The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 446
CH. 6 AL-AN'ĀM to bring home to his idolatrous people the absurdity of their belief in the godhead of the sun, the moon and the stars, which they worshipped (Jew. Enc. ). It is an error to infer from these verses that Abraham was himself groping in the dark and did not know who his God was, that he took the evening star, the moon and the sun for God one after another and, when each of them set in its turn, he gave up his belief in their divinity and turned to the One God, the Creator of heavens and earth. The passage contains no less than eleven clear evidences to show that Abraham was not really taking these heavenly bodies for gods, but that his object was to demonstrate to his people the vanity of their beliefs, step by step. Some of these evidences may be summed up as below: Firstly, the opening part of this passage, i. e. the first part of 6:77 is connected with the previous verses with the double particle (and when) which denotes close sequence, PT. 7 supposing Abraham to have seen the star or the moon for the first time that night. He belonged to a community which used to worship stars and he must have seen the stars many times before. If he was really a star- worshipper, he ought to have first imbibed the idea from what he had heard from his father and others, and not by seeing a star himself and reflecting over it. Star-worship was not at all a new idea discovered by him by looking at a star. Thus, there is no doubt that Abraham's words, This is my Lord, were not meant as an expression of faith, but simply as an argument against star-worship. He assumed the star he saw to be his Lord merely to expose its lordship afterwards on the basis of its setting and thereby to tell his people that they were wrong in taking the star for their Lord. Thirdly, when the star disappeared, like not those that set. Now Abraham Abraham is reported to have said, I certainly knew already that the star must set; he must have already seen it disappear times without number. So the argument, I like not those that set, must have already been familiar to his mind and he could not take to worshipping the star in view of this argument. In fact, what he wanted was to use the argument against star- worshippers in a way that might prove effective. So he first assumed or supposed the star to be his Lord and, when it disappeared, he hastened to declare, I like not those that set. Similar was the case with the setting in of the moon and the sun. Of the sun 886 i. e. that which has been said in this passage is connected with, and occurred immediately after, what is related in the preceding verses. Now the preceding verses, i. e. vv. 75 and 76, clearly show Abraham as having attained certainty and conviction of faith and as being a firm believer in one God and being advanced in spirituality. Thus placed and protected, he cannot be considered as groping in the dark like a blind man and wandering from one deity to another. Secondly, there is no sense