unknown father was sent to us, and they say that disbelieving is a devil, but does a devil give birth except for a devil? and what a colocynth would yield except a colocynth? and God is able to give to His creation only a purified leader from purified ancestors until the end of the chain to Adam that was created by His hands as a holy and a purified creature and guided him, so how come He allows that a messenger or a viceroy that was appointed by His appointment to be a son of a pagan or that he himself was pagan and an idol worshipper even if it was for some time, but highness is only for God and His messenger and for the believers. And if you are in a doubt of the rule of the mind about this matter for some soul sickness then we have, and thanks for God, what makes us confident and what makes us even more sure than before, from speeches and talks reported from the prophet (PUH) and his Household (PUT) as they report them from their grandfather the chosen prophet and the owner of the holy quran and it is the ultimate prove.
It is mentioned and reported from them (PUT) that the prophet (PUH) said: I've became to existance from purified ancestors and purified wombs..etc, in a long speech that was some of it and with the same meaning comes a lot from the infallible Household members. And in Ziyârat Wâriþ [a ritual or a calling famous with this name, it resembles a visit to the shrine of some holy viceroy not necessarily going to his shrine, might be close to the meaning of seeking a bless from a saint] for Al-Husain ben `Ali (PUT) and also others in the same way that are approved to be issued from infallible Imams, in those ritual it is announced that their fathers are purified, and the infallible Imam from Al-Husain descendants calls for the grandfather of Al-Husain (PUT) by saying: I testify that you were a light (halo) in the purified ancestry and the purified wombs, never touched by paganism and its uncleanliness and never wore its darkest garments...etc, and if you looked into the famous Ziyârat Al-Jami`ah [another ritual or visit]  which isensured to be issued by Al-Hâdi (PUH) and if you meditated in its text then you would surely recognize the meaning and know that their fathers are like them, purified. You got also Al-Sâheefah Al-Sajjâdiyah [a book's name which has many rituals and was founded by `Ali ben Al-Husain (PUH)] which will guide you through to the truth, so from their prayers, callings and their speeches you can get the absolute truth about this matter, and if you still got doubt about all of that then you have Nahj Al-Balaghah [book's name] which collects some of the speeches for the prince of believers (`Ali ben Abi-Tâlib) (PUH) you will get from it the truth as well, and it is that all of the ancestors of all the prophets and messengers are purified and also their viceroys as well, who are appointed by a commandment and not by voting [the author here points out to the main difference between the Shiite creed and the Sunnite creed, where Shiite believe in a viceroy after each prophet appointed by God, but the Sunnite believe that the prophet did not mention anything about a viceroy before his death and so the caliphate or the viceroy after his death should be taken by voting and this is what happened, neglecting the right of `Ali ben Abi-Tâlib (PUH) in being a viceroy and a caliphate after the death of the prophet (PUH)]
And for God's saying: The idolaters only are unclean(Al-Tawbah:28), then none of their ancestor can be one of them. For this Shiites agree that the father of Abraham (PUH) was a muslim, and so the tidings that oppose this is not something to take or work with. But the father of Abraham is Terah and Azar was his uncle, and the uncle can be called a father as mentioned before and he used to take care of him and he (Abraham) was in his (Azar) house as it is apparent from the holy phrases, and many clues were been given for this matter so we have no doubt about that, and may God help us.

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Next: The Birth of Abraham (PUH)