Nearly four thousand years ago, in the Sumerian town of Ur in the valley
of the river Euphrates, lived a young man named Abraham.
The people of
Ur had once worshipped Allah but as time passed they forgot the true
religion and started praying to idols, statues made of wood or clay and
sometimes even of precious stones.
Even as a small child Abraham could
not understand how his people, and especially his father, could make
these images with their own hands, call them gods, and then worship
them.
He had always refused to join his people when they paid respect to
these statues.
Instead he would leave the town and sit alone, thinking
about the heavens and the world about him. He was sure his people were
doing wrong and so alone he searched for the right way.
One clear night
as he sat staring at the sky he saw a beautiful shining star, so beautiful
that he cried out: „This must be Allah!’ He looked at it in awe for some
time, until suddenly it began to fade and then it disappeared.
He turned
away in disappointment saying:
I love not things that set. (Qur’an 6.77)
