Shared story · 5 min
Abraham and the idols
The first to reason his way to the One God.
Shared Stories · Abraham and the idols
Three traditions remember Abraham (peace be upon him) as the one who turned from idols to the One God. Genesis begins his story with God's call; the rabbis and the Qur'an tell what came before.
In the Torah and the rabbis
In Genesis Rabbah (38:13), Abraham's father Terah sells idols. Left in charge of the shop, Abraham asks a sixty-year-old customer why he would bow to something made yesterday. He smashes the idols, puts the stick in the hand of the biggest and says they quarrelled. Brought before Nimrod, he is thrown into a furnace, and saved. Genesis itself begins with the call: “Get thee out of thy country” (12:1, JPS 1917).
In the Gospels and Christian tradition
Paul calls Abraham the father of all who believe (Romans 4:11); the letter to the Hebrews praises the faith that made him set out “not knowing where he went” (11:8, WEB).
In the Qur'an
Abraham asks his people, “What are these statues to which you are devoted?” (21:52). He breaks them all but the largest: “Ask them, if they can speak” (21:63). Thrown into the fire, he hears God say: “O fire, be coolness and safety for Abraham” (21:69). Elsewhere he watches a star, the moon and the sun set, and turns to their Maker (6:75-79).
Same and different
Both the rabbis and the Qur'an have Abraham reason his way to the One God and leave the tool with the biggest idol; only the Qur'an adds “ask them”. All three call him the friend of God. The closing image belongs to all of us: his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael (peace be upon them), burying their father together (Genesis 25:9).
We never picture any prophet or Mary. Each panel is checked by a reader from that tradition before this page goes public.
