“Oh, you fool!” said Abraham, “to adore a god younger than yourself.”
“What do you mean?” asked the purchaser.
“Why, you were born seventy years ago, and this god was made only yesterday.”
Hearing this, the buyer threw the idol away.
Shortly after, an old woman brought a dish of meal to set before the idols. Abraham took it, and then with a stick smashed all the gods except the biggest, into whose hands he placed the stick.
Terah, who was returning home, heard the noise of blows, and quickened his pace. When he entered, his gods were in pieces.
He accused Abraham angrily; but Abraham said, “My father, a woman brought this dish of meal for the gods: they all wanted to have it, and the strongest knocked the heads off the rest, lest they should eat it all.” And this, say the Mussulmans, was the first lie that Abraham told, but it was not a lie, but a justifiable falsehood.
Terah said this could not be true, for the images were of wood and stone.
“Let thine ear hear what thy mouth hath spoken,” said Abraham, and then he exhorted his father against idolatry.
Terah complained to Nimrod, who sent for Abraham, and he said to him, “Wilt thou not worship these idols? Well then, adore fire.”