Ala-Maududi
(21:73) And We made them into leaders to guide people in accordance with Our command, and We
inspired them to good works, and to establish Prayers and to give Zakah. They worshipped Us
alone.[66]
66. This important event of the life of Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) has found no mention
whatever in the Bible. In fact nothing about his life in Iraq, his conflict with Nimrod, his
father and the community at large, his efforts to eradicate idolatry, the incident of his being
cast into the fire, which ultimately led to his forced exile from the country, is mentioned
anywhere in the Bible. The Bible merely mentions his migration, and that too, in a manner as if
a family was migrating from one country to another in search of livelihood. There is another
interesting difference between the Quran and the Bible. According to the Quran, the father of
Abraham, who was a mushrik, was foremost in tyrannizing over his son, but the Bible gives a
different account, which is as follows.
Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. And
Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s
wife, Milcah the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was
barren; she had no child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son,
and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of
the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and settled there. And
the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran. (Gen. 11:27-32).
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy
father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I
will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And 1 will bless them
that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be
blessed. (Gen. 12: 1-3).
The Talmud, however, gives quite a few details about the life of Prophet Abraham (peace be upon
him) about the period of his stay in Iraq, which are generally the same as given in the Quran,
but there is a glaring discrepancy in some of the important events. In fact, one can clearly
feel that the account given in the Talmud is full of heterogeneous and hypothetical things while
the one given in the Quran is most clear and contains nothing unworthy of Prophet Abraham (peace
be upon him). We reproduce below the account as given in the Talmud so that the reader may know
the difference between the Quranic and Jewish versions. This will also remove the
misunderstanding of those who think that the Quran has borrowed stories from the Bible or Jewish
literature.
According to the Talmud: The wise men saw a large star in the sky on the night Abram was born and
they advised Nimrod to kill the child born in the house of Terah. The King decided to kill the
child but Terah hid his child and had a servant’s son killed in exchange. Terah thereupon hid
his wife and child in a cave where they lived for ten years. In the 11th year Abram was taken by
Terah to Noah, where he lived under the guidance of Noah and his son Shem for 39 years. During
the same period Abram married his niece Sarai, who was 42 years his junior. (The Bible does not
mention that Sarai was the niece of Abram; moreover, the difference in their ages is mentioned
as ten years). (Gen. 11: 29, 17: 17).
The Talmud then says: Abram left Noah at the age of 50 and came back to his father. Here he found
that his father was an idolatry and had twelve idols in the house according to the twelve months
of the year. He tried to preach to his father against idolatry but when the latter did not
listen to him, Abram one day broke all the idols in the house. Seeing this Terah went straight
to Nimrod and complained that the son who was born in his house 50 years ago had misbehaved and
broken the idols. He wanted the King’s verdict on this. Nimrod summoned Abram for interrogation,
but the replies given by Abram were straight, terse and clear. Nimrod sent him to jail and then
referred the matter to the council for a decision. The council decided that Abram should be
burnt to death. A fire was accordingly prepared and Abram was cast into it. His brother and
father-in-law Haran was also similarly cast into the fire. Haran was punished because Nimrod
enquired of Terah as to why he had another child killed in place of Abram when he wanted to kill
Abram on the day of his birth. Terah replied that this was done at the instigation of Haran.
Nimrod accordingly let off Terah but threw Haran into the fire along with Abram. Haran was burnt
to death instantly but people saw that Abram was walking unhurt through the flames. When Nimrod
was informed of it, he witnessed it with his own eyes and cried out: O man of the God of Heaven,
come out of the fire and stand before me. Thereupon, Abram came out and Nimrod became one of his
believers and gave him many costly presents. After this, according to the Talmud, Abram stayed
in Iraq for two more years when Nimrod saw a dreadful dream and the astrologers told him that
the destruction of his empire would come through Abram and that he should, therefore, put him to
death. Nimrod sent people to kill Abram but Abram came to know of the plot before hand through
Eleazar, a slave presented to him by Nimrod himself. Abram accordingly fled and took refuge with
Noah where Terah also met him off and on secretly. The father and the son at last decided to
leave the country and Noah and his son Shem also approved of their plan. Accordingly, Terah
along with his son Abram and his grandson Lot and his granddaughter and son’s wife Sarai, left
Ur and went to Haran. (H. Polano: The Talmud Selections, London, pp. 30-42).
Can a reasonable person after reading this account of the Talmud ever imagine that this could be
a source book for the story as given in the Quran?
