Abraham (Hebrew: אַבְרָהָם (help·info), Modern: Avraham, Tiberian: ʼAḇrāhām, Ashkenazi Avrohom or Avruhom, Arabic: إبراهيم Ibrāhīm, Ge'ez: አብርሃም ʼAbrəham, Greek: Aβραάμ, Russian: Авраам), whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. According to both the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, through his sons Ishmael and Isaac, Abraham is the forefather of many tribes, namely the Ishmaelites, Israelites, Midianites and Edomites. Abraham was a descendant of Noah's son, Shem. Christians believe that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham through Isaac, and Muslims believe that Muhammad was a descendant of Abraham through Ishmael. Abraham is notable for his advocation and promotion of monotheism.
The Book of Genesis narrative that records the life of Abraham presents his role as one that could only be fulfilled through a monotheistic covenant established between him and God. The Qur'an has stories about Abraham and his offspring that are similar to the Bible's. In Islam, Abraham is recognised as a prophet, patriarch and messenger, archetype of the perfect Muslim, and reformer of the Kaaba.
Abraham Lincoln i/ˈeɪbrəhæm ˈlɪŋkən/ (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union while ending slavery, and promoting economic and financial modernization. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was mostly self-educated. He became a country lawyer, a Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator in the 1830s, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives in the 1840s. After a series of debates in 1858 that gave national visibility to his opposition to the expansion of slavery, Lincoln lost a Senate race to his arch-rival Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln, a moderate from a swing state, secured the Republican Party nomination. With almost no support in the South he swept the North and was elected president in 1860. His election was the signal for seven southern slave states to declare their secession from the Union and form the Confederate States of America. The departure of the Southerners gave Lincoln's party firm control of Congress, but no formula for compromise or reconciliation was found. And the war came.
Music: Irving Berlin
Lyrics: Irving Berlin
Premiere: 1942
Upon a February morn
A tiny baby boy was born
Abraham, Abraham
When he grew up this tiny babe
Folks all called him Honest Abe
Abraham, Abraham
In eighteen sixty, he became
The sixteenth president
And now he's in the hall of fame
A most respected gent
That's why we celebrate
This blessed February date
Abraham, Abraham
[2]
When black folks lived in slavery
Who was it set the darkie free?
Abraham, Abraham
When trouble came down from the shelf
Who's heart was bigger than himself?
Abraham, Abraham
The country's going to the dogs
They shouted loud and long
Then from a cabin made out of logs
The right man come along
And that is why we celebrate
This blessed February date
Abraham, Abraham
[3]
The U.S.A.'s united thanks
To one whose name was Nancy Hanks
Abraham, Abraham
She gave this land the finest son
Who ever went to Washington
Abraham, Abraham
Someone told him General Grant
Was drinking every night
He answered, "Go see if you can't
Get all my generals tight"
That's why we celebrate
This blessed February date
Abraham, Abraham
Thank the Lord for
Abraham
Abraham
1st refrain:]
Upon a February morn
A tiny baby boy was born
Abraham, Abraham
When he grew up this tiny babe
Folks all called him Honest Abe
Abraham, Abraham
In eighteen sixty, he became
The sixteenth president
And now he's in the hall of fame
A most respected gent
That's why we celebrate
This blessed February date
Abraham, Abraham
When black folks lived in slavery
Who was it set the darkie free?
Abraham, Abraham
When trouble came down from the shelf
Who's heart was bigger than himself?
Abraham, Abraham
The country's going to the dogs
They shouted loud and long
Then from a cabin made out of logs
The right man come along
And that is why we celebrate
This blessed February date
Abraham, Abraham
The U.S.A.'s united thanks
To one whose name was Nancy Hanks
Abraham, Abraham
She gave this land the finest son
Who ever went to Washington
Abraham, Abraham
Someone told him General Grant
Was drinking every night
He answered, 'Go see if you can't
Get all my generals tight'
That's why we celebrate
This blessed February date
Abraham, Abraham
[Coda:]
Thank the Lord for
Abraham
Abraham
There’s a tale
Told by soldiers
Of two sons and their father
As they sailed to old Palestine
True were these brothers
They sailed to bury their father
They would fight for Jerusalem
You will be meek when I am able
You’ll be the salt upon the table
When all is said and done could you
Somehow be sons of Abraham
I was told by a stranger
Of a young blood thrown to the desert
He united a people with his hands
In the wane to the crescent
He fed the lion to the pheasant
He would stride to the spring of Zam Zam
There’s a tale told by soldiers
A young boy taken to slaughter
He was saved by his father’s hand
He was prized and protected
And prince he was elected
He was to save the wolves with a lamb
There’s a tomb out by Jordan
Where two sides stop to adore him
I had a dream the other night when all the world was still
That I walked out with Abraham below a fortess on a hill
We looked across the Saint Charles River to the heights that bear his Name
And talked of things that had transpired since the last time that he came
Says I on these fields grazed your cattle raised on these your kith and kin
And on this field was fiery battle Montcalm to lose and Wolfe to win
Says he but they both died of wounds infliced by the cannonade
These wounds it seems were never healed, they fester to this day
Abraham
When will this fighting end
When will we learn to recognize
Who is foe and who is friend
Abraham
This field that bears your name
For one a field of victory
For one a field of shame
What of your children Abraham dispersed from this your plain
The continent they conquered though they did it in another's name
The land they won but for their strife the profits went astray
The money never crossed their palms or let them have their say
Abraham
Are we sometimes bound by pride
Too mindful of our hopes and dreams to let the anger slide
Abraham
Abraham
When will this fighting end
When will we learn to recognize
Who is foe and who is friend
Abraham
This field that bears your name
For one a field of victory
For one a field of shame
What of the future Abraham will we achieve some peace
From these solitudes we wander in will there be a release
Will my children learn to find a way to bridge the distance I have not
To learn the scars of history are sometimes best forgotten
And I had a dream the other night when all the world was still
That I walked out with Abraham that Abraham was living still
And in the dream we parted, as families oftimes will
Our questions left unanswered though not through lack of will
Abraham
The questions linger on
There is no hope in all this strife
There is no right or wrong
Abraham
This field that bears your name
For one a field of victory
For one a field of shame
Look at the stars, Abraham
And believe I Am.
Can you count stars, Abraham
Or the grains of sand?
I see why the tide keeps rolling
I see why the tide keeps rolling in
And building up the Sand Tree.
You've loved your wife, Abraham
But there is no son.
Yet from your life, Abraham,
The Seed shall come.
I see why the tide keeps rolling
I see why the tide keeps rolling in
And building up the Sand Tree.
Give Me your son, Abraham,
And believe I can.
Supply the Lamb, Abraham,
For the sin of man.
I see why the tide keeps rolling
I see why the tide keeps rolling in