land of the unbelievers, and ft raiten the borders thereof? Shall they therefore
be the conquerors? Say, I only preach unto you the revelation of God : but
the deaf will not hear thy call, whenever they are preached unto. Yet if
the leaft breath of the punifliment of thy L o r d touch them, they will furely
fay, Alas for us ! verily we have been unjuft. We will appoint juft balances
for the day of refurredlion j neither fhall any foul be injured at all: al though
the merit or guilt of an action be of the weight of a grain of muf-
tard-feed only, we will produce itpublickly ; and there will be fufficient accountants
with us. We formerly gave unto M oses and A a r o n the Law, being
a diftin&ion 3 between good and evil, and a light and admonition unto the pious;
who fear their L ord in fecret, and who dread the hour o f judgment. And this
book alfo is a blefied admonition which we have fent down from heaven i
will ye therefore deny it ? And we gave unto A b r a h am his directionb heretofore,
and we knew him to be worthy of the revelations wherewith he was
favoured. Remember when he fa id unto his father, and his people, What are
thefe images, to which ye are fo entirely devotedc ? They anfwered, We found
pur fathers worfhipping them. He fa id, Verily both ye and your fathers
have been in a manifeft error. They faid, Doft thou ferioujly tell us the truth,
or art thou one who jefteft with us ? He replied, Verily your L ord is the
L ord of the heavens and the earth ; it is he who hath created them: and I
am one of thofe who Lear witnefs thereof. By G od, I will furely devifea
plot againft your idols, after ye fhall have retired from them, and fhall have
turned your backs. And in the peoples abfence he went into the temple where
the idols flood, and he brake them all in pieces, except the biggeft of them ;
that they might lay the blame upon thatd. And when they were returned, and finv
the havock which had been made, they fiid, Who hath done this to our gods?
He is certainly an impious perfon. And certain of them anfwered, We heard
a young man fpeak reproachfully of them : he is named A b r a h am . They
; ' ■ ■ li ; 1 ‘ *7'7. laid,
a The di/Until on;] Arab, a! Forkdn. See the
Prelim. D»fc. i III. p. 57.
b- His direSion;] viz. The ten books of divine
revelations which were given him 1.
« See chap. 6. p. 106, Ufc. chap. 19. p. 252.
and chap. 2. p. 31.
'1 And he brake them all in pieces, except the
b;hacft t>f them, &c.] Abraham took his opportunity
to do this while the Chaldeans were
abVoad in the fields, celebrating a great feilival;
and foYne fay he hid himfelf in the temple : and
when he had accorriplifhed his. defign, that he
might the more evidently convince them of thfeir
fo)ly in worlhipping them, he hung the ax, with
which he had hewn and broken down thé images,
on the neck of the chief idol,- named by.fome
writers, Baal j as if he had been the author of
all the mifchief2. For this ftory» which tho’
it be falfe, is not ill invented, Mohammed Hands
indebted to the yews; who tell it with a little
variation; for they fay Abraham performed this
exploit in his father’s fliop, during his abfence;
that Ter ah, on his. return, demanding the oc-
cafion of the diforder, his fon told him that
the idols had quarrelled and fallen together by
the ears about an offering of fine flower, which
had been brought them by an old woman j and that
the father, finding he could not infill on the im-
poffibility of what Abraham pretended, without
confeffing the impotence of his gods, fell into a
violent paflion, and carried him to Nimrod that
he might be exemplarity punjlhed for his info*
lente *.
V. Hyde, de
Tadbazzaka,
1 See the Pre/. DiJc, §. IV. p . 73. 2 -4 /Bbidawi, Ja l l a l o ’ddin, & c.
Ret. vet. Per/, c. 2. 3 R. G e d a l . in Sbalfbèl. bakhab. p. 8 . V. M aimon. I 1 .deidol.
faid, Bring him therefore before the eyes of the people, that they may
bear witnefs againft him. And when he was brought before the affembly, they
faid unto him. Haft thou done this unto our gods, O A b r a h a m ? He anfwered,
'Nay, that biggeft of them hath done i t : but alk them, if they can fpeak.
And they returned unto themfelves *, and faid the one to the other, Verily
ye are the impious pcrfons. Afterwards they relapfed into their former obfti-
n a c y b, and faid, Verily thou knoweft that thefe fpeak not. A braham anfwered,
Do ye therefore worfhip, befides G o d , that which cannot profit you at
all, neither can it hurt you? Fie on you; and upon, that which ye worfhip
befides G od ! Do ye not underftand ? They faid, Burn him, and avenge your
gods: if ye do this it will be w e l l A n d when A braham was caft into the burning
file, we laid, O fire, be thou cold, and a prefervation unto A b r a h a m d. And
they fought to lay a plot againft him : but we caufed them to be the fufferers '.
And
a They returned unto themfelves i] That is,
They became fenfible of their folly.
b Afterwards they relapfed into their former
objlinacy ;] Literally, They were turned down upon
their beads.
c 'They faid, Burn him, &c.] Perceiving they
could not prevail againft Abraham by dint of
argument, fays al Beiddwi, they had recourfe to
perfecution and torments. The fame commentator
tells, us the perfon who gave this counfel,
was a Per/ian Curd 1, named Heyyun, and that
the earth opened $nd fwallowed him up alive :
fome, however, lay it was Andefhdn, a Magi an
prieft 25 and othqrs, that it was Nimrod himfelf.
d We fa il, 6 fire, be thou cold, &c.] The
commentators relate that,- by Nimrod's order, a
large (pace was enclofcd at Cut ha, and filled with
a vail quantity of wood, which being let on fire
burned i'o. fiercely, that none dared to venture near
it: then they bound Abraham, and putting him
into an engine, (which fome fuppofe to have been
of the devil’s invention,) ihot him into the midft
of the fire; from which he was preferved by the
angel Gabriel who was fent to his afliilance j the
fire burning only the cords with which he was
bound3. They add that the fire having mira-
culoufly loft its heat, in reipedl to Abraham, became
an odoriferous air, and that the pile changed
to r pleafant meadow ; tho’ it raged fo furioufly
otherwife, that, according to fome writers, about
two thoufand of the idolaters were confumed by
This ftory feems to have had no other foundation
than that paflage of Mofes, where G od is
faid to have brought Abraham out of Ur of the
Chaldees ?, mifunderftood: which words the
Jews, the moft trifling interpreters of feripture,
and fome moderns who have followed them,
have tranllated, out of the fire of the Chaldees;
taking the word Ur, not for the proper name of
a city, as it really is, but for an appellative, fig-
nifying fire 6. However, it is a fable of fome
antiquity, and credited* not only by the Jews,
but by feveral of the eaftern CbriJUans; the
twenty fifth of the fecond Canun, or January.
being fet apart in the Syrian calendar, for the .
commemoration of Abraham's being caft into the
fire 7 j__
The Jews alfo mention fome other perfections
which Abraham underwent on account of
his religion, particularly a ten years imprifon-.
ment 3 : fome laying he was imprifoned by
Nimrod 9 j and others, by his father Terab lo ,
c We caufed them to be the lofers;] Some tell
us that Nimrod, on feeing this miraculous deliverance
from his palace, .cried out, that he would
make an offering to the G od of Abraham', and
that he accordingly Sacrificed four thoufand
kine 1 f . But, if he ever relented, he foon relapfed
into his former infidelity: for he built a
tower that he might afeend to heaven to fee
Abraham's G od ; which being overthrown 12,
ftill perfifting in his defign, he would be carried
1C*• , ' ’ . -. . . I to heaven in a cheft born by four monftrous
birds i '
1 V . D'Herbel. B ib l . O r ie n t . A r t . Tdhokak. & Schulte ns, In d ie . Geog r. in v i t . S a la d in i, voce
Citrdi. : 2 V . D’Herbel. p . 115. ; 3 A l Beidawi; Jallalo’ddin, £sV. V . Morgan’s
Mabometifm e x p l. v . 1. chap. 4. x T he M f . G o fp e l o f B arn a ba s , c b . 28. -$ Gens/'..
xv. 7. 6 V . T arg. Jonath. U f Hierofol. in G en e / c l 1 i , 6«r 15. & Hyde, de R e t. v e t. Per/, p .
74» & c . 7 V . Hyde, ib id . p . 73. 8 R. E l ie z . P i r k e , c. 26. & c . V . Maim. M o r e N e v .
I 3. c. 29. 9 Gloffa Talmud, in Gemar. B a v a b a tbra , 9 1 ,1 . 4 ° //; Aggada< , 1 f S/ Beid
aw i , ' 12 See chap. 16. -/ .S i6.
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